By SCOTT LOCKWOOD
Sports Editor
*This story appeared in the April 29 issue of the Venice Gondolier Sun newspaper
Since its inception over 100 years ago, the sport of auto racing on the grassroots level has almost always been a family affair.
That holds true for the Venice tandem of Jeff Firestine and son-in-law Dean Butrum, who consider themselves to be best friends on top of the family connection.
They have raced together for the last several years and can be found racing in nearly identical orange Dean’s Tree Service/RRD Racing bomber cars at both Desoto Speedway in Bradenton and Three Palms Speedway in Punta Gorda.
Firestine, 45, started racing enduro cars, which are basically stock cars off the street with a roll cage installed for safety reasons, in 1993 with his father at Punta Gorda Speedway.
Since then, he’s raced pure stocks, street stocks, pro trucks, non-wing sprint cars, and figure 8 cars on back-to-back championships in the road warriors class at Punta Gorda in 2008-2009. He has won over 80 feature events in his 23-year career.
His first win came in a road warrior car in 1995 — a victory that opened the floodgates to future success.
“I tried so hard to win my first race and when I got that first win, it was like the best thing in the whole wide world,” he said. “Then they started coming easily afterward.”
Firestine said he couldn’t recall which of those wins was the biggest of his career, but easily recalled his best memory in a race car. Back in 2008, Punta Gorda Speedway held a memorial race in honor of Jeff Firestine’s father, Frankie. Firestine won the race and Butrum finished second.
As the cars crossed the finish line nearly side-by-side, both drivers held a hand out of the race car and pointed up toward the heavens. Both drivers said they didn’t know they were going to do that at the end of the race.
“Easily the most memorable win I’ve ever had,” Firestine said.
“That was really a good race,” Butrum added. “We had about 20 cars there that night and for me and Jeff to go from the rear and be there at the end was awesome.”
Butrum, 33, began racing in 2003 after buying a mini stock from future late model champion Jesse Dutilly. Butrum ran the car for two years and said he won so many features — including 19 victories in a single season — he was asked not to bring the car back to Desoto Speedway.
Butrum estimates he has between 40 and 50 feature wins.
“I’m not a superstar like Jeff Firestine,” Butrum joked. “This year, it’s either been win or crash. I’ve won three in Punta Gorda and a couple in Bradenton, but this year has been pretty rough on me.”
Firestine and Butrum raced all over Florida “just for fun” from 2010-13 before deciding to race for points in the modified mini stock division last year at Desoto Speedway in Bradenton.
Firestine made the move pay off, winning several feature events on his way to the track championship in that division.
A new car was set to be built by John Sappraicone Jr.’s Rehab Racing Development for Firestine at the beginning of the season, but it wasn’t completed in time for the first race of the season. That put Firestine in a 30-point hole to Mike Karrivan to start the season, but Firestine caught him easily.
“Once that car was done, it was fast everywhere we went with it,” Butrum said. “We took it to every track in the state and did very well. We weren’t planning on points racing at all, but it kind of fell into our hands. We saw we were 10 points behind and I knew we had the cars to do it. Jeff is a good driver, and I knew we had the driver to win it if he wanted to go points racing.”
This year, Firestine is racing Butrum’s pro truck at Desoto — where he won a pro truck track championship in 2006 — and in truck events at Three Palms Speedway (formerly Punta Gorda Speedway and Charlotte County Speedway), Citrus County Speedway in Inverness, Auburndale Speedway and Showtime Speedway in Pinellas County.
Firestine and Butrum are also racing in the bomber class at Desoto Speedway and Firestine has even made occasional appearances in figure 8s — including wheeling a school bus in a recent school bus figure 8 event at Desoto.
Butrum said the bombers were bought “just to go play and have fun.” He and Firestine race in nearly-identical orange Dean’s Tree Service/RRD in the bombers. Butrum also owns other bomber cars, including one driven by 2014 Desoto bomber champion Tristan Collins. Collins won the title in one of Butrum’s cars.
“It was a cheap, fast car and it gave us something to do on our off weeks,” Butrum said.
Butrum also owns a car that he and Firestine split driving duties in that appears in both the track’s street stock and pure stock divisions.
Butrum credited his wife Brandy and mother-in-law Tammy Firestine for allowing Butrum and company to work on their race cars. That includes some nights at the race shop where the guys are there until well after midnight, which happened recently after Butrum’s car was heavily damaged in an accident caused by a flat tire at Desoto.
“We’re here at the shop a lot, and they really let us do what we want to do down here,” Butrum said. “She takes care of the kids and without the wife being where she is and doing what she does, this would be impossible.”
The next generation of Butrum racers will be hitting the track soon in Go-Karts. Logan Butrum, 10 andDean Butrum Jr. will be 4 later this year. His daughter Alexis Butrum may also try to race.
“My oldest son has been biting at the bit for a while now to try it and I’ve been trying to persuade him away from it,” Butrum said. “I just want to get him into it. My youngest son is one we’re really going to try and push for him to have the chance that I didn’t have. I didn’t start until I was 20 years old and we’re going to push for him to be like Jeff Gordon or anyone else.”
Firestine and Butrum have no plans of slowing down anytime soon, but would both step away if the younger Butrum’s careers take off. Until then, they’ll still keep hard and not give each other an inch on the track.
“This is all about family,” Firestine said. “Family is number one and racing is number two. It’s something for us to do and we have a good time doing it. We’re competitive and we race each other as hard as we do other competitors, but at the end of the day we’re still family and we still go out and have fun.”
Email: slockwood@venicegondolier.com
Photo credit goes to Tyler Sontag/SpeedRacer Photos.