6/10/2020
Ransomville Speedway
Staff Profile: Pit Steward Dave Rinker & Assistant Steward Dan Hosie
They’re the “Dynamic Duo” of Ransomville Speedway’s pit area, pit steward Dave Rinker and his assistant Dan Hosie. Their main roles include keeping law & order in the pits as well as ensuring the show keeps moving from their side of the track. Whenever Commissioner Gordon (a.k.a. race director John Nelson) calls them on their “Bat Phone” they leap into action to enforce the rules of the “Big R”.
Pit steward Dave Rinker has been an official at Ransomville Speedway since 1989 when he began assisting his brother, Phil, in the pits, but their involvement in racing goes back even farther as competitors in the old Bomber class during the 1970s & 80s. The Rinkers got to know the Friesen family who asked them to become officials once they finished their respective driving careers. Dave started out operating the scales before moving to assistant pit steward and then replacing Phil as the pit steward.
His main role as pit steward is helping to deliver messages from either race control or track management to the drivers and teams. “I am a middle man pretty much,” said Rinker, “I try to keep peace and let drivers know if they got to start to tail, and I also look over tech. If someone is DQ’d, they let me know what rule so I can let the driver, Jenn (Martin) and the race director know.” This role of being the bearer of bad news is one of the things that Rinker likes least about his job, but he tries to balance it out. “When somebody does something wrong on the track, they tell me I go over to them and they scream at me,” said Rinker. “That’s why at the end of the night I try to congratulate everybody so they hear some good news from me once in a while.”
On top of enforcing the law, Rinker also helps keep order when tempers flare among drivers. “Drivers see what they want to see and that’s what a lot of the problem is, there are some things called accidents,” said Rinker. “Everybody thinks when they get spun out or crashed it was done intentionally. I try to get drivers together to talk it out, some of the time it don’t work. You want to talk it out if there’s an issue, the problem is when somebody starts screaming and yelling it attracts people. The next thing you know it’s pushing and shoving and you just can’t control it.”
Rinker says things have improved the last three years thanks to efforts of track management to keep the lines of communication open and give more warnings to drivers instead of penalties.
Dan Hosie started in his role as an official in Ransomville Speedway in 1996. Hosie had been attending the races at the “Big R” since he was a kid, and he eventually got involved in the sport by helping the Rinkers with their racing operation. That involvement grew further when he got his stepsons involved in the go-kart program on Thursdays.
Hosie got to know the Friesen family through the go-karts, and they encouraged him to join his friend Dave Rinker as an official on Friday nights. “I love being involved with the racers,” said Hosie, “I’m a big dirt racing fan and I love being part of the show. It always feels like home there.”
His typical race night duties include getting the lineups on the dry erase board in the pits so the drivers know where they are starting. Hosie also calls up the different divisions over the PA system in the pits to get ready when it is their time to race.
One of Hosie’s most memorable night as an official came when Bill Torrisi flipped out of the track in turns 3 & 4. “The starter and race director were talking and noticed they were missing a car, so I started counting the cars on the track, and the cars on my lineup board,” said Hosie. “I realized it was Torrisi that we were missing, and then we found him up in the trees.”
Both Rinker and Hosie can’t wait to return to their positions in the pits once the 2020 racing season gets going at Ransomville.
Submitted By: Dave Buchanan