“My first full year in my first race with my stuff I parked next to him at I-90 (Speedway),” Estenson said. “I barely knew anything about sprint cars in general. It started by talking throughout the night. We got a bond, a relationship, and it took over from there. We talked throughout the year in 2020. In 2021, we became closer friends and in 2022 we started talking even more. We’d hang out at the track and go eat. We joked about it. Going into the winter he joked about ‘maybe I’ll crew chief for you next year.’ And here we are now.”
The duo has enjoyed several stout moments, including a Buffalo Wild Wings Northern Outlaw Sprint Ass’n triumph on May 27 at I-90 Speedway, a Midwest Sprint Touring Series victory on May 13 at Off Road Speedway in Norfolk, Neb., and a weekly show win at Double-X Speedway in California, Mo., on May 7.
“I’d like to do it again next year,” Dover said. “We got a late start in the winter. Realistically, we only had two or two-and-a-half months to go through everything. I’d like to get a full winter and do it the way I’d like. It’d be nice to get a full winter with him and hit it hard with more preparation come next season.”
Estenson has lofty goals as he continues to build experience and confidence.
“Where I’m at now and with the level of my uncle’s expectations — they know I can do it and be successful if I keep putting 24/7 into it —my end goal is to race the Outlaws tour and do that for a full year and keep progressing,” he said. “I’m at a point in life where I have a really cool opportunity to do all of that. I guess the end goal is to run the Outlaws circuit and see where I can grow as a driver and where we can expand.
Estenson’s sprint car team is owned by his uncle of the same name, who is also closing in on a decade of owning a Progressive American Flat Track program that as of mid-July stood second (Dallas Daniels) in the Mission SuperTwins championship chase — only two points out of the lead — and third (Trevor Brunner) in the Parts Unlimited AFT Singles standings.
Uncle Tim Estenson’s involvement in two types of motorsports has helped the younger Estenson navigate the business side of racing. It’s even generated multiple cross-over opportunities, one of which came from Estenson’s primary sponsor — Mission Foods.
“When they started coming to the motorcycle series and my uncle got to know Mr. Gonzalez, they got pretty tight at corporate meetings,” he said. “They flew into my uncle’s shop in Arizona, which was where my sprint car stuff was in 2021. He caught it off the glance of his eye. All the cars were spotless and organized. It caught his attention and he said he wanted to be a part of it.
“The opportunity is once in a lifetime. I look at it and in the back of my mind it is once in a lifetime and may not come another day. I try to strive so hard to put 110 percent into it every single day because one day I might wake up and it’s gone,” Estenson continued. “This is my living. I’m fortunate to have everyone supportive enough to do this. There is a lot of pressure because there’s a lot of corporate sponsors who are watching. It’s a bigger step than I’m used to than when it was just me and my dad. I’m just trying to make all the right decisions as the next step being at the Outlaws stage.”
With a supportive uncle and a growing relationship with a veteran driver-turned crew chief, Estenson took a leap forward during the first half of the season with a wide-open future on the horizon.
This story appeared in the August 2, 2023 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
