Latest / Top Row Racing Media Monday Night Rewind / Monday Night Rewind | Episode 7 | Tabitha DeWitt | New Paris Speedway Owners Chris & Tracy | Wil Wiggins II

Transcript

Monday Night Rewind | Episode 7 | Tabitha DeWitt | New Paris Speedway Owners Chris & Tracy | Wil Wiggins II · Top Row Racing Media Monday Night Rewind

• 0:58
  Good evening, fellas. Good.
• 1:00
  Evening. How are you doing?
• 1:02
  I'm doing well yourself and Mr. Buju.
• 1:05
  Not too bad. Beautiful day.
• 1:08
  Yeah, and it's supposed to be, other than storms, supposed to
• 1:11
  be even a little bit nicer tomorrow before it kind of
• 1:13
  crashes a little bit and then comes back.
• 1:15
  So again, definitely you haven't enjoyed the weather yet.
• 1:18
  Head on out. And not too soon.
• 1:21
  We got our Monday nights Rewind live tonight.
• 1:23
  So real quick, before we get too far in, I do want to do the
• 1:27
  lineup for people who are joining.
• 1:29
  So we have a stacked one. Will Wiggins from the Ohio Women
• 1:33
  series. the Super stocks are coming to M40 Speedway on April
• 1:36
  11th, so he'll be on tonight to talk about that.
• 1:39
  He might even talk a little bit about his compact things and in
• 1:43
  the juice boxes that will be coming to Russell's also on
• 1:47
  April 11th, not the compacts. We'll have juice show with the
• 1:51
  compacts there. And then in just a few minutes,
• 1:54
  we'll have Tabitha DeWitt joining us from the Angry
• 1:57
  Unicorn. She was at the Southbound Auto
• 1:59
  Show over the weekend. So excited to have her on and
• 2:02
  talk a little bit about the the night of destruction and how she
• 2:05
  got into all that stuff. And then after her at 7:30,
• 2:09
  we'll have owners of the new Paris Speedway, Chris and Tracy,
• 2:12
  and they'll be talking with us. So again, guys, we have the the
• 2:16
  show keeps getting more and more stacked each week and and
• 2:19
  tonight we have three official guests.
• 2:22
  So kind of like an expansion in the way we started with two And
• 2:25
  and last week we had a lot of good feedback for Matt Kemp, you
• 2:30
  know, on and then from the South Bend auto show, big perm.
• 2:32
  So I know that was definitely a huge hit.
• 2:35
  So, but with that, I know Drew and Buju, you both were at the
• 2:40
  South Bend Auto Show. So Buju, I you were there
• 2:43
  Saturday. So, you know, what'd you think
• 2:45
  as you went through? I do that always such a great
• 2:48
  turn out, especially for the race car section, but a great
• 2:51
  turn out overall for the auto show.
• 2:53
  I think we were there 4 hours just chatting and looking
• 2:57
  through the swap meet that that turn out has really grown over
• 3:00
  the years. Luckily I left my cash at home
• 3:03
  so. Hard PayPal and you must not
• 3:09
  have watched my all my lives to see that so you could have still
• 3:14
  they that hot wheel table was cleaned out from when they when
• 3:18
  they were first setting up and everything.
• 3:20
  So Ron Burrage must have been there first, right?
• 3:23
  No, no he did not. They got slammed almost right
• 3:28
  away that a lot of people went down there for the Hot Wheels
• 3:32
  and some of the die casts. I I was waiting for someone to
• 3:35
  buy one of the gas pumps, quite frankly.
• 3:37
  And no, I don't think they sold the gas pumps, but they're
• 3:40
  pretty cool and they did light up.
• 3:41
  It's just, you know, each time I was down there, they weren't
• 3:43
  plugged in. And so it's like, you know, I
• 3:45
  think they could have sold had they been plugged in.
• 3:48
  I think that was something, but I don't know how much power they
• 3:51
  had down there, if at all in that room.
• 3:53
  And I mean, I'm sure there's something in there, but maybe
• 3:56
  extension cord and everything. They couldn't make it happen.
• 3:58
  But I think if they were lit up and people saw that they were
• 4:00
  functioning and worked, they might have, Roxava might have
• 4:03
  been able to, you know, unload those 3 instead of taking them
• 4:06
  back home. Kept telling people help them.
• 4:08
  They don't. We unpacked our stuff from
• 4:10
  Kalamazoo. I didn't want to take back all
• 4:12
  these checkered flags and everything.
• 4:14
  So yes, these are all hey please.
• 4:17
  Yeah, those gas pumps were were very cool.
• 4:19
  I just a little out of my price range personally.
• 4:23
  Nothing. Everything's got a price.
• 4:25
  Would you? Everything's got a price.
• 4:26
  If you like it, you're going to get it.
• 4:28
  That's. Just an excuse, Drew.
• 4:31
  You were there. I could give a tour right now on
• 4:34
  my sports memorabilia sitting in my.
• 4:36
  Office. My basement's pretty nasty too.
• 4:41
  So, Drew, what'd you think of the auto show?
• 4:42
  I know you were there just for a little bit yesterday, but what'd
• 4:45
  you think? Well, I I will tell you, I
• 4:47
  didn't venture away from M 40s booth or Kalamazoos booth, but I
• 4:51
  will tell you the interactions that I had with the people that
• 4:53
  were there. All different types of people
• 4:57
  from Motorsports to different car genera people to people that
• 5:02
  were just there 'cause it was an event to do from old young being
• 5:06
  pushed in a Walker or a wheelchair.
• 5:09
  It was a really cool event and getting a chance for a couple
• 5:12
  hours. I wish I was able to be there on
• 5:14
  Saturday, had a lot of great conversations, promoted a lot of
• 5:17
  race tracks while I was able to do that and hopefully made some
• 5:21
  new fans for Kalamazoo Speedway, made some new fans for Russell's
• 5:25
  M40 Speedway and let everybody know that there's a South Bend
• 5:28
  Motor Speedway and a Plymouth Motor Speedway right down the
• 5:30
  road. I mean, new pair of speedways
• 5:33
  out as well. It was a great combination.
• 5:35
  When you left me and Tabby there decided to team up and just have
• 5:40
  a lot of fun. Hey, you want to sign a race
• 5:42
  car? Got rid of a lot of your
• 5:43
  checkered flags for you. So it it was just a lot of fun.
• 5:48
  There wasn't 1 angry person that came through, so that's a nice
• 5:51
  thing. So you usually go to places and
• 5:55
  not everybody's happy. Everybody was happy to be there
• 5:58
  and it was a good time. Oh yeah, and on Saturday we got
• 6:01
  slammed pretty much starting about 10/30, 10:45, which is
• 6:05
  about 30 minutes earlier than normal, but like slam slam and
• 6:09
  it would and it was consistent all the way until about 3:30.
• 6:13
  Then we had a little bit of a low.
• 6:14
  But when I was going through talking with a lot of different
• 6:16
  vendors and different people, we all noticed the same thing.
• 6:20
  Just the the consistency where in the past, even talking with
• 6:23
  my guy from the auto show, he works at the radio stations and
• 6:27
  he said it was sometimes it's like spiky, but he said this
• 6:30
  year is just very consistent, just steady stream over and over
• 6:33
  and over. So weather certainly helped.
• 6:35
  It wasn't too cold on Saturday, that's for sure.
• 6:38
  That certainly helps. It wasn't raining, wasn't
• 6:40
  snowing, wasn't doing any of that.
• 6:42
  And then on Sunday, I mean, you couldn't ask for your an even
• 6:45
  nicer day. I mean, obviously day like
• 6:47
  today's, you know, a little warmer, a little all that stuff,
• 6:49
  but you know, still 60s at the end of March, you know, you
• 6:53
  know, considering how March came in, like it could have been a
• 6:56
  lot of different things and how it went out last year, we were
• 6:59
  putting up and, and just around the corner got torn up with all
• 7:03
  the straight line winds and everything.
• 7:05
  We were leaving through a disaster zone, you know, last
• 7:08
  year, so. You know, the, the one thing
• 7:10
  that I did learn was the sometimes being a a big crowd is
• 7:14
  a great thing for the venue, but having a little bit slower crowd
• 7:18
  and a little bit more one-on-one time with people, you know, I
• 7:22
  got an opportunity. Tabitha actually introduced me
• 7:25
  to a a mom and a young 1415 year old kid asking how they could
• 7:30
  get into racing. Well, I was able to connect them
• 7:33
  with the Russell's who were able to connect them with the high
• 7:35
  school racing association. And we probably wouldn't have
• 7:38
  got that opportunity if it was 330 on a Friday and everybody
• 7:41
  was just a Saturday rolling through there.
• 7:44
  So and that it just that's that's what I liked about it
• 7:48
  yesterday. I think, you know, being a
• 7:50
  little bit slower and being able to have a conversation with
• 7:52
  people made it a lot more worth it.
• 7:54
  You get your dollars values worth it compared to just
• 7:57
  handing out schedules. Yep, absolutely.
• 8:00
  And and I know Tabitha, we're going to bring bring her on
• 8:03
  shortly. I mean, she did an incredible
• 8:05
  job. There's a little boy who came in
• 8:08
  one time and you have all these thousands of dollars worth of
• 8:10
  race cars right in front of him and he popped in and said that's
• 8:13
  the real race car. And then he was pointing at
• 8:15
  Tabitha's car, right. So, so again, I think it's one
• 8:19
  of those that was a nice reminder that sometimes we
• 8:21
  forget in the racing industry, especially in short track
• 8:24
  racing, that I know for like weekly racers and people who
• 8:27
  like short track racing and turning left and, and Hoosier
• 8:30
  tires and all those things that, you know, they'd probably
• 8:33
  dislike the night of destruction.
• 8:34
  It tears up the track. It does all these things.
• 8:37
  But then, you know, you have a kid here who's like, that's the
• 8:40
  real race car. And so he sometimes think we
• 8:42
  need to remember that, you know, the the kids are the future of
• 8:45
  this, right? And, and, and it's what does the
• 8:48
  kid see? You know he literally walked by
• 8:50
  light models and St. stocks that are, you know, worth.
• 8:54
  At A at a race, at a race track. It's about entertainment now.
• 9:00
  That's the entertainment that keeps the race car drivers turn
• 9:04
  in circles. There'll be a lot of race tracks
• 9:06
  that weren't race tracks Before you bring Tabitha on, let's get
• 9:11
  click like and share this. Get it out there, put it out in
• 9:13
  your news feeds. Tag your friends for us to get
• 9:16
  the show more viral and moving. If you get it in your news feeds
• 9:19
  by sharing it, coming in in it so it shows up in your timelines
• 9:23
  and even like the the the Post either on national compacts or
• 9:28
  top row racing media, it'll help us out tremendously.
