A strong finish

Ex-racer Mike Davis employs maintenance skills, financial prowess and good discipline to build a long, safe career.

Owner-operator Mike Davis, 69, has clocked 5.5 million accident-free miles, a level of safety very few owner-operators achieve. Many of these miles were logged with his 2003 Kenworth T600, which he maintains largely by himself with skills he once used to pursue another passion: building and racing stock cars.

Mike Davis gives his work and his 2003 Kenworth T600 a high level of care.

The Coshocton, Ohio, native and resident’s eight-year association with the racetrack didn’t sideline a long career in trucking that began in 1961, when he did some vocational driving, and developed to include winning industry driving awards.

Davis’ longtime love of racing found new expression when he and brother-in-law Jack Babenberg, a mechanic, visited a local raceway pit. “We said, ‘We could do this,’ ” Davis recalls. “At that time you could pretty much go to the junkyard and build your own car.”

They began with the frame and assembled a car, first building a ’70 Chevalier, then a ’72 or ’73 Cameron before buying a ’76 Cameron. He raced at regional dirt track races between 1970 and 1978. His first race was intimidating. “I was a fish out of water,” he recalls.

Davis was Track Champion of the Year a few times, given to the driver with the most racing points, and was voted Most Popular Driver several times. He once raced against the late Butch Hartman, a USAC champion, though Davis didn’t win.