LaMoille’s Adkins is a racing addict

Hal Adkins is hooked on racing.

“It’s like drugs,” Adkins deadpans. “Only drugs are cheaper.”

So what drives Adkins, who competes in Formula-style events throughout the Midwest, to race?

“It’s the competition, just wanting to do something better than somebody else,” the LaMoille resident said. “It’s kind of me against the car, me against the track, and just trying to get everything better and faster and trying to beat everybody.”

“It’s no so much the speed, as the driving,” said Adkins of his affinity for racing. “Drag racers are straight-line speed, the faster you go the shorter the race is. I’d just as soon stay out there for a while.

“For us, straight-line speed down straightaway is when we yawn, scratch ourselves and look at the gauges. Top end speed doesn’t mean much, it’s all lap times,” Adkins said.

After racing for several years in the ‘70s, Adkins took a 20-plus year hiatus before returning to racing in 2001. He has been on the fast track to success ever since.

The LaMoille resident capped off this year’s race season by winning his seventh-straight Midwestern Council Formula Vee (MCFV) championship and second Sports Car Club of the Americas (SCCA) Regional Formula Vee Championship, a title he won previously in 2006.

“There’s nothing else to win; there’s no other outfit around that has a class like that (Formula Vee),” said Adkins. “Doing two in a year is kind of neat; you always try to do that, but it doesn’t always work out.”

All told, Adkins won 11 of the 18 races he entered this season in his Formula Vee car, which utilizes Volkswagen components, setting a new track record at the Joliet Autobahn North track and setting a new Formula Vee lap record at the Milwaukee Mile.

Adkins, who has 64 career wins, had a bumpy finish to his 2009 campaign; a flat tire caused him to drop out of the final race of the year.

Two weeks prior to that, Adkins lost a tire traveling at speeds near 100 mph, causing him to drop out of the SCCA race.

“All it did was put a flat spot on the bottom of the drums, so it was no big deal,” said Adkins of his high speed wheel detachment. “I found out my newly installed hook works because they took me back on it.”