• 9:31
  Oh, yeah, and, and and that's, you know, and it, and it gets
• 9:34
  everyone that exposure to, you know, I'm here like Tabitha, how
• 9:37
  many people may or may not know her, right.
• 9:39
  If they don't go to new pairs too often, they may not know
• 9:42
  her. Or with Chris and Tracy, you
• 9:44
  know, there's, it's still always funny, you know, you hear
• 9:48
  people, oh, those trade checks, race checks still exist, you
• 9:51
  know, Yeah, Hartford's still open.
• 9:53
  Yes, Kalamazoo's still there. Or yes, Kalamazoo has a
• 9:56
  racetrack, right? You know, you just run into so
• 9:58
  many people who've been here for years and.
• 10:00
  There. Will be absolutely no comments
• 10:02
  on that by the way. But if we're ready, you know,
• 10:07
  Speaking of no comments, sometimes with those night of
• 10:10
  destructions, right, you just don't know the chaos that will
• 10:13
  happen. So sometimes the comments
• 10:14
  section might have a little chaos.
• 10:15
  So if you're all ready, we can bring on someone who helps
• 10:19
  deliver the chaos at the new Paris Speedway.
• 10:22
  And this year sounds like the other tracks with the with the
• 10:26
  between a new car and a car that they're semi retiring.
• 10:29
  So are you guys ready? Yes, Sir.
• 10:33
  All right, so again, everybody welcome the angry Unicorn from
• 10:38
  the new Paris Speedway. We have Tabitha DeWitt.
• 10:41
  Tabitha, welcome to the Monday Night Rewind.
• 10:43
  Thank you for having me. Oh, no, that I mean that again,
• 10:47
  just sitting next to you on Saturday and Sunday watching you
• 10:51
  do your thing and interacting with adults and and and kids.
• 10:55
  That was really exciting. And so I heard you tell your
• 10:58
  story a few times. And so for people who are
• 11:01
  watching this, who may not know who Tabitha DeWitt is or even
• 11:05
  how the Angry Unicorn came to be, why don't you give us a
• 11:08
  little bit of your background and how you got into racing,
• 11:11
  what you'd like about it, and then, of course, how the Angry
• 11:15
  Unicorn was born. Yeah, of course.
• 11:17
  So I was very fortunate in that I kind of grew up in a somewhat
• 11:22
  race family and a mechanic family.
• 11:24
  And so we were always in the cars and this and that.
• 11:28
  My grandfather actually raced at New Paris back in the 60s and
• 11:32
  then my stepdad ran a New Paris in the 90s.
• 11:35
  And so I remember as a teenager spending hours upon hours upon
• 11:39
  hours in the track pit, you know, down in the pits and in
• 11:43
  the grandstands and just washing all the cars.
• 11:45
  And, and it was something that I always loved, but I wasn't
• 11:48
  really sure quite how to get into it.
• 11:52
  So it was actually kind of funny.
• 11:54
  New Year's Day up at M402020, they ran a New Year's Day race.
• 11:59
  And can't remember what the name of it was, but it was something
• 12:01
  catchy and it was something fun. And we thought, you know, why
• 12:03
  not, Let's go check it out. So my cousin actually had a car
• 12:07
  up there and they said, well, let's do a ladies race.
• 12:10
  Don't know how many women are here, but let's throw it out.
• 12:12
  Let's see if any of the ladies want to race.
• 12:14
  And he said, hey, do you want to hop in the car?
• 12:16
  I thought, well, you know me, anything with wheels, I'll drive
• 12:19
  it. So I said you got a helmet.
• 12:23
  So yeah, I, I went out for that. Just a short, I think it was a 5
• 12:26
  or an 8 lap race. You know, snow all over the
• 12:30
  track, 4 foot snow banks in the corners.
• 12:32
  Absolute madness. And I fell in love.
• 12:34
  I was hooked from from the moment I got out of that car.
• 12:39
  So you talked a little bit. I got to know you a little bit
• 12:41
  on Sunday. You your first event was at M40
• 12:46
  Speedway, You're from New Paris, that's your home track.
• 12:48
  But didn't you have some family members that raced at M40 prior
• 12:52
  to that? No, no, pretty much everybody
• 12:54
  raced at New Paris when I was younger, but we've always cycled
• 12:57
  around. I know my dad, my stepdad, when
• 12:59
  he was racing, he did like to go to some of the other tracks and
• 13:02
  frequent them as well. So with the Night of destruction
• 13:08
  that it's, it's people say, well, it's not race, absolutely
• 13:12
  it's racing. It's a combination of skill to
• 13:15
  survive, being able to navigate around certain obstacles on the
• 13:19
  track. What's the most exciting Night
• 13:21
  of Destruction event you've ever raced in race?
• 13:25
  You know, I think out of all the events that I've ever ran, the
• 13:30
  Lights Out race is by far my favorite event.
• 13:34
  It's it's if you've never been to a night of destruction, you
• 13:37
  don't know what Lights Out is. They turn out all the lights in
• 13:41
  the stadium, in the track, everything gets turned off.
• 13:44
  The only visibility that you have is whatever headlight or
• 13:46
  whatever kind of light you put up on your car.
• 13:49
  My first year out there, I was kind of broke, just starting
• 13:53
  out, didn't know what to do. So we actually took an old truck
• 13:56
  headlight like off an F-150 and I wire tied it to the top of my
• 14:00
  car and that was the light that we ran for lights out that first
• 14:03
  year. But yeah, it's it's a lot of
• 14:07
  fun. We've upgraded now we have some
• 14:09
  fun light bars and we even have a black light so that our
• 14:12
  Unicorn glows during that race and we we have a lot of fun with
• 14:16
  it. Well, and do you want to talk a
• 14:18
  little bit about like even new Paris, right.
• 14:22
  And and you know, they're a track that has seven, you know,
• 14:25
  6-7, sometimes eight night of destructions a year.
• 14:28
  And it's like once a month they have something going on for that
• 14:32
  group and they have a season championship where you guys, you
• 14:35
  know, you get trophies for different things.
• 14:36
  They do collect points and where you get honored, you know, that
• 14:40
  kind of deal. So do you want to give a little
• 14:41
  bit about the night of what a night of destruction might look
• 14:44
  like at New Paris, where obviously you talk about lights
• 14:47
  out, but even in the GI Jane race, right, you the all the
• 14:51
  ladies are out there and they're hitting each other.
• 14:53
  So they're not it's not like, Oh, you can't touch this, right?
• 14:56
  No, no, you, you can't put them in the wall aggressively, but
• 15:00
  move them out of your way if you need to.
• 15:01
  So if you want to give a little bit of that background.
• 15:04
  Yeah, so I mean, Night of Destruction is just that.
• 15:08
  It is full chaos, full mayhem. I mean, even in the clip that
• 15:12
  you showed before, there's rollovers, there's fires,
• 15:15
  there's there's just absolute craziness.
• 15:17
  But New Paris really has something special with their
• 15:21
  Night of Destruction event. You know, you can go to a lot of
• 15:24
  other tracks and Night of Destruction is fun, but New
• 15:26
  Paris has a really amazing community.
• 15:30
  You know, we can go out on the track and we can beat the tar
• 15:32
  out of each other and actually trash each other's cars.
• 15:34
  And we walk back into the pits and we shake each other's hand
• 15:36
  and say, man, that was fun. You know, you've got the
• 15:42
  spectator race is the very beginning.
• 15:43
  So if you want to come out and you're not really ready to jump
• 15:47
  into a race car yet, but you want to just play with the track
• 15:50
  and see what it looks like. You know, you've got your
• 15:52
  spectator race, you've got a Figure 8, one-on-one.
• 15:55
  So kind of that head to I know sometimes it's really funny to
• 15:58
  get different groups of people in the pit where they kind of
• 16:01
  bet against each other and say, I, you know, who can, who can be
• 16:04
  the fastest out of the two of us.
• 16:06
  And so that's always fun. You know, the ladies races, it's
• 16:10
  nice for some women who are jumping into it, you know, maybe
• 16:14
  their husband races and they're like, I kind of want to play
• 16:16
  around a little bit, but I'm not sure that I want to go in all
• 16:19
  the way yet. So the GI Jan race is really
• 16:22
  nice for women who are kind of jumping in and getting started.
• 16:25
  But then for those of us that, you know, we just love the sport
• 16:28
  too. It's it's great for us to get
• 16:29
  out there and stretch our feet a little bit before we dive into
• 16:32
  the big and boroughs and things like that.
• 16:34
  So Buju's been quiet over there, Buju.
• 16:37
  So don't feel afraid to jump in. Do you got any questions for
• 16:40
  Tabitha? No Night of Destruction is very
• 16:43
  much out of my realm so I'm just enjoying listening so far.
• 16:46
  Drew kind of stole my question. With your favorite event to run
• 16:49
  in a night of destruction, have you run much outside of New
• 16:53
  Paris? I I know that's your home base,
• 16:55
  but have you run much night of destruction stuff outside of New
• 16:58
  Paris? I have.
• 17:00
  So as I said, we started in 2020.
• 17:03
  M 40 was kind of where I started at.
• 17:05
  And then of course, New Paris is close to us.
• 17:08
  So we do like to go up to M40 and check them out every now and
• 17:10
  then. We're definitely looking forward
• 17:11
  to getting up from some of their events this year.
• 17:14
  I'm really looking forward this year to hitting Hartford.
• 17:17
  We wanted to in the last couple years and our schedules just
• 17:19
  didn't allow it. So we're really hoping to get up
• 17:21
  there and check out one of their events.
• 17:23
  One or two of their events. I've raced Plymouth actually
• 17:26
  back before Plymouth went to asphalt, I raced when it was
• 17:29
  still dirt down there. But Reese, let's see, South
• 17:33
  Bend, I've been to Kalamazoo, so I've I've kind of been to most
• 17:36
  of the local track. So you had some really cool
• 17:42
  things at the car show 1 was having the youngsters and old
• 17:47
  people sign your car. It wasn't all young people
• 17:49
  either. I saw a couple adults that were
• 17:51
  asked. And also you had a schedule
• 17:54
  there and you had all of the night of destructions in the
• 17:57
  area on that schedule as well to talk about how important it is
• 18:02
  to you. And I kind of had this
• 18:04
  conversation a little bit to make sure that there's people in
• 18:07
  the stands at every track, no matter where it's at.
• 18:10
  And I think you did a good job with that at the car show.
• 18:14
  Yeah, I appreciate that. You know it.
• 18:16
  Of course, New Paris will always be home to me, regardless of
• 18:19
  where the track is, what state the track is, that track will
• 18:22
  always be home to me just because of my family history and
• 18:24
  and because I just love that track.
• 18:26
  But you know, at the end of the day, we're all here for our
• 18:30
  sport. We're all here to keep race
• 18:32
  tracks open. And in order to do that, like
• 18:34
  you said, we got to get seats and you know, butts and the
• 18:36
  seats, Then the best way to do that is to support each other.
