Dan Binks Is Loving Life After Corvette Racing

More than any other name or face, Dan Binks was the living embodiment of Corvette Racing. Its legendary crew chief, a barrel of a man, presided over the cars and mechanics for the factory sports car team for nearly 20 years until retiring in May of 2020.

Altogether, the Californian spent 38 seasons before bidding farewell to the intensive life of 18-hour work days and constant travel. And in typical Binks fashion, the joys of ample rest and sitting idle lasted a few weeks before trailers started arriving at his home shop in Michigan. Corvettes he’d built during that span–ones that raced and won on the biggest stages, now in the hands of private owners–began lining up to have Binks freshen their engines and perform restorations.

So much for sipping adult beverages on the lawn and slowing down.

“My wife said, ‘You can't even quit right!’” a laughing Binks said.

Having dedicated the majority of his life to road racing, Binks is indulging in something radically different these days. Going in circles is about as far away as he can get from firing Corvettes out onto Sebring’s infamous road course for 12 hours, and that’s bringing a huge smile to his face.

You won’t find Binks Motorsports listed as an entrant in late January at IMSA’s Rolex 24 At Daytona, but if you look towards Oklahoma at the start of January, his cars, drivers, and engines will be making plenty of noise at the Chili Bowl, one of America’s last great gatherings for midget sprint cars.

Take all those decades of winning IMSA GTU races with a Mazda RX-7, the numerous Trans Am titles with Tommy Kendall in flame-spitting Ford Mustangs, and the aforementioned global domination with thunderous Corvettes, and all Binks wants to do now is watch Kody Swanson and Darin Naida chuck his little buzzbombs sideways at the indoor oval in Tulsa.

“When I was a little kid, I liked midgets; my dad would take me to see them race at Ascot Park,” Binks said. “And I always wanted to race a midget, and never did because I went pro racing and all that, and now that I'm ‘retired,’ I was like, 'Hey, ‘I'm gonna do this.’ And I built my own midget engine last year for the Chili Bowl and the engine did great. I also built a sprint car engine for Kody Swanson and he promptly won the championship with it.