SHOP TALK with Terry Van Haitsma
Standale Lumber Sportsman Points Leader

by Brian Nelson

Blink, and you'll miss it. Drive down 48th Avenue, a few miles south of Chicago Drive, and you'll come upon a world that hasn't changed much over the last 100 years. Few have even heard of the small town of Zutphen, MI, which lies somewhere southwest of Hudsonville and northeast of Vriesland. But the tiny community that boasts a church, a dairy supply store, and a handful of family farms now boasts its own Terry Van Haitsma, driver of the silver #21 Standale Lumber Sportsman car.

Terry, a curly-haired 23-year-old heavy equipment mechanic, lives with his parents on a farm that the state of Michigan says has been in the Van Haistma family for more than 100 years. Situated between the 110-year-old house and 120-year-old barn lies the 2-year-old machine shop/garage that houses Terry's race car.

"My parents built this shop for farm use but it has since turned into our race shop," Terry says, "but dad keeps his truck in here too, so it's not all my space."

Van Haitsma says he can't remember a time when he didn't want to race cars. While others boys at Unity Christian High School in Hudsonville were playing basketball and soccer, Terry was saving up for his first race car.  

After the 2002 Berlin racing season he finally bought it.

Berlin Sportsman driver Terry Bockheim had a pretty good season in 2002...a year that brought him one feature win, two second place finishes, and an eighth place finish in Sportsman points.  So, when Van Haitsma heard that Bockheim was selling his car and taking the 2003 season off, he knew he had to jump at the opportunity.

"I had worked the previous season on Andy Ponstein's crew," says Van Haitsma. "Andy's crew chief Herb Wouthuis knew I was shopping for a car and said Bockheim's was a good one."

Terry spent his savings and brought the Bockheim car to his new shop. He gathered some friends together and worked on the car day and night, converting the race truck into a slick new race car. By the start of the 2003 Sportsman season, Terry had sunk an estimated $10,000 into his racing dream...and he'd never been behind the wheel of a race car.

That is, until April 12, 2003, the first day of testing for the new season. Terry climbed into a race car for the first time, not knowing whether he'd crash or cruise to fast time.

"I kept telling myself, 'just don't spin it'," Van Haitsma says, "and the first few laps went quite well."

Gradually, Terry worked through the initial fear of going fast on a closed road girded by a hard concrete wall.  Once his nerves eased a bit, Terry decided to go for it.

"I felt pretty good after about five laps and decided to mash the gas pedal out of (turn) four. Then the car snapped around and just like that I was facing the wrong way on the front stretch, watching all the other cars miss me by inches."

The good news is his car was not damaged. But Terry, always the optimist, continued to focus on the car's set-up. Just two weeks into the 2003 season, he blazed to the fourth fastest qualifying time of the day.

"After that," Van Haitsma explains, "several Berlin tech officials were all over my car looking for something illegal. Rookies just don't go out and qualify at the top of the class."

They didn't find anything illegal. In fact, Van Haitsma has never failed a technical inspection. He also never failed to qualify for an A-Feature race, earning two fast qualifier awards and one third place feature finish.

Two other rookies, Nick Gebben and Zach Dunson, finished above Van Haitsma in the final Sportsman points standings, but by all accounts, Terry was a super rookie.

Most of the "super-rookie" attention he attracted was positive. Like when Lore Davison, owner of Northern Mortgage, walked into his pit and told Terry, "your car looks kinda bare...I'm gonna have to put my company's name there," pointing to the hood of the car.  

Some of the attention was negative.  

"All season long some people were accusing me of cheating," Terry says. "But we passed every (technical) inspection.  There's nothing illegal here."

Others wondered if Terry had chosen his number 21 because he thought he was as talented as Johnny Benson, who also sported the number while competing at Berlin.

"I didn't even know he used that number," explains Van Haitsma. "I chose 21 because that's how old I was when I got involved in racing."

Terry says he's not the kind of guy who gets caught up in negativity and things of the past.  

"I feel good," Terry says. "Quite a few nights we're at the shop til 2 a.m., and up for work at 8 a.m. We spend around 30 hours a week working on and learning about the right set-ups. We're not going to lose. I'd like to think we can be number one."

Asked if he's worried about a sophomore slump, Terry's only reply is, "it never crossed my mind. We're gonna do what we did last year...only better."

And already that prediction is coming true. Terry has won five of the nine Standale Lumber Sportsman features in 2004.

Positive mental attitude and hard work have helped several generations of Terry's family find prosperity on the family farm. Today, Terry Van Haitsma is transposing those character traits to the race track where he hopes to build on the prosperity of a great rookie season.


PIT CREW MEMBERS
Terry Van Haitsma        Mark Holthof
Joe Holthof                    Jeff Strick
Mark Ondersma            Larry Van Haitsma
Marcy Snoeyink


SPONSORS
Northern Mortgage                  Boyne Machine/Club North
Broene's Furniture                  J & H Oil
Custom Tooling Systems     Apex Controls
Burman Masonry                    Hudsonville Trailer
AIS Engines                             Pete's Auto
Hudsonville Body Shop         Smith Diamond Realty