• 18:40
  And I did have a schedule that I put together just for those
• 18:43
  Night of destruction events. And it showcased every one of
• 18:47
  the local tracks. Because at the end of the day,
• 18:49
  if it's if you're not coming to New Paris to see me, let's see
• 18:52
  you go to, you know, M40 or let's see you go up to Hartford
• 18:55
  and maybe experience something a little different.
• 18:57
  So it is very important to me. I do spend a lot of time doing
• 19:02
  outreach events. I do a lot of local parades.
• 19:06
  We do touch a truck event. So there's just a lot that we
• 19:09
  try and really do for the for the track and for the racing
• 19:12
  community as a whole. That's awesome.
• 19:16
  But when you think about like with New Paris night of
• 19:19
  destruction, one thing that they also do that I know Russell's
• 19:22
  M40 Speedway plans to do this year with their rectobers.
• 19:25
  Not rectobers, that's New Paris Day of reckoning.
• 19:29
  There's just a lot of wrecks going on, by the way.
• 19:31
  Just wreck, wreck. Everything's wrecked, right?
• 19:33
  But with their day of reckoning, they want to have some
• 19:35
  autographed nights. And I know at New Paris that's
• 19:37
  something that they have been doing, you know, with these
• 19:40
  night of destructions, just the autographs night.
• 19:42
  So what does that mean to you guys as night of destruction
• 19:45
  competitors? Because some do switch over, you
• 19:48
  know, you have Spencer Wardinger, you know, he'll race
• 19:51
  a front wheel drive or jump into something else and then he comes
• 19:54
  out and he's racing trailer races and enduros and that sort
• 19:57
  of deal. So you know, he's a weekly racer
• 19:59
  who pops on over. I know Aaron Hafner with a new
• 20:02
  pair of sharks. He's jumped into a Hornet
• 20:04
  before. And so that's something that,
• 20:07
  you know, sometimes those weekly racers come to lid off steam at
• 20:10
  a night of destruction 'cause they can crash a car there and
• 20:12
  it's not going to cost them thousands of dollars to fix.
• 20:14
  But with that, you know, a lot of times race tracks do
• 20:17
  autographed nights. For their weekly racing programs
• 20:21
  and that started to connect drivers and fans.
• 20:23
  But at New Paris, again, it's almost like a a not a weekly
• 20:26
  program, but a monthly program with some autographed nights.
• 20:29
  So what does that mean to you guys?
• 20:30
  Have the autographed nights and a chance to connect with a lot
• 20:33
  of your fans, which again, I know you do so well with with
• 20:36
  the Angry Unicorn. It's really neat because for as
• 20:41
  a driver, you know, we tell people this is autograph night.
• 20:44
  You know, you can come down, you can meet your favorite drivers,
• 20:46
  you can get their autographs. For me personally, I want their
• 20:50
  autograph because the fans are the reason why I'm there.
• 20:54
  You know, when a little kid comes up to me and tells me a
• 20:56
  story of I, I think the most touching one that I've had yet
• 20:59
  was a young boy who he asked, he said, can I put my cousin's name
• 21:03
  on your car? And I said, of course, honey,
• 21:05
  you know, whatever, whatever you want to put on there, go ahead.
• 21:08
  And his mom came up and she said, did he explain to you why
• 21:11
  he wanted his cousin's name? And I said, no.
• 21:14
  She said the reason he wanted that is because his cousin is no
• 21:17
  longer with us. And he was a very large fan of
• 21:20
  the track and of the sport. And he wanted his cousin to be
• 21:24
  able to live on on the track, you know, And that for me, that
• 21:28
  that just warmed my heart and just truly touched my soul that,
• 21:31
  you know, they have so much confidence in US and they have
• 21:34
  so much faith in US that they want us to carry on their
• 21:37
  stories and their families. And, and so for me, I love
• 21:40
  hearing those stories. I love having their names on my
• 21:42
  car. I think right now we probably
• 21:44
  have about 400 names scattered across the car.
• 21:48
  And it, it's a blessing to me because again, that's, that's
• 21:52
  why we're out there. That's why we do what we do.
• 21:55
  Doesn't matter if we're turning circles on a Friday or Saturday
• 21:59
  night or destroying things. It's an entertainment business
• 22:03
  from the time you enter the gate and the time you leave.
• 22:09
  Talk about some of the most interactions.
• 22:13
  You know, you talked about the young 15 year old.
• 22:15
  Let's talk about some of the adults, 'cause we saw the adults
• 22:18
  at the car show that we're signing your car.
• 22:22
  I mean, that's important too. We, we, we always sometimes
• 22:25
  focus on the kids, but we need those adults to bring the kids.
• 22:28
  Talk about some of your interactions with the adults and
• 22:31
  trying to get them out to a night of destruction or a
• 22:34
  regular night of racing. Do you struggle with that
• 22:37
  conversation or are they more after more used to it or not
• 22:41
  even know what racing or night of destructions are?
• 22:43
  Hi. You know, it's funny, a lot of
• 22:45
  people don't even really know what Night of Destruction is.
• 22:48
  So I feel like it's, I try to describe to people.
• 22:51
  I said, you know, if you think of demolition Derby Meads racing
• 22:54
  or you know, I used to sell some of my clients, full contact
• 22:57
  racing is the easiest way to describe it.
• 22:59
  You know, the purpose is to race.
• 23:01
  Yes, I want to run the race, but the nice part is I'm allowed to
• 23:04
  move you, and that's always fun. So having those conversations
• 23:08
  and explaining to people what it is and just getting them
• 23:10
  excited. We also last year we did a
• 23:13
  really fun kind of scavenger hunt out at New Paris Speedway.
• 23:17
  So I had some little stickers made of the angry unicorns and I
• 23:21
  went around to the track and I hid those stickers in somewhat
• 23:24
  plain sight and we gave teasers and we asked people, you know,
• 23:28
  how well do you really know your track?
• 23:30
  So they haunted around the track and it was hysterical because
• 23:34
  the very first person that found all 5 stickers was a grown man
• 23:38
  and he was about as proud as he could be to come and tell me I
• 23:40
  found all your unicorns. So, you know, we try and get a
• 23:45
  little bit of everybody involved in different ways, but it's a
• 23:48
  lot of fun. I mean, I think sometimes the
• 23:51
  adults are just as big a kid as the little bar.
• 23:55
  Now we got Kirsten Tracy in the background.
• 23:57
  If you were a promoter, what what event would you create for
• 24:01
  a night of destruction? We're going to make you put your
• 24:03
  thinking cap on now. Oh, goodness me, You know, I'm
• 24:07
  kind of a sucker. I like obstacles.
• 24:10
  I, I like having obstacles out there.
• 24:12
  So, you know, maybe throw a big tractor tire out there up in the
• 24:16
  apex of one and two where you can't hit that high side, you
• 24:19
  know, you can't hit that high line out there and it makes it a
• 24:21
  little more difficult. So I, I just have to say I'm
• 24:24
  always a big fan of those ones. Anything with obstacles?
• 24:28
  You'll like the pole race then. And I know they do the pole race
• 24:31
  every three months or so at New Paris, but I know at Hartford,
• 24:34
  that's kind of when their staples is a, is a pole race on
• 24:37
  the front stretch and on the back stretch and it's on dirt
• 24:40
  and the track is, and you have all these cars trying to circle
• 24:43
  this. I mean, sometimes I for that
• 24:45
  race, like I'll follow the poles, you know, at New Paris
• 24:48
  where that's usually on the front stretch and goes around.
• 24:50
  But at Hartford, I just focus like my camera on the poles and
• 24:53
  I don't move from that because turn 1234 has not a lot going
• 24:57
  on. But I get a lot of stuff.
• 24:58
  Just, you know, sometimes people are like, why didn't you move
• 25:01
  the camera? The action is not in the turns.
• 25:03
  You know, the action is and the poles are almost right across
• 25:06
  from each other. So it's like I need one shot to
• 25:07
  get 2 two things here and and see all the chaos.
• 25:11
  Otherwise I'd miss so much, you know, especially Hartford, just
• 25:14
  so humongous. So it's like it's not like new
• 25:17
  pairs where you could probably move around and still get it in
• 25:19
  the shot. You know, you have a three
• 25:21
  eighths track that's like a 4/10 track that, you know, you just
• 25:24
  got to try to squeeze in as much as you can in a single shot.
• 25:27
  But, but I know that's something that when you do the parade
• 25:33
  laps, right, New Paris is really big at parade laps and it's not
• 25:35
  so much an obstacle, but you have all the cars on the track
• 25:39
  doing that. You want to tell everyone a
• 25:42
  little bit about the character of your car and what helps you
• 25:44
  stand out, especially in a parade lap where you have 708090
• 25:49
  cars out on that track all at once.
• 25:53
  Well, so when we, when we first started, when I first got my
• 25:56
  first car, it was just an old Buick that my brother had.
• 26:00
  Somebody stole his catalytic converter off of it.
• 26:02
  And he said, hey, I don't have the use for it anymore.
• 26:04
  Do you want to run it? And I said sure.
• 26:06
  So it was just kind of a plain Jane simple car.
• 26:09
  You know, we ran the number 28 just to, you know, pay homage
• 26:12
  from my stepdad and when he ran and wanted to honor him.
• 26:16
  And then once we started to get into Year 2, we thought, you
• 26:20
  know, we really want to stand up.
• 26:21
  We want to do something a little different.
• 26:23
  I want to find something that's going to make kids smile.
• 26:26
  I want to make something that's going to make people giggle, you
• 26:28
  know, and my daughter, who's 11, when she was younger, she was
• 26:32
  obsessed with unicorns. She absolutely loved unicorns
• 26:35
  and I said, well, what a better way to get young kids involved,
• 26:38
  especially young girls who maybe not aren't used to seeing other
• 26:42
  women drivers, you know, but how can we inspire young girls as
• 26:45
  well? But you can't do a front fun,
• 26:48
  pretty, you know, fancy Unicorn. So we said, if we're gonna do
• 26:51
  destruction, we've got to do angry.
• 26:52
  We, we gotta make sure that she's to make the statement.
• 26:55
  So I, I just kind of started looking up some different ideas.
• 26:59
  We came across this, this design and I instantly fell in love.
• 27:03
  So we, we very quickly became known as the angry Unicorn.
• 27:07
  And over the years it's grown and it's changed.
• 27:09
  So we now have a very large stuffed animal that actually
• 27:13
  rides in the back of the car every race with us.
• 27:16
  I think she's probably done about 30 to 40 races now with us
• 27:19
  and she rides in the car. And then I was out for a year
• 27:23
  for back surgery. And so when, when I came back
• 27:26
  out on the track, I said I really wanted to make a
• 27:27
  statement. I wanted people to know that,
• 27:29
  hey, we're back, we're ready to go.
