Calkins remembers good and bad days

Hank Kurz Jr

Thursday, July 5, 2001 | 6:15 a.m.

Buzz Calkins remembers the day that opened his eyes to racing even wider than the one that gave him a place in its history.

It was 1997, and Calkins, the first winner in the Indy Racing League and co-champion in the series' first season, was doing a tire test in Loudon, N.H.

His car slammed into the wall, leaving him with a skull fracture, broken ankle and other injuries. He spent the next few days in a hospital pondering what might have been.

"I think that was the first time in my entire racing career that I was, like, "Whoa, this might not always be here."' Calkins remembered. "If it had been a little worse, I could have been done."

Instead, he was just getting started.

The following year, Calkins enrolled in the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, beginning pursuit of his masters degree in business administration while continuing to race.

"I felt like I had enough time to do it, and I felt like it was the best use of my time," said the 30-year-old driver. "I enjoyed taking finance classes. It wasn't like I was doing something I hated."

There were times, though, when the pace got a little too hectic.

In 1999, he qualified for the Indianapolis 500 on a Saturday and practiced Sunday before flying back to Chicago. He attended classes Monday and Tuesday before returning to the Brickyard.

He stayed until Thursday night, returned to Chicago for a class Friday, then went back to Indianapolis, where he finished 19th in the 500.

"I had to bolt back up there on Monday morning for a group project, and I got halfway there and wound up doing it over e-mail," he said.

The schedule might have angered another team owner, who might not have been happy about a having distracted driver. But Calkins had the full support of his boss - who happens to be his father.

"I'm very proud of him that he would make the effort to do that instead of falling back on this," Brad Calkins said. "He had the opportunity and said, 'I can't drive a race car all my life."'

Since his graduation in 2000, Buzz also has helped his father manage enterprises that include a petroleum business and convenience store chain.

"He's involved more than I am," Brad said. "He makes a lot of business decisions, the team decisions, who he's going to hire.

"I've given him that opportunity because I wanted to teach him that aspect, whether he's doing racing or my business or some other business."

The team also gets a boost from Kathy Calkins, who makes travel arrangements for her husband, son and their team members, bakes cookies for the group and offers moral support at the track each weekend.

"I can't stand to be there, but I can't stand not to be there, so I'm always here," she said. "I could stay home and be totally miserable, or I can come and be a part of it, so that's what I do."

Racing scares her, she said, but has been good for the family, often drawing Buzz's two sisters and even grandparents to the track.

Racing also provided a steady bonding experience for father and son. Both list the inaugural IRL race, at Walt Disney World in 1996, as probably the greatest moment of their lives.

"Seeing that kid work as hard as he worked as a rookie in his first Indy-car race, and for a rookie team in its first Indy-car race, and go out there and dominate Tony Stewart like he did?" Brad said. "It was the greatest thrill a father could have, I think."

Since then, there have been few highlights for the Bradley Motorsports team. It has a 40-race losing streak entering the Ameristar Casino Indy 200 on Sunday in Kansas City, Kan.

But the team has been energized by a few chances at victory last season, a third-place run earlier this year and its standing of eighth in IRL points.

The possibility of winning again gets Brad excited like little else.

"If we were 19th and 20th every practice session and every race, I would have quit it a long time ago, because that's not fun," he said. "We think we're ready to win again."