You’ll have to excuse Mike Martin if he’s a little on edge this  week.

That’s because for the first time since he left Yuma in 1999, he’s  going to be performing in front of his hometown crowd, and he doesn’t want to  disappoint. So, he’s a little nervous.

Martin will be one of the drivers  entered in this weekend’s Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by  MavTV, Canyon Region event for non-winged sprint cars at Cocopah  Speedway.

“It’s exciting. It’s nervousing,” said Martin this week as he  talked about doing what he loves to do best on what was once his home  track.

“People don’t realize and understand, I could go out and run my  butt off and run fifth, but they see you run fifth. They don’t maybe understand  the caliber of what you’re up against or who you’re racing with. So for me to do  well, to perform well, is pretty important.”

Martin actually raced at  Cocopah Speedway earlier this year when he put together a last-minute entry for  the ASCS National Tour event for winged sprint cars in March. It was so hastily  arranged that he had to borrow a wing from another driver at the  track.

Therefore, he doesn’t consider that effort an official, first-time  appearance.

And for good reason. Since 1999 he’s been pursuing his dream  of driving sprint cars – non-winged sprint cars. But never in all those years  has he had the chance to show what he can do with one of these cars at home. His  career has seen him race in countless events in Phoenix and Tucson, and as far  away as the Los Angeles area, Las Vegas, New Mexico and Texas.

To date,  Martin has six non-wing feature event wins to his credit. He’d like to add No. 7  to the list Saturday night.

“We’ve had a couple of good runs here lately,  and going into this weekend I feel good because we had a good run last weekend,  just as far as knowing we’re fast.”

In the Canyon Region event last  weekend at Canyon Speedway Park, Martin ran 11th in the 20-car feature event  after starting sixth and being sent to the back for stopping to avoid a car that  had spun.

In the 2012 season opener, he ran seventh.

Martin cut  his racing teeth at Cocopah Speedway, back when the track was known as Yuma  Speedway. Having just turned 20, he brought out a Street Stock for the 1996  season, but the car broke after two events and Martin said he didn’t have the  money to fix it.

This was after he had helped his friend’s father, Stan  Simala, win the Street Stock title in 1994. In 1997 Martin chose to help  Simala’s son Brett Simala win the Street Stock title, and in 1998 Martin bought  Simala’s car and went back to driving.

Although he was winning that  season, he said he wasn’t having any fun. Besides, Brett Simala and another  friend, Kent Rosevear, had chosen to go sprint car racing, and Martin wanted to  do the same.

So, before the 1998 season was over, he sold his car. He  also sold a boat and a truck to put together $20,000 to buy a sprint car and one  motor. He also financed a new truck and a trailer.

“Kent was doing it.  Brett was doing it. And I wanted to do this,” said Martin. “I wanted to go  sprint car racing. I didn’t care. I was going racing.”

In retrospect,  however, Martin said the way he did it was a huge mistake.

“Being from  Yuma there were no resources, there was nobody to talk to, to show me what I was  doing, if I was doing something wrong or not right. So for the first six nights,  I drove a car that the motor was 90 degrees out of timing.

“And then once  that got fixed, the steering gear wasn’t right in it, but you don’t know this,  because you don’t know how it’s supposed to feel.

“So I beat myself up  for three years trying to learn all of this stuff on my own.”

In the  meantime, Simala and Rosevear both gave up racing sprint cars.

Now, 13  years and thousands of laps later, Martin finally feels he’s  arrived.

“Now I’m there. I have the equipment, I have the experience. Now  I’m finally where I feel I need to be. It would have been nice to be there five  years ago.”