• 27:32
  So we installed a, a fun new horn on the car.
• 27:35
  So as soon as I crested that, that pit entrance there and I
• 27:39
  flipped the horn, you just saw everyone's head turn.
• 27:42
  And it was just such a a fun, unique way to get people
• 27:45
  involved again, to get people laughing and talking and yeah,
• 27:49
  just young and old alike. How can we make them smile?
• 27:53
  So you you've done a great job to market your Night of
• 27:56
  Destruction team yourself. Where are some of the places
• 28:00
  that they can find you on social media?
• 28:02
  Do you have a official team page?
• 28:05
  I do so it's it's actually just called the Angry Unicorn on
• 28:09
  Facebook. We have a lot of photos over the
• 28:12
  last six years of our racing. I always try and post updates as
• 28:15
  to what tracks we're going to be at, any kind of outreach event.
• 28:18
  You know, we've got a big parade coming up over in LaPorte July
• 28:21
  4th that we're going to be doing.
• 28:22
  So yeah. So we certainly travel and I
• 28:25
  always try and keep updates that way everyone knows where we're
• 28:27
  at. And of course, we got to talk
• 28:29
  about your first event on April the 18th, I believe.
• 28:34
  Promote that a little bit and talk about what you're most
• 28:36
  excited for. Yeah, for sure.
• 28:38
  So April 18th, new pair of season opener, if you've I tell
• 28:42
  everyone, if you've never been to a night of destruction, April
• 28:45
  18th, be there. It is by far one of the best
• 28:49
  events of the year in my opinion.
• 28:51
  April 18th and the Rectober, those are two hottest hits after
• 28:56
  the winter and everyone's been cooped up and pent ups and
• 28:59
  everybody's just really ready to race.
• 29:01
  And so it is an action-packed night.
• 29:04
  There will be crashing unlike any other for sure.
• 29:09
  Well, and that's usually one of the bigger ones for you guys.
• 29:11
  And then I know July 4th or that that holiday one, I think this
• 29:16
  year it's on the third Friday the 3rd or or Saturday.
• 29:21
  I'm not going to look again. It's that might be Saturday.
• 29:23
  That's not right that it's sad. I think it's Saturday or some
• 29:26
  they know they usually that might be Friday the 3rd.
• 29:29
  So I think Kalamazoo has an event on the same night, Jew's
• 29:33
  Show for his Freedom Night, but I know that's another big one.
• 29:37
  Then the October 1 is huge and I mean there's many throughout the
• 29:40
  year that you can see some of the same events like Pac-Man
• 29:44
  race and it's still chaos. I mean that's my favorite race
• 29:47
  that I watched there at New Paris is the Pac-Man.
• 29:50
  I always look forward to that one for sure.
• 29:52
  So so do you want to talk a little bit about what makes each
• 29:56
  one unique, especially when you run so many of them and a year,
• 30:00
  how fans can expect like, yeah, you might see seven nights
• 30:03
  instructions, but we promise you there's going to be
• 30:06
  entertainment and funny things at every single one.
• 30:08
  And chaos. Well, absolutely, absolutely.
• 30:11
  And I think, you know, our race director always does a great job
• 30:14
  of trying to mix up races. So yeah, you're going to see
• 30:17
  your ladies race and yes, you're going to see your mattress race.
• 30:20
  That one kind of comes and goes. You're always going to see your
• 30:22
  enduro. But we always try to throw in
• 30:25
  some fun races here and there. One of the new ones that they
• 30:28
  introduced, I think last year I was a wrenched up race.
• 30:31
  So, you know, for those people who love a Figure 8, this is a
• 30:35
  modified Figure 8 just because for safety reasons, obviously we
• 30:39
  have had some people injured during that Figure 8 in the
• 30:42
  past. And so we want to put on a show,
• 30:44
  but we want to keep everybody safe.
• 30:46
  So we kind of modified that a little bit and played with it.
• 30:49
  I know Steven does a great job of coming up with new races
• 30:51
  every time. So again, yeah, you will see
• 30:54
  some of the same races, but it's definitely a a nice mix every
• 30:57
  week. Well, again, I know that April
• 31:01
  18th is coming up for sure. Buju, any, any last questions
• 31:06
  before? I know we got Chris and Tracy,
• 31:08
  they're already in the staging area.
• 31:10
  So I, I, I feel like, did you come up with something in that
• 31:13
  time, 'cause I felt like I, I jumped on you a little bit
• 31:15
  there. No, I think we're you guys did a
• 31:18
  great job covering everything. I'm excited for April 18th now.
• 31:21
  Oh, yeah, I mean, again, that night of destruction, I, I tell
• 31:23
  people, you know, and it's not not to fluff anybody, right?
• 31:26
  It's the, the, the new parasite instructions are just, I sit up
• 31:30
  there and you got Jeremy Wardinger on the mic.
• 31:32
  Who I just sit up there and I just laugh non-stop.
• 31:36
  I'm like, I'm recording right now.
• 31:38
  I don't want people to hear that I'm laughing.
• 31:40
  But sometimes he just says things and you just, you just,
• 31:43
  it comes out right. Like it's easier for the crowd
• 31:45
  to do that because they're, they're supposed to do that.
• 31:47
  But when I'm on video, I try to be neutral and quiet and, and
• 31:51
  sometimes when I hear him, I'm like, Oh my goodness gracious.
• 31:54
  What did he just say? You know, and, and so we talked
• 31:57
  about it afterwards because he is super entertaining, but what
• 32:00
  people probably don't give him credit for is that he can do
• 32:04
  weekly racing too. When he announces, he can flip
• 32:06
  it right over. So he's not just the Night of
• 32:08
  Destruction guy, but I know a lot of people love him on Night
• 32:11
  of Destruction. He definitely keeps it
• 32:13
  entertaining. So, Christian Terry, if you know
• 32:15
  this had a question. I don't know if we covered it,
• 32:18
  but what made the so angry? I think they're talking about
• 32:23
  the. Oh yeah, the angry Unicorn.
• 32:24
  Yep. Well, so my daughter she is.
• 32:31
  I jokingly call her my fireball. She is very outgoing.
• 32:36
  She is just a ball of energy and a ball of love.
• 32:40
  And so we said, you know what? Again, we, we can't have this
• 32:43
  nice fluffy Unicorn. My daughter is not a gentle
• 32:45
  Unicorn. I am not a gentle Unicorn.
• 32:49
  We, we definitely know how to take it out.
• 32:52
  But you know, one thing I do want to say really quick is if
• 32:55
  you've never been to a night of destruction, if you're even
• 32:59
  contemplating joining it, wanting to be a part of it, New
• 33:03
  Paris is the track to be. We have such an amazing
• 33:05
  community there. We all look out for each other,
• 33:08
  We all help each other. And sure, you're going to get
• 33:11
  some people here and there that may be newbies that don't really
• 33:14
  know people. But even when you're new, come
• 33:16
  ask for help. We're always there to support
• 33:18
  you. If we've got a tool that you
• 33:19
  need, come grab it. We want to see you back on that
• 33:22
  track just as bad as we love you there.
• 33:25
  Oh yeah, they put on a show and that's what that's what's
• 33:27
  important to the drivers. I mean, even last, not last but
• 33:30
  two years ago, there was a moment that happened that the
• 33:33
  driver said we're not going to do this race until this is
• 33:36
  solved. And they were out on the track.
• 33:38
  And and I again, we won't go too into the details.
• 33:40
  It had nothing to do with the racetrack.
• 33:42
  It's just someone's GPS was not calibrated and they got lost
• 33:46
  somewhere. And and those drivers, you know,
• 33:50
  that was something you got Frank Gasco down there.
• 33:52
  You've had Oh my goodness, who else is I?
• 33:56
  Jeremy might have been down there.
• 33:57
  He just had a couple people who were like, no, we're not we're
• 33:59
  not going to race. GPS needs to be located and then
• 34:04
  we'll get the show going. So I think that too, right?
• 34:06
  They could continue down and not even cared, but they said, no,
• 34:10
  we're we're putting on a show for you, but we're not putting
• 34:12
  on the show until that's and you just don't see that in a lot of
• 34:14
  places. I thought that too was an
• 34:16
  incredible moment where it's like, no, we're we're in all
• 34:19
  this together. Let's solve this situation.
• 34:21
  And and I haven't seen that anywhere since.
• 34:24
  So that was that was one of those things that just that was
• 34:27
  another light bulb moment for me where I'm like, it's just
• 34:29
  different. And and that's not a bad thing,
• 34:31
  right? That's that's a good thing.
• 34:33
  And and so again have I know when we asked you to come on
• 34:39
  and, and it's like, oh, maybe tell 725, but I know you're able
• 34:42
  to get a little bit more. So I definitely appreciate you
• 34:44
  coming on tonight to talk a little bit about the night of
• 34:46
  destruction and do that again April 18th.
• 34:49
  I forget when the autograph night is for the night of
• 34:51
  destruction, but Chris and Tracy, I know they're in the
• 34:53
  States. You might be able to tell us
• 34:54
  here. Come on out.
• 34:56
  You'll have a new car at New Paris this year.
• 34:59
  So definitely more signatures will need to be and I know you
• 35:02
  also shared Sunday that you keep the the hoods and everything
• 35:05
  like you don't get rid of those. Those signatures are super
• 35:07
  important to you to just remember all those names and
• 35:10
  everything. So that's, that's pretty
• 35:11
  incredible. Yeah, absolutely.
• 35:14
  It's I, I look for it every year.
• 35:16
  When we trash a car, it's always funny.
• 35:18
  We take the hood off, we hang it in the garage.
• 35:20
  My garage is going to be covered in them before I'm done, but I
• 35:24
  just, I don't ever want to forget that I, I always want to,
• 35:27
  I always want to make tell myself that I have to remain
• 35:29
  humble. And if it weren't for those
• 35:31
  people and if it weren't for those signatures, I wouldn't be
• 35:34
  anywhere where we are now. So.
• 35:36
  And, and again, you're fun to watch too on the racetrack.
• 35:39
  I mean, you get out there and, and it's like, OK, it's go time.
• 35:42
  And, and, and that's for all the drivers.
• 35:44
  I know Troy Stanley was on here. You know, when she, I know last
• 35:48
  year she can't race because of the baby, but I know this year
• 35:50
  she plans to get back in. And you just have so many
• 35:53
  incredible people down there. You know, who who put their
• 35:57
  their heart and soul into this. And it's just, it's a, it's one
• 36:00
  of my favorite things to do throughout the season is to be
• 36:03
  at new Paris, especially at the night of destruction.
• 36:05
  So I know we'll be seeing each other here in a couple weeks.
• 36:07
  And certainly I hope a lot of people come out and pack the
• 36:10
  stands that night because it's it's if you just haven't been to
• 36:14
  a night destruction at New Paris, I promise you for the,
• 36:18
  the, I think it's $15 ticket to get in, which is cheaper than
• 36:22
  most night destructions in the area.
