The 13-year-old will make his Super DIRT Week debut in a Sportsman after winning with the Microds at Oswego in 2024
Chris Darling stood atop the podium as a Super DIRT Week winner last year – a Quarter Midget & Microd Mania Super DIRT Week winner. Now, the 13-year-old is taking his talents from the infield of Oswego Speedway to the dirt track.
Darling, of Manchester, NY, is one of nearly 80 Sportsman drivers entered for Super DIRT Week 53, as he aims to make the DIRTcar Sportsman Great Lakes 75 in his first full year of competing in the division.
“It’s pretty cool,” he said about the opportunity. “It’s exciting to think last year I was running that Microd event, and this year I’ll be running it in one of these (Sportsman).”
He’ll have a solid support system around him for the effort in the form of Super DIRTcar Series competitor Alex Payne, and Eldon Payne, who fields the Sportsman for him. Through the partnership, Darling gets to work out of the same shop as Alex and soak up as much information as he can.
“[Alex has] taught me a lot on tires. A lot on tires,” Darling said. “He’s helped me with shocks a little bit. Things like that… It’s pretty cool to see the program out in the shop and how they do things.”
The teenager has been able to build a solid notebook in his first year of racing a Sportsman, competing at a variety of tracks like Land of Legends Raceway, Fulton Speedway, Genesee Speedway, Ransomville Speedway, Utica-Rome Speedway and Outlaw Speedway. He’s even built a solid trophy collection with nine wins in the Limited Sportsman class and a win at Outlaw in the regular Sportsman class.
He molded his talent behind the wheel of a race car, racing Microds for seven years – in Syracuse and Sodus. From 5 to 12 years old, he climbed the Microds ranks starting in the Junior Novice division (a full-fendered car) and moved his way up to the top Super Stock Open Wheel division. He also gained experience on dirt in those years, racing a Micro Sprint.
Winning at Oswego during last year’s Quarter Midget and Microd Mania has been one of the top highlights of that trajectory, so far.
“For years I dreamed of racing there (at Super DIRT Week),” he said. “To be able to do that for at least one night was pretty cool.”
His time in Microds helped him develop his driving skills, but also led to some of the best lessons he’s learned in his career so far. A top that list is a lesson that came from his father, Dale Darling, who used to race Sportsman and Hobby Stocks in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
“He taught me how to work on the car from an early age,” Chris said. “When I was six or seven, I wanted to run two Microds. He said, ‘I’m not working on both of them. If you want to run two, you’re working on them.’
“That’s helped me out a lot. Now, I work on my cars and I know them pretty well. It helps me a lot with the setup and everything, and you know what’s wrong if there is something wrong. It’s a real big thing to know how the car works, the axles, the driveline, and everything. If something goes wrong, you can kind of diagnose it. If the car is tight or loose, you know what to do. It’s a big help to know what’s going on with the car.”
Along with guidance from his dad and the Payne family, Darling is also relying on a new-age tool to help him prepare for his Oswego Speedway debut – iRacing. For a couple hours every night, he makes laps around the virtual tracks, including a dirt-covered Oswego Speedway, to help give him an idea of what he can expect.
“I love it. It’s amazing,” he said. “It’s cool to run the tracks that you don’t have around here. It’s just cool to get some experience. It’s helped me out a lot since I began racing.”
He dreams of having a career like Matt Sheppard’s where he can travel the region and race for a living. But first, he’ll join the long list of drivers who have made the step from Microds to Sportsman and try to keep his nose clean throughout his Super DIRT Week debut.
Is he ready?
“I hope so,” Darling said with a chuckle.
You can watch the latest group of future stars for free during the third annual Quarter Midget and Microd Mania in the Oswego Speedway infield on Monday, Oct. 6 – Features start at 6 p.m.
Then, watch Darling and the 250-plus other drivers entered for Super DIRT Week 53, starting on Wednesday, Oct. 8. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased by clicking here.
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch the Quarter Midget and Microd Mania, and all on-track action at Oswego Speedway live on DIRTVision.
