COLUMBIA — Cory Basinger is a figure-eight racer from Hartsburg who has been racing for 12 years. Last year, he won first place in figure-eight racing at the Boone County Fair.
Currently, Basinger has five or six cars in rotation, which he uses, “depends on which one starts up and runs,” Basinger said. He and his two friends, Brandon Rice and Brian Nickles, spend most of their summer and part of the winter working on cars.
In addition to figure-eight racing Basinger participates in the compact derby, where, as he puts it, “you just smash em up.” Basinger prefers figure-eight racing, where he says you are trying to save you car, not destroy it, though he said, “at the end of the night if that’s what it takes to win then we will.”