• 36:24
  You're going to leave and and feel like you got your money's
• 36:27
  worth. It's a but safe for everybody to
• 36:29
  enjoy. If you like burnouts, if you
• 36:30
  like the spectator racing or one-on-one drags, Figure 8
• 36:35
  racing, you name it, trailer race it, it's going to have it
• 36:38
  all. So if you if you walk out hungry
• 36:40
  that night and not just concession food, right, But if
• 36:43
  you walk out hungry night, that night going man, I wish there
• 36:45
  was more than I don't know what you saw, because I I walk out
• 36:50
  full and exhausted mentally where I'm like, that was just
• 36:52
  incredible. But now I need a next.
• 36:56
  So again, thank you so much Tabitha for coming on tonight
• 36:58
  and I hope you have a great rest of your Monday.
• 37:01
  Thanks for having me and I look forward to seeing everybody this
• 37:03
  season. See you on April 18th all.
• 37:06
  Right. Thanks, guys.
• 37:07
  Thank you. All right, so wow, one from New
• 37:11
  Paris heads on out. We're going to pull in Chris and
• 37:15
  Tracy. I know they've been waiting over
• 37:17
  in the staging area. So again, Chris and Tracy, we
• 37:19
  just had Tabitha on talking about New Paris.
• 37:22
  So welcome owners Chris and Tracy of the New Paris Speedway
• 37:26
  to the Monday Night Rewind. Well, thank you so much for
• 37:29
  having us on. We really appreciate this and
• 37:31
  it's something we've been looking forward to since you
• 37:36
  folks invited us to come on. So yeah, we look.
• 37:38
  We look forward to a nice little chat together.
• 37:41
  All right. And I know you guys were just on
• 37:43
  trips and I know you've been a big part of the Indiana
• 37:45
  Coalition of helping with the right to race going on and
• 37:48
  everything. So for people who don't know you
• 37:51
  guys, right, We'll get to those little things here in a little
• 37:53
  bit. But for people who don't know
• 37:54
  who you guys are as Chris and Tracy, you know in your
• 37:57
  ownership of New Paris since Donnie Clots sold it to you
• 38:00
  guys. If you want to give a little bit
• 38:02
  of a background, how long you've been there and, and, and how you
• 38:06
  got into racing. OK, where to start A?
• 38:13
  Total different paths on that. I'll let the, I'll let Tracy
• 38:18
  Tracy open the history book here and kind of give it a little bit
• 38:20
  of the back story in history as to longevity and so forth.
• 38:27
  Well, my background history is I grew up racing just about you
• 38:30
  name it. My brother really got into a
• 38:32
  motocross and enduros after, you know, the, the good old bicycles
• 38:37
  and everything else that we did. But three Wheelers before they
• 38:40
  were quads, we raised them all. And then he actually got into
• 38:45
  owning a wing Sprint dirt car. So he's been an owner of that
• 38:49
  for about 20 years. So I come from more of racing,
• 38:54
  more dirt and things like that than Chris does, who really came
• 38:58
  out of go straight and don't turn left.
• 39:01
  So yeah. Once, one skill at a time,
• 39:06
  please. He hasn't got should turn left
• 39:09
  yet. No, I actually raised the first
• 39:12
  year before we bought the track in the Hornet class.
• 39:14
  Built three cars that year that I ripped down and and made in
• 39:18
  the Hornet. So raced that and had the turned
• 39:22
  them them into house cars for the first couple of years.
• 39:25
  I still have that car. I still you still might see it
• 39:28
  out there. I'm half tempted to put it this
• 39:30
  year in night destruction. I've raced on obviously regular
• 39:32
  track, but I want to see what it's like on that slick soap
• 39:34
  track. So let me have a little fun.
• 39:39
  So there's something you can. Look forward to maybe we'll,
• 39:41
  maybe we'll see Tracy out there if we can get the car going in
• 39:44
  the mom's race or, or who knows. I know, Steven.
• 39:49
  Your background now is drags. Oh yeah, go ahead.
• 39:54
  I grew up, I grew up with a a lifelong passion, I guess
• 40:00
  starting probably about time I could get my first job when I
• 40:02
  was 16, which is way back in the early 80s.
• 40:05
  But got into got into muscle cars and collecting muscle cars
• 40:10
  a little bit and doing some drag racing.
• 40:13
  Never a full season serious but tried to get out a few times a
• 40:16
  year and. Do some drag racing.
• 40:19
  So yeah, my background's a little bit different.
• 40:21
  I did have and still do have a passion a little bit for the
• 40:26
  NASCAR stuff. At one point, you know,
• 40:28
  obviously back in the heyday, I was, I was really big into it to
• 40:32
  the point where made a trip out to Las Vegas one time and
• 40:37
  Richard Petty had this driving experience thing that, that they
• 40:41
  did. So I, I purchased an 8 lap, 8
• 40:45
  lap experience. They called it around around Las
• 40:48
  Vegas Motor Speedway and it was really unique because your
• 40:52
  instructor was not in the car with you.
• 40:53
  He's in the car in front of you and you just had to understand
• 40:56
  his hand signals. So you get to one of these
• 40:59
  things, you go through a class, you go out on track in like big
• 41:05
  vans, they take you around the track, they show you where your
• 41:08
  spots are and what to hit. And then, you know, then you you
• 41:12
  wait your turn in line and, and jump out and do your experience,
• 41:14
  whether it's, you know, 3 laps, 8 laps, 20 laps, whatever it is.
• 41:17
  But I just remember, and this was probably shortly after Tracy
• 41:22
  and I'm out. So we were just dating at that
• 41:23
  point. I don't think I stopped smiling
• 41:26
  for three weeks. So you going 160 a 170 miles an
• 41:30
  hour in a car around a track and.
• 41:32
  Any accurate turn left? And I actually, I actually was
• 41:36
  was given the I had the number 8 Budweiser car.
• 41:38
  So it was a, you know, it was a clone to Dale Junior's car at
• 41:42
  the time. And yeah, what it was, it was
• 41:45
  well spent money on my part. So a little bit on the round
• 41:48
  your own, but you know, typically came out of the drag,
• 41:51
  drag racing world. And then we purchased, we
• 41:55
  purchased New Paris in 2018 and ran our first race in 2018.
• 41:58
  So, yeah, before that, we job shout out everything out there
• 42:03
  for a year and then, yeah. So since 2018, I, you know,
• 42:07
  time's gone fast. It's like, wow, where are you at
• 42:11
  2026? And I used to, I used to
• 42:14
  frequent New Paris. I was a kid when I was younger
• 42:16
  and that 18 to 25 maybe, maybe a little further range.
• 42:20
  So I was not unfamiliar with the track, but shadowing the track
• 42:25
  for a year, trying to trying to make the proper decision and
• 42:28
  move forward with the purchase was quite an eye opening
• 42:31
  experience. I think Tracy and I each either
• 42:35
  shadowed or worked every position at that racetrack.
• 42:39
  You know, obviously flagging was a shadow thing and certain
• 42:42
  things race director, you know, was a shadow thing.
• 42:46
  But you know, during that first year, before we purchased, you
• 42:50
  could find us in concessions, you could find us working
• 42:52
  souvenirs, you could find us on the safety crew.
• 42:55
  I was. Scoring Tracy Tracy was up in
• 42:58
  the tower scoring. Yeah.
• 43:02
  Just kind of, yeah, just kind of what we want to get the full
• 43:05
  experience and and make sure that we are making, making the
• 43:08
  right move for a stock car racing in general and short
• 43:13
  track racing as a as a sport. But also make sure that we are
• 43:17
  making making the right move for for our family and our our plan
• 43:21
  moving forward. Undercover Boss It really was,
• 43:26
  because nobody knew who we were. It was actually kind of fun and
• 43:29
  we. Knew we knew people out there
• 43:30
  and they're just finally about halfway through the season
• 43:33
  they're like you guys hardly ever came out here now you're
• 43:36
  here every week what's going on? So then we started attending
• 43:39
  drivers meetings and people started putting things together.
• 43:41
  So that's. Kind of our history background.
• 43:46
  So, Trey, go ahead, Buju. You guys mentioned making sure
• 43:52
  that you're doing the right thing for the sport, and Lewis
• 43:54
  mentioned early on that you're involved with the Coalition for
• 43:56
  the Right to Race bill that's being passed around in Indiana.
• 44:01
  So can you talk about maybe what troubles New Paris's face that
• 44:05
  this bill would help fix and more about your involvement with
• 44:08
  it as it moves along down the line?
• 44:10
  I. Didn't get that?
• 44:12
  Or you can go. Ahead, I mean, so I went down
• 44:15
  and the Indian Coalition putting it back together two years ago.
• 44:21
  My first question was, hey, you know, I'm hearing what's going
• 44:24
  on in Arkansas and what's going on in Iowa and why isn't aiding
• 44:27
  putting this bill up right? And you know, that was it was
• 44:30
  like, yeah, that's a good question.
• 44:31
  We are a racing state here. You know, it's, you know, us in
• 44:33
  North Carolina really, you know, get get NASCAR going and short
• 44:39
  track and everything. So it came up this year.
• 44:43
  Indiana has a very short opportunity to do.
• 44:45
  So. I'm glad it came up in Michigan.
• 44:47
  It's still last I knew going through Michigan being put on
• 44:52
  the docket for a vote. So that's good.
• 44:54
  And there's actually four more, four other states this year to
• 44:57
  put it up. So, you know, it really comes
• 44:59
  down to tracks have been around for a long time.
• 45:02
  You know, we're on our 70. Oh my gosh, I'm losing tracks.
• 45:05
  7070 eighth year. 78th year. You know that New Paris has been
• 45:10
  in operation running us. Not us personally.
• 45:14
  I'm not old. Sometimes I feel that old.
• 45:17
  So, you know, the tracks in there before most of the things
• 45:21
  have developed around tracks, right?
• 45:24
  And as owners, promoters, we really do watch out for the
• 45:27
  neighbors, you know, and try to make sure that we have a the
• 45:31
  race and in a timely manner. Also with the fans nowadays
• 45:36
  wanting a little shorter racing, they don't want to go till 2,
• 45:38
  three o'clock 4:00 in the morning like it used to be.
• 45:41
  You know, we realized that we're in a very conservative area.
• 45:46
  A lot of our spectators, a lot of our racers, our churchgoers,
• 45:50
  we have an Amish community around us, so we want to be very
• 45:53
  respectful of them. So I think a lot of tracks are
• 45:57
  that way, but it's just a a bill to just protect those tracks for
• 46:03
  those that have been around that long of, you know, people can't
• 46:06
  just say, hey, we want a track to go away because, you know,
• 46:09
  they're too noisy. Well, really, I know a lot of
• 46:12
  things that are probably more noisy than those, but I, yeah,
• 46:15
  we respect that. But you know, we were there for
• 46:17
  a long time and it is a sport and there's a lot of backing.
