FORESTVILLE — Rich Bossinger is hitting all of the right notes in the street stock division at Big Diamond Speedway.
It’s an appropriate turn of a phrase because music is the Lebanon street stock racer’s other passion.
Look closely at his No. 71K and you’ll find a likeness of the Muppets’ drummer, Animal, sitting next to the door frame.
“Back in the day when I played drums, I had real long red hair and everybody said I looked like Animal playing the drums, so it kind of stuck,” Bossinger, 44, said. “Friends of mine thought it would be real cool to put a stuffed Animal on the car, and it stuck with us over the years.”
The drums remain a hobby for Bossinger, who began to play when he tried a friend’s set of drums when he was 8. These days, he plays occasionally on his own set at his race team co-owner’s home.
On the track, Animal has enjoyed quite a ride with Bossinger in 2015 at Big Diamond.
Compared to tight races in the sportsman and roadrunner classes, Bossinger has a commanding edge entering today’s final points race for the street stocks.
“I’m ecstatic. I never really thought we’d have the season we’re having,” he said.
Months ago, Bossinger wasn’t even sure he would race this season after years of 4-cylinder stock competition at Linda’s Speedway in Jonestown.
“Disgusted with the class, disgusted with pretty much everything,” Bossinger said. “We weren’t having fun.
“I was pretty much retiring, buying a boat and going fishing.”
Instead, a crew member, Kenny Goshert, of Lickdale, came to Bossinger with the idea of fielding a street stock, a class that Bossinger entered for one season at the now defunct Silver Spring Speedway in Mechanicsburg.
“I said, ‘Kenny, these boys don’t kid around, man. You want to go fast.’ ... He never flinched. He was all about it,’’ Bossinger said. “He wanted to own a car and he wanted me to drive it.”
Together and with the help of street stock rival Jasen Geesaman, Bossinger and Goshert bought a car and trailer, to both carry the car to the track and to store the car away from it.
“I told Kenny we really should get an enclosed trailer,” Bossinger said. “It’s a lot of money to be sitting outside when we come home from the races.”
There is one downside at the speedway, though.
He said, “I don’t know if it’s a good thing because, if you make somebody mad, they know right where your trailer’s at.”
The only upset drivers might be those wondering how Bossinger has won the past three races.
After changing the weight distribution on the car in midseason, Bossinger said the original setup is back and that it fits the speedway.
“It gets slick and you’ve really got to have a good foot on the throttle to be able to get around these corners,” he said. “I used to love Silver Spring because it was the same way. It was a very icy track by feature time, and I like that.”
Bossinger figures he has had another advantage.
This season, Big Diamond is permitting a variety of street stock rules packages, so some cars lack the power of others. Bossinger’s car is legal for the larger speedways of Williams Grove and Susquehanna Speedway Park, where he has won two features in 2015.
“I have talked to (promoter) Jake (Smulley) already and they’ve got to come up with a rules package. The rules package has to be up here (at Big Diamond),” he said.
But Bossinger added the new rules should allow street stock teams at other speedways the flexibility to make changes to race at Big Diamond.
“I hope we’re close to what it’s going to be because, if they go backward, I can’t see us changing it to go backward,” Bossinger said. “We’d probably have go to Susquehanna or the Grove.”
For now, Bossinger is enjoying Big Diamond, where he has been beating the opposition like one of those drums he plays.
“I’ve raced on and off for 15 years and this is about the only thing I haven’t won, a points championship,” he said.
Big Diamond’s weekend’s races
Today
· When: 8:15 p.m. Gates open at 5:45 p.m.
· Program: Coal Cracker 40 for sportsmen ($1,200-to-win, $120 to take the green flag, final points race); non-winners race for 358 modifieds; roadrunners and street stocks (final points races)
Sunday
· When: 8:15 p.m. Gates open at 5:45 p.m.
· Program: Jack Rich Inc. Memorial Coal Cracker 72 for 358 modifieds ($10,000-to-win, $1,000 for 10th, $500 to take the green flag); Coal Cracker 25 for roadrunners ($300-to-win), 600cc modifieds and fireworks