Editors note: This is the first of a two-part series exploring the life of a driver on the dirt track circuit. The first part explores Jason Gabrielson’s start and early part of the season. The second will explore the season itself and what takes place after the season.

At the beginning of the season, Jason Gabrielson knew this would be his last year of racing. Priorities had shifted in his life and racing was no longer at its core.

Simply put: His heart was no longer in it.

But Gabrielson was planning to go out on his own terms, not the terms handed him by track fortune. A couple weeks ago, Gabrielson was involved in a big wreck at Chateau Raceway. The car was totalled and quite suddenly Gabrielson’s decision to end after the season was forced to the forefront.

It was time to call it quits.

“I’m fine with it,” Gabrielson said. “The day after it happened though it was like a death in the family.”

Through his career, from his time as a Street Stock driver through a stint in the modifieds and finally WISSOTA Super Stocks, Gabrielson had seen success, which perhaps made this season more difficult to handle when it was finally put before him.

“The highs are the best in the world, but the lows are the lowest,” he said.

Quite frankly, the season was not a good one for Gabrielson. Problems with the car plagued him throughout and when the car ran well, it was luck — or lack of it — that decided his nights.

After seasons of multiple feature wins, Gabrielson had only one this year.

“It was bad luck that snowballed,” Gabrielson explained. “When you win it makes you work harder, but when you lose you don’t put in the work you should. Our hearts weren’t in it.

“I just kind of hate going out like that,” he said.

But Gabrielson, his pit man, Matt Grobe, and his family have been quick to move on, realizing their decision at the beginning of the year was the right one.

All those things that were put on hold because of racing now could get the attention of both men.

“We built a deck at (Matt’s) house and we wouldn’t have been able to do that before,” Gabrielson said as an example.

Still, Gabrielson looks back and remembers everything racing gave to him. It gave him a rich environment found few other places in the sporting world. A place that gave him the competition he and drivers everywhere crave.

“It’s the competition of it,” Gabrielson said. “I’m extremely competitive and that, honestly, is the only thing I miss.”

In a sport of racing, the experience is as important as the race and the atmosphere of the pits provides an experience that sticks with you.

“It taught me a lot about respect, a commitment to do the same thing week in and out,” he said. “You learn a lot just by hanging around.

“It kept me out of trouble,” he explained. “I always knew if I screwed up the car was gone.”

One thing that stuck with Gabrielson was responsibility, something his parents gave him early on. The thought was, if he was old enough to race then he was old enough to handle his own track issues.

“My room had to be clean before I could go to the races on Friday night,” Gabrielson said with a laugh, remembering back to days when he was a high school student and driver.

It was during those early years that Gabrielson learned one of his most important lessons.

Often times, Gabrielson described his own driving as chaotic and without much regard past the gas pedal. That changed one night when three of the older drivers made a stop at his pit area.

Of those three drivers, Darrin Toot, current track owner with his brother-in-law, Jerry Nelson, of Chateau Raceway, and Mark Zvorak were in a points race at the time.

“I thought I was better than I really was,” Gabrielson said, thinking back. “They sat me down in a decent way and told me to just calm down.”

During their talk, they explained that in time success will come, but what nobody on the track needed was a wild card.

“I didn’t take it real well,” Gabrielson said. “But during the ride home it made sense. I understood what they were doing.”

For now, Gabrielson is done, though he has had offers to drive other cars later in the year, but he’s unsure if he will take them up on those offers.

Right now he’s sitting back and remembering racing for what it was-a great experience.

“You meet so many friends,” Gabrielson said. “You don’t see them in the winter, but you seem them in the summer, and you’re still good friends.”

“The satisfaction of knowing what you did worked, the satisfaction in accomplishment.”