• 46:19
  So something to add on that. You know, for the most part the
• 46:23
  neighbors been great. You know, occasionally we.
• 46:25
  Will we? Will we'll.
• 46:27
  Get a complaint and and we'll try to make sure we, we address
• 46:30
  that with the neighbor. But you know, the big, the big
• 46:32
  thing is, is not to have, you know, 20 St. stocks or 15 St.
• 46:38
  stocks or limited late models or whatever Hornets from Wheel
• 46:41
  Drive is running around the track at 2:00 in the morning.
• 46:43
  You know, that's where that's where people start to get a
• 46:45
  little bit ouchy. So, you know, we try to, we try
• 46:49
  to keep a good flow within our show and, and be respectful of
• 46:53
  our neighbors. Another thing that we started
• 46:56
  doing immediately after taking ownership was first thing Sunday
• 47:00
  morning after race night, we've got a crew that comes out and,
• 47:04
  and helps pick up none. And the size of that crew
• 47:07
  varies, but there's a core, core group of folks that that come
• 47:11
  out on Sunday morning, you know, and I'll go unlock the gate at
• 47:14
  9:00 and you know, they will start picking up trash,
• 47:17
  especially anything that's Rd. vision, you know, anything down
• 47:21
  in the pits, County Road 127, anything along 46 that the
• 47:25
  neighbors can see. We really try to keep that
• 47:27
  cleaned up and not leave piles, piles of junk laying around as
• 47:31
  much as possible. You know, there's after an NOD,
• 47:34
  there's people that have to come back on Sunday morning or Sunday
• 47:36
  afternoon and get some, get some cars.
• 47:38
  But when you got, we got race teams bringing 8/10/12 cars,
• 47:41
  making two or three trips. You know, we just, we try to
• 47:46
  keep it as clean as possible. We also try extremely hard and
• 47:51
  we've done this from day one. Any, any sponsorship money that
• 47:55
  that we receive, whether it's a class sponsor or a billboard
• 47:59
  sponsor, so forth that we receive it to track unless the
• 48:03
  sponsor themselves has earmarked a portion of it to go directly
• 48:06
  to purses. That money goes right into after
• 48:10
  expenses are paid for banners and so forth.
• 48:12
  That goes right into track improvement.
• 48:14
  And, you know, we try to, we try to do as much improvement to the
• 48:18
  track every year as we can. We put in some concrete walls.
• 48:23
  We finished paving and repave the Figure 8 area.
• 48:26
  In fact, we even invested last year in putting in a, a timing
• 48:30
  loop to potentially do, you know, a class worth of Figure 8
• 48:33
  racing, which is going to give the race fans themselves
• 48:37
  something a little different to look at, you know, other than
• 48:39
  watching the same movie every week, so to speak.
• 48:44
  We've invested in a lot of safety equipment.
• 48:46
  We make sure that our our safety crews, you don't have proper,
• 48:51
  proper gear to wear. And, you know, typically if they
• 48:55
  come to us and ask for a tool that would, would aid in helping
• 48:59
  a driver out in the, in the situation of an accident or
• 49:01
  something, unless it's an outrageous request, we typically
• 49:04
  answer it with a yes right away. Anything from as little as seat
• 49:08
  belt cutters on up to, you know, hey, maybe we need to try to get
• 49:12
  something different from fire extinguishing or, or maybe we
• 49:16
  need an extra tow truck or or so forth.
• 49:19
  So we, we try to, you know, we try to do the best we can.
• 49:22
  We're not perfect. No one is.
• 49:26
  We've made mistakes along the way, you know, in, in nods and
• 49:30
  racing programs, but we all do. And we always, you know,
• 49:35
  there's, there's been countless times there's been mistakes
• 49:38
  made, whether it's been been by us or, or maybe a member of our
• 49:42
  staff or something that affected the outcome of a race,
• 49:45
  especially when it comes to payouts.
• 49:47
  And you know, there's, there's been more than one time that
• 49:50
  Tracy and I have stepped up, you know, and out of our pocket, you
• 49:54
  know, tried to make things right with everybody.
• 49:56
  So we do try to make things right with everybody.
• 49:59
  Forgot Lewis's favorite upgrade? Oh yes, yes, yes.
• 50:05
  Lewis's favorite upgrade last year was we had been looking at
• 50:11
  doing something a little different with on track
• 50:13
  lighting. We started with changing out the
• 50:15
  bulbs. We've got a couple of 60 foot
• 50:17
  towers. Luckily we have a person that's
• 50:20
  willing to go up 60 foot and change those bulbs.
• 50:24
  But once that was complete and we had already started putting
• 50:26
  some LED lights throughout the pits.
• 50:28
  But we started last year with a project and it it took me in a
• 50:33
  few other people pretty much all summer long.
• 50:35
  But every incandescent or halogen or vapor light that was
• 50:41
  around that racetrack has now been converted to full LED.
• 50:46
  So. As the drivers say, it's the
• 50:48
  brightest track and don't look up we're.
• 50:52
  We're not NASCAR bright, but but it's yeah, there's I think the
• 50:56
  only complaint we've had is people saying, hey, we just got
• 51:00
  to learn not to look up too much or we're going to, we're going
• 51:02
  to be seeing spots for a while. But you know, kind of the nature
• 51:05
  of the beast with the height of the, with the height of the
• 51:08
  poles, the light poles all the way around the track, but
• 51:10
  everything was converted over to LED.
• 51:12
  So just, you know, we, we try to constantly, you know, make a
• 51:16
  little improvements here and there.
• 51:17
  And you know, if there's suggestions for improvements, if
• 51:20
  it's, if it's viable and it's in the financial cards, then you
• 51:24
  know, we'll move forward with it.
• 51:25
  But you know, if it's not, then, you know, we, we try to let
• 51:29
  people know, hey, you know, it's something we want to address,
• 51:32
  but you know, it just it's not in the cards financially this
• 51:34
  year. And we'll, we'll look at it, you
• 51:37
  know, look at it there. And I think a lot of people,
• 51:39
  they don't, you know, drivers, fans cruise sometimes don't
• 51:45
  understand the cost. And and you know, Drew, you've,
• 51:49
  you've run, you know, your series and so forth.
• 51:51
  You know how expensive it is put on racing.
• 51:55
  So we we try to get people to understand a little bit, you
• 51:58
  know, what the investment it is. And it isn't just this giant
• 52:01
  cash collar throws money around all over the place.
• 52:05
  No. So like, just.
• 52:06
  Let's put. It this way we haven't quit our
• 52:08
  day jobs. Absolutely.
• 52:11
  You guys do some big races yourself and we'll talk about
• 52:14
  those here shortly, but a lot of people don't understand that.
• 52:17
  They just think you magically open the gates and people show
• 52:20
  up and you don't have a lot of pay out there.
• 52:23
  Perspective for me, who leases a racetrack?
• 52:26
  On an average we're probably 22 to $30,000 on a lease show.
• 52:31
  That includes insurance, employees.
• 52:34
  That's stuff people don't look at.
• 52:35
  And you know, looking at your schedule, you got your season
• 52:39
  opener on April 25th, but then you got 2 iconic events.
• 52:43
  Talk about what they mean to the Speedway.
• 52:45
  You got the Summer Sizzler August 1st and then you got the
• 52:48
  Flagger Boy, one of the biggest St.
• 52:51
  Stock races in the area on the 8th of August.
• 52:56
  Two very big races, yeah. Sizzler This year will be the
• 53:02
  25th Ann 25th anniversary of the summer Sizzler.
• 53:06
  It's become well known, at least throughout the Midwest.
• 53:09
  It's one of the biggest late model races to take place.
• 53:12
  A lot of nostalgia there and for it to fold the longevity of of
• 53:17
  making it to 25 years is is something to be said, But that's
• 53:21
  our that's our big outlaw late model show and.
• 53:24
  Reveal the Hammers coming back in this year and we were
• 53:26
  actually the first race for Reveal the Hammer when they
• 53:30
  first kicked off. So they're coming back for our
• 53:32
  25th anniversary this year too, so.
• 53:37
  So yeah, Summer Sizzler's always fun.
• 53:38
  It's typically been a two class evening.
• 53:41
  And drew your your amount for the your night.
• 53:44
  Yeah, take that like 3 times for that Sizzler.
• 53:48
  Absolutely. That's.
• 53:49
  That's too much. We we people don't ever realize
• 53:54
  that. They're quick to criticize on
• 53:56
  things, but they don't realize the sacrifice that the track
• 53:59
  owners themselves and promoters put at risk, their livelihood,
• 54:04
  their day jobs, their own property, just to give these
• 54:07
  people a place to race. And the Sizzler.
• 54:10
  And that's why I brought up the Sizzler and the Flagger Boy
• 54:12
  'cause those are two most prestigious and expensive races
• 54:15
  in your. They are, And you.
• 54:17
  Know, I think both of them and, you know, nobody I didn't call,
• 54:23
  you know, means a gallow friend and the flagger means something
• 54:28
  big to us too and taking over that that was something we
• 54:31
  weren't going to do away with. And I think, you know, Chris sat
• 54:34
  down where we sat down and he came up with this great idea
• 54:37
  about, you know, let's let's give more people options and
• 54:40
  let's let's do the twins like that's really cool.
• 54:43
  So how do we do this? And he goes, you figure out the
• 54:46
  payouts, OK. And I'm, I'm one that I like to
• 54:52
  spread it through the field, you know, instead of top all the
• 54:56
  time. And you know, it's a great top
• 54:58
  payout. Don't get me wrong, it's a great
• 54:59
  top payout, but it's spread really well throughout that
• 55:02
  field. And then you, you do it double.
• 55:04
  So, you know, I think what we have $40,000 of payouts last
• 55:08
  year just for that one class. So what it does, it attracts a
• 55:11
  lot of people, it gives them exposure, it's fun.
• 55:15
  They and you know, they love. Where am I going to sit at?
• 55:18
  Am I going to be in the DNA class or am I going to be in the
• 55:21
  J class or, you know, who am I racing against tonight?
• 55:24
  You know, when you have 32 of them out there with an option of
• 55:28
  winning, you know, versus just like 16 or so, it makes a big
• 55:31
  difference. I think for the drivers also, it
• 55:33
  gives them an opportunity. The thing about the.
• 55:37
  Thing. Go ahead.
• 55:39
  Oh no, I was going to say that's what I love about the flagger
• 55:41
  boy is just the like the one feature last year you just
• 55:45
  looked at the lineup and I think that if I counted right it was
• 55:48
  like 8 former or past champions in just one race, which also
• 55:55
  someone who won at the Bristol Motor Speedway.
• 55:59
  You know, and a couple years ago it was families.
