Driver Keith Flach gets memorable birthday present

‘Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me’ were the words running through Keith Flach’s mind as he stood in the pit area watching race cars go around Bristol Speedway on Friday.

Flach was going to spend his 35th birthday living the dream, circling around the famous oval.

A speedway whose appearance leaves you in awe due to the unique banking and stadium-like seating. A speedway many want to be invited to race on.

The DIRTcar Modified racers were invited to Tennessee to run at Bristol Speedway for the Bristol Throwdown while the, temporarily laid, dirt surface was still on the oval from when the NASCAR tour made an appearance.

“When I was talking with Dean Reynolds (DIRTcar director of series and sanctioning) about attending this event I didn’t even realize it was going to fall on my birthday,” Flach said. “But wow, what a way to spend your birthday, the place was amazing and to have an opportunity like that — it’s a birthday I won’t forget.”

Flach showed up on Thursday with two automobiles (a torsion bar car and a coil car) for the three-day event. Warm-up sessions were held on Thursday.

Unfortunately shortly into hot laps, the team experienced issues with the torsion bar car. There was water in the fuel. So while that issue was being repaired he spent the remainder of the day running practice laps with the coil car.

“We started off a little slow. We are still learning with the coil car but by the end of the night we were about mid-pack time-wise,” Flach said.

They came back on Friday with the coil car — timed fifth in their group and fifth in their qualifying event. Not a bad start. Plus they were in the feature.

“We just didn’t make the right adjustments for the feature. We started 17th and we were riding around 22nd, we were struggling,” Flach said.

Then the steering box cracked and Flach lost all of his power steering fluid. Certainly not the track you want that to happen on so he was forced to pull into the pits with about 10 laps remaining in the main event.

The rain won on Saturday.

They returned on Sunday with the torsion bar car.

“Our times were better than they were with the other car but we were still lacking a little bit,” Flach said. “And we still had a slight water/fuel issue.”

Issues that kept them from making the call for their time trial group so they had to start the qualifying event from last place. They did not qualify.

“We tried to throw some pretty big changes to the car and we just weren’t as good as we needed to be,” Flach said. “Even though it didn’t go the way we wanted it to, we are very thankful for the opportunity. I think everybody really enjoyed it. Many were just so taken back by the place — it was something to see and be a part of. Hopefully, they bring us back next year.”

And Flach made the best of things. He went up into the grandstands with his three favorite girls, his wife Chelsea and two daughters (Athena and Barrett) and watched the feature event.

Earlier this month (April 6) Flach tested positive for COVID-19. Two days of mild symptoms were followed by an eight-day fever and an 11-day stay in the family’s motorhome.

Flach is currently not sure where he will be racing on Friday and Saturday. He is making some decisions this week. Last year he spent Fridays at Albany-Saratoga Speedway, where he finished 11th in points, and his Saturday stops at Lebanon Valley Speedway landed him a second-place finish in the point standings.

“We are ready to just get back out there and run some races,” said Flach who is always positively charged. “Despite that second at Lebanon Valley we really weren’t as consistent or as comfortable as we have been in past years. I really want to try and hit as many of the Super DIRTcar Modified Series races as we can, we are working on a schedule right now.”

Something tells me Chelsea better get working on next year’s birthday gift because this year’s present is going to be tough to top.