COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Andrew Layser took a leap of faith last season when he made the jump up from the pavement-based USAC Speed2 Eastern Midgets to a full-size midget on the dirt tracks of Pennsylvania, but it paid off when he caught the eye of veteran Alex Bright.
Layser and Bright teamed up just prior to Pennsylvania Midget Week late last summer, and while the results Layser was hoping for didn’t come immediately, the potential rewards of the association between the 16-year-old and the 2016 ARDC titlist were clear.
He was there to learn, in hopes of taking a further step forward than he could racing on his own, and learn Layser did.
“From the very first night when we went to put the seat in the car all the way through the end of the season. That first show (at Susquehanna), Alex took me outside and talked to me for about 30 minutes just about running the cushion and a lot of little things where he saw I could get better. It was huge for me, because there’s a lot of things you just can’t learn until you’ve done them for a while and to have someone like Alex who has that level of experience showing me the ropes really boosted me a lot.
“He’s helped me with where to run, how to run, how to look at the track and know what we need … and off the track it’s the same way. He’s given me time to work on the cars and taught me a lot of things mechanically as well. It’s just been a great pairing and I’ve enjoyed soaking everything in from him.”
Making every one of the Pennsylvania Midget Week feature events was a solid start to the pair’s time working together, but the true view of what was possible for the pairing came during the final night of the USAC-ARDC season, when Layser led the entire distance at Linda’s (Pa.) Speedway before being passed by Bright on the final lap of the 25-lap feature.
“That was a fun night,” Layser recalled. “It stunk to come that close and then have Alex steal it from me in the last corner, but he beat me fair and square. I knew he was back there and figured he’d try to make something happen.
“If there was anyone I would have wanted to lose the race to that night, it was him, for sure. I think it was a sign of things to come and motivated me for the future.”
Layser, a former Rookie of the Year with the Speed2 Eastern Midgets who came within one spot of winning the series title in 2016, admitted that the transition from pavement to dirt last year was a challenge for him, especially early on.
“For me, moving from the (Speed2) Eastern Midgets up to these cars was a big change, especially going from asphalt to dirt. It was a bit of a tough change in the beginning, but I feel like I got used to it fairly quickly,” he said. “The HPD cars helped me get used to the speed of these style cars, though. When you’re 13 and 14 years old there’s not another class, I feel like, that gets you prepared for the speed of these cars as the HPD midgets did. The cars are built similarly, but that power difference really was key for me to learn.
“I prefer dirt a lot more now, too. It’s a lot more fun and a lot more interesting racing.”
Nearly a year removed from his initial partnership with Bright, Layser was able to travel with the team to Tulsa, Okla., in January, helping to turn wrenches on both Bright and Billy Pauch Jr.’s machines at the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals.
The Chili Bowl experience wasn’t just to prepare Layser – who turns 17 on April 11 – for his own potential shot at racing the Chili Bowl next year, it was also to continue his integration within the team and to help him learn things that he could bring back to his own car as well.
