FORESTVILLE — Even when Chris Holland wasn’t racing, he kept finding parallels in his life to his nights at the speedway.
“You’ve got to be in the right place at the right time,” the Pine Grove roadrunner driver said prior to last Sunday’s season-opening program at Big Diamond Speedway.
As a youth, Holland kept finding himself in the right place on the soccer pitch.
By the time he graduated from Pine Grove, the former Cardinal scored enough goals to still rank in a tie with Brett Weber for 10th in career tallies with 30. Holland also ranks 12th in career points when his 14 assists are added.
“I played all the way when I was little all the way up through high school,” he said, adding, “I played offense and defense, pretty much everything except goalie. I was too small. The coach told me that.”
Then there was the time Holland was pursuing another hobby, deer hunting, and wound up with a nine-point buck with a 21½-inch spread.
“Right when it hit light time, I missed two does and I got back up in my tree stand,” he said. “Not a half-an-hour later, he walked out and I shot him and dropped him.”
As good as Holland’s timing has been as a soccer player and a hunter, he has done just as well at Big Diamond, where he began to compete after high school.
Last year, Holland was dominant in the roadrunner class in his 1967 Chevrolet Nova for much of the season. He won five features and won the annual challenge races.
But the points title eluded him as Pottsville’s Jeremy Becker won the final four features to take the crown.
That denied Holland the same title that his father, Kevin, won in 2006. With his father’s support, Chris Holland is back in 2015 for another attempt.
“Dad used to drive, but he just wants me to drive,” Holland said.
In his fifth season at the track, Chris Holland has developed a routine.
“It’s a lot of work with these cars every week,” he said. “I’ve got a big checklist and I go over every nut and bolt every week, and I make sure the car’s ready to go as soon as we get to the track.”
Just like that checklist, Holland’s results have been consistent.
Sunday, he placed second to Terry Kramer Jr. to continue a streak of 18 top-10 finishes in his last 19 features over two seasons.
“Stay out of trouble and just keep getting top-fives in the heats and move into the redraw every week,” he said. “It’s pretty critical because if you get in the top five in the heat, you can redraw and start (the feature) no worse than 10th.”
It’s the same measured approach that Holland takes with his full-time job as a machinist for Norfolk Southern Railroad in Enola.
He got that job three years ago after studying two years at the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport.
Friday nights, Holland will race and then head to his overnight shift in Enola.
“Usually I go in and my eyes are all dirty,” he said. “I just get washed up down there and get to work.”
It may be a rare moment when life doesn’t go according to plan, but if Holland sticks to his methodical approach in 2015, his sense of timing could be rewarded.
His main rival from 2014, Becker, drove a street stock last Friday and may leave the roadrunner battles to others this season.
As the 2014 runner-up, Holland might be the favorite to succeed Becker.
If that happens, the title might change Holland’s entire focus.
After managing his Big Diamond racing effort so well for so long, he indicated it might be time to test his timing.
“Maybe drag racing, something like that,” Holland said. “That’s what we used to do before dirt-track racing.”
Yet the car he would drive would be quite familiar.
Saying he would probably race at Beaver Springs Dragway in Beavertown, Holland said, “I’ve got a two-door Nova just like this at home.
“It’s a street car, but I could easily turn it into something.”
This Week’s Races
Where: Big Diamond Speedway, Forestville
When: 8:15 p.m. today. Gates open at 5 p.m.
Program: Third annual Money in the Mountains for 358 modifieds (40-lap feature, $7,500 to winner, $500 to take green flag); sportsmen and roadrunners
Admission: $25 per adult, free for children aged 12 and under and active military personnel with identification