Mark Walczak Interview 2013 Pt. 1

Mark Walczak recently won his fifth Indyslotcar championship, which ties him for the most championships with series founder Phil Cianciola, and more impressively he has won them all in a row. He is Indyslotcar's all time victory leader and has put together a string of dominance not seen in any racing series. With the target of being the champion square on his back for the past many seasons, other drivers have tried to knock him off his throne to no avail.

Fast. Hard charging. Never relenting. These are some of the things you have to keep in mind if you are an opposing driver and see him in your mirrors. What is the secret to his success?

I was able to ask him before the recent Indyslotcar banquet.

This is the first time I've been able to interview him in this exclusive.

I think you'll find his answers thoughtful and worthy of a champion.

It is fair to say the early years of your Indycar career were marked with lots of inconsistencies not unlike other drivers. Was there an event where it suddenly all came together for you and you haven't looked back since? 

Tough call. I can see two spots for that. The first being my rookie year. I was trailing Phil Cianciola at HORA by 10 laps at the halfway point of the race, and at that time 10 races into the season he hadn't missed a final. Well I just got into a zone and clicked off laps and knocked him out of the finals for the first time that year. It gave me the confidence to know that I could run with "the big boys". The second was the following year at the Turkey Trot.  I started from the pole and dominated in getting my first win. After that with Jim Iverson's tutelage I haven't looked back.

Phil Cianciola is the Indyslotcar series founder

So like other drivers you held Phil as the "gold standard" to try and beat and once you did that it gave you the confidence to beat anyone? 
Well it wasn't just Phil. I had

followed the series the previous season,and that was the season off "Rottertude", so I knew if I could hang with and beat those two I could do just about anything.

 Jim Iverson was Walczak's teammate and mentor

Related to the first question, was there some advice given to you by Jim Iverson or others that helped you change into the dominant force you are today?  

If I gave you the answer to that question everybody would know my secret.  LOL

Okay. Fair enough. Let me ask this way so you can give answers without revealing your secret:

1. Did Jim give you multiple pieces of advice that changed your fortunes around or was it one major point? 
Since he was able to watch what I was doing from an outside perspective for the first half of my rookie year, when he and Phil Cianciola split up and I joined the team there were multiple things we worked on.

2. Was is something with your race craft or with your mental state or just a racing philosophy? 
Honestly I feel it was a little bit of everything.  Like Jim says I was the hardest working man in the series. I always paid attention to the other drivers, and listened to what ever advice I could get from them.  Just watching the other drivers for a while I could start to see their weaknesses, and how to use it against them. 

3. Did he tell you to model or copy another drivers approach or use as an example and if so who was that driver? 
No. He always mentioned to race the track within my own abilities. You really can't copy another drivers approach, because what works for me won't necessarily work for other drivers.

Is there something about these cars that suits your driving style or have you just found the limit at where you can take these cars?

Everybody has a different driving style. With track time comes the knowledge of the tracks themselves. Where you can and can't push the car. Where I can drive it deeper into a corner or where to ease into the corner and drive hard out of it. There are places on tracks that I will go full throttle that other drivers wont even dare try it.

Walczak's GTP ISF car flying off the track. It isn't always victories... Based on that answer did the extra seat time in the ISF at the beginning of your career help you in Indyslotcar? 
Oh with out a doubt. Even though they were run using different cars, the more seat time you got at a track the better off you were. I could transfer some of the information back and forth between the F1 cars and the Indy cars.  It defiantly helped with the learning curve.

Does the fact you are younger than most competitors make a difference?

No not really.  I think it all really comes done to my driving style. You see guys out there like Iverson before he retired and Rotter a few weeks ago in semi-retirement just go out there and dominate.  There are tracks that are suited to my driving style like a Rapids or a Deckertring  and of course Walczy World, and there are a few that I've had to change my style like a Raven, the Mini-Mile, Stardust and to a smaller extent Bayside now Badger Raceway

Look for part two of my interview with Mark Walczak.

Until next time...It's not bad being in the pits!

Steve The Wrench Ratchett