Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – POMPANO BEACH, FL – When you get involved in local racing at a very young age, it’s a very hard thing to get away from.
The experiences and friendships that you form are so memorable and the memories will always stay with you. Sometimes, when one moves far away from where they first got their first taste of racing, one often wants to continue to be involved.
Dave Farber, of Pompano Beach, Florida, is one such person.
Dave grew up in Middletown, NY and in his early years, he was often found at many race shops around town. His brother, Jeff Farber, raced in the Limited Sportsman and Modified divisions during the mid to late 70’s. Dave raced himself, a Sportsman for one season in 1991, recording 2 wins. He moved to Florida after that season. But his ties to the speedway and the people have always remained strong.
In addition to his sponsoring Modified and Small Block racer Dan Creeden, Dave is sponsoring halfway bonus money for Sportsman competitors in both the Short Track Super Series and the weekly Orange County Fair Speedway Sportsman schedule.
“I used to go to Rusty Creeden’s garage. I spent so much time there, starting right about the same age as Danny’s daughter, Sadie, is right now. They are great people and I’m glad that I can be a part of the team.”
Being a former Sportsman racer, Dave likes to help out that division of racing. He and his business, Accurate Collision of Pompano Beach, Florida are putting up bonus money for Sportsman racers during the 2022 season.
“As the Short Track Super Series got started at All-Tech, I sat down with Brett and Heather and worked out the deal to do the halfway leader bonus for Sportsman at all Short Track Super Series events, in both the North and South Series. I like to help out the lower divisions of the sport, it’s where I came from.”
Dave and Accurate Collision will be doing $100 halfway leader bonuses for all Sportsman regular season races at OCFS and a $200 bonus at the Eastern States Sportsman race. And Dave is putting in a $200 halfway bonus for the Marky Traverse Street Stock Memorial Race.
Although Accurate Collision is 1,101 miles away from OCFS as the crow flies, Dave has very good reasons for sponsoring the bonus money locally.
“I still have a lot of ties to my old hometown and track. I am good friends with Brett Hearn and Doug Dulgarian. The pandemic has hit those guys and the track hard. I want to see Brett and Doug have success. I have the means to do the bonus money. I do it for the love of the sport and it makes me feel involved and part of the team. It’s just great to be affiliated with them again.”
Those strong ties to OCFS and racing began back at a very young age when his family owned the famous Colonial Diner.
“My family owned the Colonial. Lots of racers came in there. Even at a young age, I can still remember guys like Jackie Evans and Bobby Bottcher at the diner. They were great times. My brother, Jeff, is 10 years older than me. He started racing in 1974. I often went to the diner after school, but as it got later on during the night, nobody could find me. I would walk up to Rusty’s garage and help out with whatever I could. I would go over to the garage where the BDRS #77 was worked on. I got to meet and work with Dickie Keiper, Bob Malzahn, Sammy Rogers Jr, and Jack Bertling when they all had their time racing the 77. Others that I worked with were Bruce Quinn, Nick Illobre, and Bobby Decker. The last driver I helped out before racing myself was Joe Romer.”
Dave raced a Sportsman for one season in 1991 before heading south.
“I moved to Jersey in 1989. I worked for the Huber’s, not too far from Gordon and Kay Hearn’s place. After a while, Gary Huber and I built some bodies in the back of the Huber shop. We did one of the #74 cars that Jeff Heotzler raced. Bobby Hearn was just getting started with his business. In the days before wraps, we did some painting of bodies for him. I eventually had the chance to buy a 1986 Autoweld car that had originally been raced by Carl Reynolds. I got the car cheap and I knew that it would always make weight, it was so heavy. The car had a really good engine built by Jim Hindley. It was a great time with family and friends.”
But Dave knew that for himself racing, it was going to be a short term thing.
“I knew that I would only do it for one season. I gave it all I had though. I went to Brett’s driving school. I got a Sportsman win the 3rd time out and had another win a couple of weeks later. But it was expensive. I raced the Eastern States Weekend with it. I struck a deal during the weekend to sell the car. I came into the pits with a car, and left without one. I had my bags packed and I was off to Florida the next day.”
But one thing that both the racing Farber’s are proud of is that they always did it on their own.
“Jeff and I never asked anyone for a dime. We did it all on our own.”
And the Florida move worked out great for Dave.
“My parents were already retired and living down there, so it was great having them nearby again. By 1994, I had the opportunity to acquire the business and we’ve been there ever since.”
As a major sponsor on the 16X, Dave is already making some great memories this season.
“I took a month off of work in February and went to all of Danny’s races in Florida and South Carolina. And I had a great time. It was quite emotional for me when Danny won the qualifying race at Cherokee. It brought back many great memories from when I was working with Rusty. And that’s what it’s all about for me, enjoying time with the racing people and making memories and friends.”
Sadie Creeden, Dan and Tania Creeden’s daughter, will also be wearing the Accurate Collision logo this year as Dave is helping out with her go kart program. Sadie recently shared photos of herself with her new fire suit and Tania shared a very cool thing that happened about Sadie’s new wear.
“Dave did have a new suit made for Dan. At the time that Dave ordered the suit, he also asked that Leaf Racewear make him an Accurate Collision patch for us to sew onto her suit that she already had. Colin Grandy, owner of Leaf racewear, reached out and offered to make her a complete custom suit on them instead of just doing a patch.”
That’s a very nice thing for Leaf Racewear and Colin Grandy to do. Well done to them.
Dave Farber is putting a lot into our world of racing in 2022. He is a great supporter of the sport. He’s also a great friend to many in the racing community and also my family. We have enjoyed quite a few trips to our local Texas Roadhouse because of his tremendous generosity. He is planning on making a couple of trips north to take in some racing this year.
If you see him in the pit area or grandstands, make it a point to say thank you to him for all that he does for the sport. He surely deserves to hear it.