• 56:01
  I don't know how families got into each together.
• 56:03
  I'm like how did? You, I mean together.
• 56:07
  Yeah, it was, I mean, you name it, it was.
• 56:09
  And that's I mean, that's my favorite weekly event that you
• 56:13
  guys do and it's not weekly. It's a special right.
• 56:16
  But that's my favorite is the flagger boy, because is that
• 56:19
  night has such different feels to it.
• 56:21
  And the fact that I know a few years ago you guys had 78 St.
• 56:24
  socks, I think it was on the property.
• 56:26
  And you know, like almost almost half of them haven't a chance to
• 56:30
  walk out tonight as a winner, right.
• 56:31
  And that's not and that's not even always like who people
• 56:35
  expect, right? Like yes, they find their way up
• 56:37
  there, but it's like anybody tonight has a chance to win this
• 56:41
  and and you just and and every track has an event like that
• 56:45
  right where the Kalamazoo has ravers rumble and 40s coming up
• 56:49
  with the judgement day. But it's that sagger boy with
• 56:51
  the history, the galloways. It just means like it has that
• 56:55
  nostalgia to it, but also that that importance to the track and
• 56:58
  short track racing in this area alone over. 40 years, right?
• 57:02
  Yeah, I think it's over 40 years, not the 80s and the
• 57:09
  making games on splitting the and you you had we had some
• 57:12
  racers come to US1 racer. I shoot.
• 57:16
  I played Little League baseball with the only game friend of
• 57:18
  Todd Hall and we released the flagger boy twin 50s and he
• 57:21
  called me up. He goes, I'm not so sure about
• 57:24
  this. And I said, well, Todd, I said,
• 57:26
  you know, you look at the car, the car counts that come to the
• 57:28
  flagger. And I know reveals run into this
• 57:32
  up in Michigan where, you know, you got 56 guys spending a ton
• 57:36
  of money or gals spending a ton of money getting a car ready,
• 57:39
  buying tires, etcetera. And 2022 make the field and the
• 57:43
  rest of them get to go home. So part of that idea all being a
• 57:47
  costly of creating the dual flaggers was a you're honoring
• 57:51
  the Galloway family, but specifically, you know, Danny
• 57:54
  and and Jake. So, OK, why not create 2 fields?
• 58:00
  And then if you got a if you got a car count of 55 St. stocks, 60
• 58:04
  St. stocks, whatever, and you're starting 32 to 38, whatever we
• 58:09
  we start. And the way that the lineups
• 58:13
  work out for this slagger boy twin 50s is it's odd and even
• 58:17
  qualifying. So you're not just taking the
• 58:19
  top 1618 and saying you're in the Jake and then 17 through
• 58:25
  whatever. You know, you're in the Danny.
• 58:28
  So we're trying to spread the talent by going with the with
• 58:32
  the odd and even qualifiers, But that is you know that that's
• 58:36
  very like this is are very near and dear to our heart.
• 58:39
  We also are going on, I believe this is the second year we're
• 58:43
  trying a three race series called the Trifecta.
• 58:47
  Last year was Trifecta 3 by 5 and it was 3 races.
• 58:52
  Points were totally separate from regular race nights.
• 58:54
  They were Trifecta points. And at the end of the three
• 58:57
  races, whoever the points winners were for this quote
• 59:01
  miniseries each walked away with an extra $5000.
• 59:07
  This year we're going to restructure that a little bit.
• 59:11
  We're going to, yeah, well, it's going to be similar, but we're
• 59:13
  going to try and, and spread that, that grand prize, you
• 59:17
  know, pot of gold at the end of the rainbow back into the field
• 59:20
  a little bit and, and, and help some of those guys out.
• 59:23
  But that series is for the Street stocks, it's for the
• 59:27
  modifieds, and is also for the limited late models.
• 59:31
  You have another unique race on your schedule.
• 59:34
  I want to talk about it. It's a growing race.
• 59:37
  Hopefully it'll be a little bit stronger this year.
• 59:39
  July 18th you got the Survivor 180 Enduro.
• 59:41
  Talk about that a little bit. They.
• 59:48
  Were great. The ladies were also in the lost
• 59:53
  their power steering on like 5 of 300 and I think they went 315
• 59:58
  laps. Yeah, all together it's 365 laps
• 1:00:01
  that that enduro went the winners.
• 1:00:04
  But yeah, those ladies lost their power steering and we did
• 1:00:06
  it as a, as she was talking about to wrench it up.
• 1:00:09
  So it wasn't round. It was in and out and in and
• 1:00:13
  out. So we ran it in our wrench it up
• 1:00:15
  style. So they were really cranking on
• 1:00:19
  that wheel and then they lost part of their gas pedal part way
• 1:00:22
  in. So they had to stand in on as
• 1:00:25
  they were. But so anyways, it was 3 hours.
• 1:00:30
  That's your 180. You had to have three drivers,
• 1:00:33
  they each had to raise a minimum of 30 minutes each driver, which
• 1:00:37
  we had people that were, you know, in the pits watching that,
• 1:00:40
  marking that down, making sure back to the tower, everybody's
• 1:00:42
  good there, that after that 180 minutes, most laps, wins.
• 1:00:51
  And what we didn't realize and came really into play was it was
• 1:00:54
  like good old NASCAR before you had the competition precautions,
• 1:00:58
  right. So they had, they started
• 1:01:00
  figuring out, well, the leader ran out of gas.
• 1:01:02
  I got a pit and put fuel in. And then it was, oh, I'm down on
• 1:01:06
  the treads of my tires. And then we start seeing sparks
• 1:01:09
  and it's like now they're changing tires.
• 1:01:11
  And so now it came back to the good old days of the thought had
• 1:01:14
  to go into when do I need to pit for fuel and when do I need to
• 1:01:16
  pit for a tire change along with the driver change.
• 1:01:19
  And actually became really fun. So.
• 1:01:22
  It was. It was.
• 1:01:25
  I really, I started out making it a 12 hour and went that's too
• 1:01:27
  long. So I kind.
• 1:01:28
  Of. That was kind of my thing.
• 1:01:32
  I'm like. OK, OK, let's.
• 1:01:33
  Just start out with, you know, three hours and let's see how
• 1:01:37
  this rolls. And it actually was pretty good
• 1:01:39
  and it was a lot. Of fun being the inaugural race,
• 1:01:42
  you know, we didn't know what to expect for teams.
• 1:01:44
  We didn't know what to expect for a crowd.
• 1:01:48
  And I think sometimes when you do something like that in the
• 1:01:51
  inaugural there, there's some people that, you know, are, are
• 1:01:55
  a little cautious saying, yeah, let's see how this one goes and
• 1:01:58
  maybe we'll join in. And that's the response we got.
• 1:02:00
  But we got. More coming out of this show
• 1:02:02
  already we know of so. I know I went to the track that
• 1:02:05
  day thinking, OK, three straight hours of this, you know, you
• 1:02:10
  know, where am I going to go hide and possibly take a nap?
• 1:02:13
  But Oh my gosh. We were in the tower screaming
• 1:02:16
  the last. It was so taking bets and these
• 1:02:20
  guys going to pass these guys and what's going to happen and
• 1:02:22
  they're coming back up. And it was actually very, very
• 1:02:24
  fun. Fun bats, no money in it, but it
• 1:02:28
  was. Yeah.
• 1:02:28
  I mean, I went to the track that day saying, you know, this, I'm
• 1:02:31
  just wondering, is this going to be a snoozer?
• 1:02:33
  Are people going to hate it? But, you know, what have we got
• 1:02:35
  to lose? We're going to, we're going to
• 1:02:36
  try it for the first time and see what expands on it.
• 1:02:39
  And by the time it was over, you know, like Lewis said, leaving a
• 1:02:42
  night of destruction, being mentally exhausted.
• 1:02:44
  We were mentally exhausted. It was, it was fun.
• 1:02:48
  And I bounced between the tower and the pits and check on them
• 1:02:50
  down there. And I don't think there was a
• 1:02:54
  single driver that left that night after, after all the
• 1:02:57
  racing was done that didn't say I can't feel my arms or manned
• 1:03:03
  my arms hurt. Geez, am I tired?
• 1:03:06
  But you know, we'll, we'll see what this year brings.
• 1:03:08
  It was it was definitely the inaugural race showed enough
• 1:03:12
  positive out of it from drivers, fans, social media, etcetera
• 1:03:17
  that it was definitely worth a second go at it.
• 1:03:21
  No, it looks like a lot of fun. They used to do one at Barefield
• 1:03:24
  Speedway, the 12 hour, 24 hour race, and there was a grocery
• 1:03:28
  getter. Yeah, the grocery getter.
• 1:03:31
  And they had a, that's where. This started coming from.
• 1:03:37
  So I, I think if you build on it, you'll have a lot of success
• 1:03:40
  and a lot of fun because I think there's a lot of people that
• 1:03:43
  want to do that. It'll be a, a cool event for
• 1:03:46
  you. And then I see, I see you got a
• 1:03:48
  couple more travelling series coming in on July 11th.
• 1:03:51
  You got the Vora and then the first ever appearance on August
• 1:03:54
  1st of the Great Lakes Truck Tour.
• 1:03:56
  Talk about those two organizations and something a
• 1:03:58
  little bit different for the new pairs.
• 1:04:00
  Fans, I'll start with VR has been coming in the last several
• 1:04:11
  years for at least one event and typically we'll couple them up
• 1:04:15
  with a demonstration race from the Michigan Vintage Racers.
• 1:04:20
  So real interesting to watch. You know, you get the vintage
• 1:04:23
  guys there and all these old names are coming out of the
• 1:04:25
  woodwork and out of the closet and out of the cobwebs, you
• 1:04:29
  know, from 30-40, fifty, maybe even more years ago.
• 1:04:33
  And then you put this with the the vintage modifieds, which,
• 1:04:36
  you know, put on a really a really decent show.
• 1:04:40
  And it's just something a little extra.
• 1:04:41
  You know, I think I mentioned earlier in our conversation here
• 1:04:44
  that, you know, and I think this I could probably say that this
• 1:04:47
  phrase came from from Donnie Kloss.
• 1:04:49
  Who was? You know, people don't want to
• 1:04:52
  go watch the same movie every week at the racetrack, so you
• 1:04:56
  got to throw some things in there, but you got to keep your
• 1:04:57
  core with your with your weekly stuff and throw in some, you
• 1:05:00
  know, throw in some bigger shows.
• 1:05:01
  You know, we've tried some classes that haven't worked out.
• 1:05:05
  You know, we've tried some things that that worked out
• 1:05:07
  great and you know, you just, you just got to you got to keep
• 1:05:12
  trying and and possibly do something a little bit
• 1:05:14
  different. Now.
• 1:05:15
  You're not going to please 100% of the people 100 a time, 100%
• 1:05:19
  of the time. But that's, you know, that's
• 1:05:21
  with anything life, not just racing.
