Gary St. Amant

Gary Wayne St. Amant (born October 19, 1962) is a former stock car racing driver from Columbus, Ohio. While he competed in several NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races, his career is most notable for his success in the American Speed Association, winning the National Tour in 1998 and 2000. When the ASA folded after the 2004 season, he found success in the Hooters Pro Cup Series, winning the Northern Division Championship in 2007.^[1] With St.Amant having won the Snowball Derby and Winchester 400 twice, along with the All American 400 and Snowflake 100 once, he is the only driver in history besides Chase Elliott to have won all four short-track crown jewel events. He also showed his mentorship to a young Jimmie Johnson in his early ASA days, before his transition to NASCAR,^[2] which Johnson has mentioned his appreciation for the coaching since then while making history himself in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

ASA career

St. Amant's career in the ASA National Tour began in April 1986 at Auburn, Michigan's Tri-City Motor Speedway with an 11th-place finish.^[3] He scored his first ASA win at his home track, Columbus Motor Speedway, in the 1990 Buckeye 300, holding off Rich Bickle & Ted Musgrave. Later that fall, he won the prestigious All-American 400 at Nashville's Music City Motorplex. He managed another hometown win at Columbus in 1996, leading all 200 laps from the pole.^[4]

In 1998, though he only managed 2 wins (Orange County Speedway & Berlin Raceway) to Scott Hansen's 7, St. Amant was more consistent, and leading nearly twice as many laps as any other driver helped him claim the 1998 title. His 2000 championship was won quite similarly; domination and consistent Top 5 finishes placed the Winchester 400 winner nearly 500 points ahead of 2nd place Kevin Cywinski. After playing second fiddle to NASCAR-bound rookie Johnny Sauter in 2001, St. Amant and Joey Clanton waged war for the 2002 championship. Clanton won the first 5 races of the season (winning 9 overall) and ultimately led over 35% of the laps, but had several poor finishes during the year. St. Amant won just 4 times (all but one of the final 5 races) but had only 2 non-Top 10 finishes. St. Amant won the season-ending Winchester 400, but Clanton recovered from a late-race crash to finish 3rd, defeating St. Amant for the title by 1 point, the closest points margin in series history.

After the 2002 season, St.Amant and team owner Bud Gebben parted ways after claiming 2 championships. St.Amant would later join Frankie Grill's Grand American team, driving his historical #7 in Jani-King colors. After several mechanical failures, he would leave Grill's team early in the season and join Appalachian Motorsports.^[5] Even while resurfacing with a new team, good luck continued to elude him.

While his 2003 season was already hitting rock bottom, St.Amant's season only got worse during the ninth round at Mansfield Motorsports Park. During the late stages of the race, St.Amant clipped the left-rear of another car, losing control and spinning down the frontstretch. His racecar stopped with the drivers-side facing oncoming traffic. His teammate, Stephen Leicht, swerved to avoid, but instead drilled into St.Amant's door. St.Amant suffered four broken bones in his lower back, bruised kidneys and bruises throughout his arms and shoulders, and was sidelined for the following race at Indianapolis Raceway Park.^[6]

For the remainder of the 2003 and 2004 seasons, St. Amant would not win again in the ASA, with his best finish of fourth coming at Illiana Motor Speedway late in 2003. His last start came in September 2004; a 17th-place result at Minnesota's Elko Speedway. Upon the demise of the series at season's end, he sat 8th on the all-time wins list with 21 triumphs. He also won pole position 26 times, led 7001 laps, and is the all-time money leader with over $2 million in career earnings.^[7]

NASCAR

St. Amant competed quite sparingly in NASCAR-sanctioned events. In 1994 he won the Pro Gold 400 NASCAR All-Pro Series race at Myrtle Beach Speedway, joining several other Midwest short track stars moonlighting in the Southern-based series. In 1995 he debuted in the new NASCAR SuperTruck Series (now Camping World Truck Series), finishing 11th at Indianapolis Raceway Park. On the final lap, he was racing former ASA champion Johnny Benson for second place, but spun on the backstraight and hit a light pole (which went dark upon impact).^[8] St. Amant restarted the truck and took the checkered flag to complete the 150th lap. In 4 more Truck Series starts, he never finished better than 25th.^[1]

Hooters Pro Cup Series

After the ASA was discontinued, St.Amant joined the growing Hooters Pro Cup Series with Bullet Racing.^[9] Though not a dominant driver, consistency through experience (44% of his starts resulted in a Top 5 finish) placed him no worse than 9th in his 5 full seasons in the series. He won only twice; Lake Erie Speedway in 2004 and Salem Speedway in 2007, but better consistency than the dominant Benny Gordon took him to the 2007 Hooters Pro Cup Series Northern Division championship.^[1]

Post-racing career

Since leaving the now CARS X-1R Pro Cup Series after the 2008 season, St.Amant has worked out of his raceshop located outside of Columbus. He has aided former Hendrick Motorsports driver Landon Cassill in various short-track events, as well as being a crew chief and driver coach for Joe Gibbs Racing development driver Cody Coughlin.^[10] Since 2014, he has helped 2-time CRA Super Series champion Travis Braden, including leading him to his second-consecutive championship in 2014.^[11] St.Amant will continue to aid Braden in the premier CRA division as well as some ARCA Racing Series events throughout 2015.

References