Deep Love and Passion for Racing

Our family's love of racing goes back as far of any one of us can remember.  My parents and their friends owned and ran a dirt stock, they affectionately named the "Purple People Eater", before I was even old enough to remember. My dad always loved racing, and for most of his life was involved in it in some form or another. He drove the car hauler, and before pit crew jobs became highly specialized, worked as the fuel man on race day.

He worked in all forms of racing from Indy Car, where he was a member of the Provimi Veal team with cars piloted by Arie Luyendyk and Derek Daly, to IMSA as a member of Hendrik Motorsports GTP Corvette team, and NHRA with Canaska Motorsports. 

My earliest childhood memories are of being at the track with my dad. I'll never forget a trip to Laguna Seca when I was 7 or 8 years old. I was racing BMX bikes back then and had the opportunity to ride my bike around the track. On that same trip Derek Daly took me for a ride in a rental car and I got to sit in and steer some of the driving school cars as they put them away for the day. I appreciate those memories now more than ever. 

When my own son, Zachary, turned 5 years old we decided to go racing. My wife

and I had been at a boat show a few years earlier at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. It was there that we discovered quarter midget racing and the Mini Indy Speedway. I knew then that as soon as he was old enough we were going to hit the track. I purchased this old Nervo when the time came and we headed off to our very first race at the Columbus, OH Indoor Winter Nationals. We were immediately hooked and spent the next several years racing quarter midgets all over the midwest. We also started a thriving quarter midget parts and safety equipment company during this time. We had so much fun and met so many great people, several with whom we are best of friends to this day. That's one of the best parts of racing...the friendships.  

Zachary was quite an accomplished runner and came to me his 8th grade year to ask if I would care if he focused on running. When we first started racing I had the pleasure of meeting Tim Clauson, whose son Bryan had graduated a few years prior to Zachary geeting started. Tim told me at that time (paraphrase); "he's doing this for you", speaking of Zachary, "he'll follow you anywhere at this age. If you want him to race, he'll race. If you want to take him fishing, he'll fish. At some point he has to fall in love with it and you have to do it for him, not you". Those words stuck with me, so when Zachary asked, "do you care if I focus on running", I immediately responded with, "of course not". That decision eventually earned him a running scholarship.

Fast forward to a couple of years ago and we found ourselves back at the track. This time in big cars...on road courses. This time we are both driving and having the time of our lives. We have been mostly doing HPDE in our 2011 Mustang Boss 302R Tribute, but we look forward to doing some time trails and endurance racing in the '24 season. Being back at the track has been amazing. It is so familiar, so comfortable, and I love reminiscing about the old days while building many new memories.