HURON – Jeremy North’s racing season hasn’t exactly gone according to plan.

North is the reigning Brown County Speedway track champion in the Super Stocks, but hasn’t gotten enough traction this season to be in the mix for a title defense.

For one, the Huron racer has missed at least one race while his son Bryson – who also races in his dad’s spare Super Stock – was at a bowling tournament in Detroit.

For another, it’s hard to race without a motor.

“We were sidelined for six weeks without a motor,” North said. “In today’s society, parts are just hard to get. It took a little longer than normal.”

North blew his original motor at Wheel Jam in early June, which sidelined him for the better part of two months. And, when he did get back on the track a couple weeks ago, he got caught up in a tangle.

Add in the North family’s annual vacation to the Knoxville Nationals in Iowa, a spate of bad weather that kept everyone off the track, and this year’s Super Stock title is destined to reside with someone else.

“We’ve missed a couple weeks up there, but a lot of it has been bad timing on our end where we’ve got something going on, or weather or our class isn’t running,” North said. “There’s times it feels like we haven’t raced forever.”

Which is not to say North hasn’t made the weekly trek to Aberdeen. Even without his own seat, North helps Bryson with his car, pitting and spotting for the soon-to-be-sophomore.

“It’s rewarding on both ends,” the elder North said. “It stings a little bit that I can’t be out competing every week, but I’ve raced enough to know stuff like this is going to happen.”

North is essentially a first-generation racer, even though his dad and grandfather were both fans of the sport. North’s father raced briefly, but got rid of the car when North was young.

Still, that love of racing found North.

“When I was 14 or 15, old enough to get in the pits, I pitted for Randy Schilling,” he said. “I went to school in Mitchell and started helping Darryl Green. Darryl was getting out of it and asked me if I wanted in it.”

Of course, North said yes, then moved back to Huron with the car after school and began a two decades long career. 

When Bryson turned 14, he started driving his dad’s spare car, and the two have knocked bumpers, exchanged words, and cheered each other on ever since.

“Now that I can share that experience (with him) at an early age, it’s also rewarding,” North said. “The first couple nights you sit in the pits and watch your kid race when you can’t, it’s a little nerve wracking. But after a couple nights of that, it calmed down.”

The entire racing world at Brown County Speedway has a couple weeks off for the annual Brown County Fair, but will return to action in late August.

There is one title that North can defend, however, with the Big Buck Nationals coming on the final weekend in August. And after all the fits and starts this season has handed him, North will be gunning for that one.