“We went to the race, and I told my brother ‘These guys can’t drive.’ ” LeFevers said.
“You think you can do better?” his brother asked.
“So, I had to prove it,” LeFevers said with a smile. “I went out and got me a race car that next week. They had 17 races that season and the only one I didn’t win was the one we watched from the grandstands. Wherever I raced, I won a track championship. At some places, I won the season points title three times,” he said.
In all, LeFevers earned 19 season track titles at such dirt racing tracks as Eldora Speedway, Glen Este, Mudlick, Union County, Florence Speedway, Fleming County and several others. Eldora’s Terry Baltes nicknamed him “Saturday Night” after LeFevers won so many times during the disco days.
Today, LeFevers is busy tuning the 434 cubic-inch Comedic Gaskets engine, and tweaking the handling set-up of Chad Oberson’s black and green Chevrolet Monte Carlo dirt late model stock car. And when he’s not turning a wrench, he’s been known to get behind the wheel to show Oberson how it’s done.
“Vern has helped a ton with my racing,” Fairfield’s Oberson said. “We are thinking outside the box and trying new things. He knows I will listen and he is not afraid to tell me that I need to think before I act.”
LeFever says Oberson has been a quick study, and adds that his 35-year-old protege is learning quickly.
“I sometimes have him stand in the infield to get a look at what I’m telling him to do, in regards to how he enters and exits a turn,” LeFevers said. “Sometimes it’s just easier to show him than to explain it to him, that’s all.”
Oberson agreed.
“Sometimes I just drive too fast (into the corners) and he will tell me ‘slow down and your lap times will get better,’ ” Oberson explains. “Vern knows that 120 mph on the straightaway does you no good if you have to slow down to 70 mph in order to turn. Vern would like to see me do 115 mph on the straightaway and 100 in the corners ... and with the checkered flag in my hand.
“When you are being trained by one of the best drivers of all time, you listen and you listen and you listen. If I can take in just a little, it is a lot more than I could ever learn on my own. The man has won more races than I will probably ever start in.”
LeFevers won 667 feature races in his 37-year racing career. He was inducted into the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame in 2006.
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