Chris Ferguson

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FEATURE

LATE MODEL

CHRIS FERGUSON - THE NATURAL

By Doug Kennedy

Photo: Heath Lawson

ROBERT REDFORD PORTRAYED Roy Hobbs in the 1984 movie “The Natural” and garnered that nickname with the effortless ease he played the game of baseball. Chris Ferguson displays a similar ease with the way he handles and his race team, on and off the racetrack.

“I think the fans kind of relate to me,” said Ferguson, who lives in Mt. Holly, North Carolina, after being born and raised in Charlotte. “I’ve built my race team up over the last 12 years and have come a long way from where I started. Now that I’ve got a lot of experience under my belt, it’s not as challenging to go to new and different tracks as it was when I first started.”

Kelley Carlton, the series director for the Ultimate Southeast Series has watched Chris race since he was about ten years old. “He’s a natural talent going back to his karting days,” Carlton said. “I was there for his first crate late model race. Most guys who get into a late model develop habits from driving another type of car. He made the transition so smoothly. He figured out what the car needed to be fast and how to drive the car almost immediately.”

“Chris also interacts extremely well with sponsors and fans,” Carlton, who used to be the Southern All-Stars director from 2000 to 2010, said. “He really engages the fans and his sponsors.” Ferguson is also known as somewhat of an easy-going person. “I take after my mom (Allison),” Ferguson related. “She’s always friendly to whomever she meets. I take after her personality and I’m an easy-going type of guy.”

His racing program has also grown over the last few years. “I’ve always tended to take care of my equipment,” said the 31-year-old Ferguson. “For the longest time, I didn’t have a spare car or spare parts. I got a second car in 2019. Now, we also have our spare parts. We can almost rebuild the car at the racetrack if needed. It gives you an ease of mind to have those spare parts and that allows me to maybe take a few more chances. It also affects my driving style because I’m normally a calculating type of driver but now I can be a little more aggressive when needed.”

Ferguson is a third generation racer. His grandfather Blair raced in the 1960s and 1970s in a six-cylinder car and his father, Bryan, had more than 100 feature wins in a four-cylinder car and a go-kart. In one season alone, Bryan had 30 wins and also won the World 4 Cylinder Championship. Chris’s younger brother, Brandon Conard, also raced but quit once he rolled his kart after about 10 races. (The reason for the different last names is that when Chris was born, his parents were not married yet so he chose to take the last name of his mother, Ferguson, while Brandon took the family and dad’s name of Conard.)

Everything for Chris began in 2002

when he competed in a kart. For three and a half years, he raced the kart, winning two state championships. He also won the Daytona Dirt World Championships in year two and three and two WKA National Championships.

When he was 16, he began racing the crate late model. He won roughly 20 features including the Big Ten championship, which was a local/ regional series. In 2007, he won the FASTRAK Tour Rookie of the Year. By 2009, he was behind the wheel of a super late model and has been doing that ever since.

In 2011, he won the USLM Series championship. He had a very productive 2012 season driving a crate late model and his family owned super late model. By 2013, he was back, concentrating on the super late model. His 2014 season was very productive following the demise of the NDRL Tour. He scored a handful of very big races including the USA 100 and the Carolina Clash.

The next year is when Ferguson reached a new level. In 2015, he won back-to-back World of Outlaw races at Friendship Motor Speedway in Elkin, North Carolina, and Fayetteville Speedway in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Two years later, he won his first Lucas Oil race, also at Fayetteville Speedway.

From 2015 to now, Ferguson has won more than 40 features. “I’ve won races in Mississippi, Illinois, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, West Virginia, and Missouri.”

And even though 2020 was shortened by the COVID-19, Ferguson had some big wins and strong performances in Crown Jewel events. He had top ten Photo: Heath Lawson

performances at the Firecracker 100 at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pennsylvania, the Prairie Dirt Classic at Fairbury American Legion Speedway in Fairbury, Illinois, the Dirt Track World Championship at Portsmouth Raceway Park in West Portsmouth, Ohio, the Dream 100 at Eldora Speedway, the Silver Dollar Nationals at I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Nebraska, the World Finals at Charlotte, and the ShowMe 100 at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri.

Ferguson went to the 2020 ShowMe having never raced at Lucas Oil Speedway yet finished fourth. “That track really fits my driving style,” Ferguson said. “We have a Bloomquist race car chassis and that kind of chassis has always done very well at that track, so it kind of played into my favor.”

Following that top five finish in the Show-Me, Ferguson won the Diamond Nationals at Lucas Oil Speedway on the very next night. “That was just like icing on the cake,” Ferguson said. “I knew we were pretty good after the first night, but I didn’t expect to lead all those laps to win the race (48 out of 50). I guess you could say I dominated that race.”

He also won a World of Outlaws prelim race at the Prairie Dirt Classis and sat on the pole for the Dirt Track championship. He finished fifth at the Stream last summer at Eldora, a track where he keeps improving. “For the longest time, I would go to the track once every couple of years and never got the knack of it, but since 2015, I’ve been going to every Dream 100. The more laps I run there, the better I get. It’s fast and extremely technical. It goes from being the fastest track in the country to slowing down by two seconds. It makes you have to know when to start to change your driving style. Eldora gets a 99 out of 100 for me.”

Eldora is also a track where Chris set two track records. “I set the track record in 2015 and then broke my own record in 2018 until it was recently broken,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson has been running late models nearly a decade and a half and has over 75 wins to show for it. He keeps proving his innate, natural ability to excel in the sport. Photos: Heath Lawson

Photo: Mike Musslin

GETTING TO KNOW: CHRIS FERGUSON

Career Highlight: Winning two back-toback World of Outlaws races in his home state of North Carolina and his victory at the Diamond Nationals.

Employment Off the Track: Since 2015, Ferguson has worked in sales at ButlerBuilt Racing Seats, which is located a mile from Charlotte Motor Speedway. “They are the seats that I use in my race car.”

Partners and Crew: The race team is funded by Chris and his dad Bryan. “We are partners in the race team along with my brother, Brandon,” Brandon who is three years younger than Chris, works as a property manager for skyrise apartments in the Charlotte area. When they are at the track, Brandon serves as Chris’ car chief. “He makes decisions, but doesn’t oversee the entire operation - that belongs to dad,” Ferguson said.

Academic History: Chris enjoyed and was very good at both baseball and basketball. Upon graduation from East Gaston High School, Chris attended UNC-Charlotte for two and half years where he majored in business. Unfortunately, he never completed his degree because of racing opportunities that came along.

The Importance of the #22: Ferguson has had that number ever since he started playing sports.

Hobbies Off the Track: When he’s not on the racetrack, Chris can be found relaxing on the golf course. “I don’t know if I can call that relaxing,” he laughed. He also likes to spend quite a bit of time on Lake Wylie where he goes out on a boat or jet skis.