• 1:05:24
  So I'll let you talk about the the addition to the Sizzler,
• 1:05:27
  which is a third class this year.
• 1:05:29
  Yeah. So Randy Maggio from Painesville
• 1:05:33
  and Lorraine Leasing now with Payne Spell this year has really
• 1:05:38
  started up this Truck Series and you got to know Randy down at
• 1:05:43
  RPM I think. Our.
• 1:05:46
  First year was his first year. He was still in college
• 1:05:48
  actually, and we got to know Randy.
• 1:05:50
  And so we messaged back and forth every once in a while.
• 1:05:52
  How's it going? What's going on?
• 1:05:53
  Different things like that. And he he actually messaged me,
• 1:05:58
  I don't know, about four months ago and went, hey, yeah, I got
• 1:06:02
  this Truck Series. What do you think about Truck
• 1:06:05
  Series and coming over that way? And I'm like, yeah, Truck Series
• 1:06:08
  different, you know, people are getting into trucks I think more
• 1:06:10
  and more and something we don't see around this area very much.
• 1:06:13
  So it'd be good to see, you know, and the fans I think would
• 1:06:17
  like that. So started looking and trying to
• 1:06:19
  put a date together and said, why not the Sizzler?
• 1:06:23
  You know, why not put it with the Sizzler?
• 1:06:25
  So give them something, you know, different and unique to
• 1:06:28
  look at too and maybe bring some different bands out or get them
• 1:06:30
  into racing a little more. So it's kind of how it all kind
• 1:06:33
  of evolved and out and through. But yeah, it's just a track
• 1:06:37
  owner at RPM in Daytona and raning, raning us kind of just
• 1:06:41
  clicked and keep in contact so. Which is a a a great venue for
• 1:06:45
  track owners out there. For those who are not familiar
• 1:06:47
  with what the RPM workshops are, they're put on in combination
• 1:06:52
  with with PRI folks and and with racing promoter monthly, which
• 1:06:58
  is Joe Scott Nicky. But you get together for a
• 1:07:03
  series of workshops meetings for a couple days down in Daytona.
• 1:07:07
  You start a learning early in the morning.
• 1:07:09
  They make sure you get down early enough, whether you can go
• 1:07:11
  to Volusia if you want to watch dirt, you go to New Smyrna if
• 1:07:14
  you want to watch some stock car stuff.
• 1:07:17
  We've watched some ARCA races directly at Daytona in a suite
• 1:07:21
  that they they secured. But it's, it's really about
• 1:07:24
  networking and, and getting to meet other track owners.
• 1:07:28
  A lot of roundtable discussions about what's working.
• 1:07:31
  I mean, anything from concessions up to racing and to
• 1:07:35
  tires and to this and that. Some of our vendors are there.
• 1:07:38
  Do you name it? It's everything.
• 1:07:40
  They'll have it. They'll have a complete seminar
• 1:07:43
  on announcing a complete seminar on track safety.
• 1:07:47
  Listen, how about you guys saw at PRI this year, which PRI
• 1:07:50
  think is doing a good job now of bringing that together in
• 1:07:53
  Indianapolis too. So you know, if you can't get to
• 1:07:56
  RPM, it's, it's great. You know you're there, right in
• 1:07:59
  the heart. That's Joe's behind that and
• 1:08:03
  Tom, right? Tom Derry.
• 1:08:04
  Yep, Yep. Tom Derry is and and Trace Tracy
• 1:08:10
  spent a fair amount of more time in meetings with Tom, so she's
• 1:08:14
  got to know him a little better than I do.
• 1:08:15
  But good family. Yeah, we've we've had some good
• 1:08:19
  reactions with them. The fellow that owns Madison up
• 1:08:23
  in Wisconsin, Greg. Greg Carnes.
• 1:08:27
  Yep, Yep. We've talked to him a few times.
• 1:08:30
  The previous owner of Slinger. Todd.
• 1:08:33
  Yep. Steve Outton, Washington, I
• 1:08:36
  mean, all over the country, which is really good because you
• 1:08:39
  get to hear what else is going on outside of our area, you
• 1:08:42
  know, you know, what's working for them or not working for them
• 1:08:45
  or what they're seeing, you know, and you get compared and
• 1:08:49
  it's talk shop. It's really it's fun.
• 1:08:51
  I'm not sure the last time you've been down to RPM, but
• 1:08:54
  Greg Mccarns puts on a Midwest Best.
• 1:08:57
  Yeah. So have you been a chance to go
• 1:08:59
  to the Midwest Best party yet? We didn't go this last year.
• 1:09:03
  OK, yeah, they exactly what you said.
• 1:09:07
  You know, I now have a Northeast mini stock tour series because
• 1:09:12
  of some track owners I met at RPM.
• 1:09:15
  So it's sometimes it's a good thing and sometimes it adds more
• 1:09:19
  to your plate. But absolutely what you guys
• 1:09:21
  have said. So Buju, do you have any
• 1:09:24
  questions for him? Lewis and I have kind of
• 1:09:26
  hijacked this again. So Tabitha talked and Herman,
• 1:09:30
  and as our last guest, a couple great moments about people
• 1:09:33
  signing their car and touching moments like that.
• 1:09:35
  I'd like to know a moment that you guys had that made you think
• 1:09:39
  this is all worth it? All the stuff that we do to keep
• 1:09:41
  New Paris running, all the blood, sweat and tears I'm sure
• 1:09:44
  you've put in. What's a moment that made it
• 1:09:45
  feel worth it? You personally?
• 1:09:50
  For such things. Had to go to track camera system
• 1:10:13
  to do replays with. So when someone comes up and
• 1:10:16
  says he door slammed me turn 3 or whatever it was, you know,
• 1:10:21
  and you tell him, Oh no, he didn't you hit him.
• 1:10:23
  And you know, we can go back to the game and do that.
• 1:10:26
  But yeah, there's, I mean, there's times and and everybody
• 1:10:30
  knows it's been racing and and Drew, I'm sure you too.
• 1:10:32
  They're there's been times that you're just ready to pull your
• 1:10:35
  hair out and go. What in the world am I killing
• 1:10:37
  myself for? Adrian, did you pull?
• 1:10:40
  That out I I I don't even go to the Barber anymore.
• 1:10:43
  My hair doesn't. Grow.
• 1:10:46
  No, I'm serious. Like 10 years ago.
• 1:10:54
  I wasn't as Gray, but. Yeah, anytime you just have a
• 1:10:59
  good night of racing that that things click and all of a
• 1:11:03
  sudden, you know, where the last week you're leaving there
• 1:11:07
  locking the gate for night 1. I don't know if I ever want to
• 1:11:10
  come back to this place again. Then you'll just something will
• 1:11:13
  click the next week or whatever and you just have a great night
• 1:11:15
  of racing. You know, of course with the
• 1:11:17
  with the Knights of Destruction, you know, Tabitha covered all
• 1:11:20
  that. I mean, these people truly work
• 1:11:23
  together and make a family out of things.
• 1:11:27
  They make it a lot easier for us.
• 1:11:29
  So they'll come out, help out the track, they'll pick up
• 1:11:31
  trash. They'll do a lot of things like
• 1:11:32
  that. But and I remember a couple
• 1:11:34
  different times I went, wow, that's really cool.
• 1:11:36
  Or you know, it was a wreck on the front stretch.
• 1:11:39
  We were early in probably our second, third year and the
• 1:11:43
  driver gets out, he's standing there.
• 1:11:44
  I know he could be really upset about the situation, right?
• 1:11:47
  What does he do instead? Takes his hood pens, walks over
• 1:11:50
  to the fence and hands them to a couple kids that were standing
• 1:11:52
  there. Those kids were just so ecstatic
• 1:11:55
  to get those hood pens and I'm like, that's it right there,
• 1:11:59
  Kevin. That was a really good thing it.
• 1:12:00
  Was Kevin Whitmer that Aaron Hammer Sportsman of the Year?
• 1:12:04
  Award Hey, dad. And it was stuff like that.
• 1:12:06
  We have drivers at night destruction that hand their
• 1:12:09
  trophies out to the kids, you know, on the stand.
• 1:12:12
  As well. Yeah, racers do it too.
• 1:12:14
  But this past year, I remember walking into the pits one night
• 1:12:18
  and there's a couple of drivers that came out to me out of
• 1:12:21
  different classes and went, that was the most fun I've ever had
• 1:12:23
  on the track. This was great, you know, And it
• 1:12:25
  was like they were having fun, you know, And it's that's when I
• 1:12:28
  think I go, wow, OK, so I could be having a bad night.
• 1:12:32
  And they're like, yeah, this was great.
• 1:12:33
  I had so much fun out there. Do you see that?
• 1:12:35
  3/4 of a time I don't get to see anything.
• 1:12:36
  I'm running around like crazy. But you never know where you're
• 1:12:39
  going to find me out on a race night.
• 1:12:41
  But. And we try to be very present,
• 1:12:43
  like, you know, it is extremely important to us and has been
• 1:12:46
  since day one that when, when those gates open at 1:00 or 2:00
• 1:12:50
  or whatever, they open, Tracy's down there at the gates checking
• 1:12:54
  people in, putting wristbands on them for the pits, scanning them
• 1:12:58
  in with, we got into pit pay this year.
• 1:13:03
  And then, then I'll typically be, I'll be down in the pit
• 1:13:07
  office. So when they want to come check
• 1:13:11
  in for the evening at the transponder, they're getting it.
• 1:13:14
  I want to make sure as a track owner that I'm there to greet
• 1:13:16
  them, say hello, you know? Wish him, wish him good.
• 1:13:21
  Luck for the night the 1st. Time here.
• 1:13:22
  This is why you do things, you know?
• 1:13:24
  So and so, yeah. I try to get, I try to get down
• 1:13:27
  there and, and hand out the payouts as well during a race
• 1:13:30
  evening and, and nights of destruction as well.
• 1:13:32
  And, you know, sometimes the faces aren't always as smiling
• 1:13:36
  as they were when they got there earlier in the evening.
• 1:13:38
  But, you know, we, we try to be as present as possible and not,
• 1:13:43
  you know, not have staff handle some things.
• 1:13:47
  And, you know, and if, and if there is some drama, some stress
• 1:13:50
  or disagreement or something, you know, we'll, we'll let our
• 1:13:55
  people work on it. But if it requires it, then then
• 1:13:57
  Tracy and I are more than happy to to get involved and help
• 1:14:00
  resolve the situation. You know, you know.
• 1:14:03
  Community nights too, like our pack of backpacks and bicycle
• 1:14:06
  nights, kids nights, stuff, you know, seeing those kids out
• 1:14:09
  there and having fun and getting them involved, get them away
• 1:14:12
  from these for a little while, you know, so those are always
• 1:14:18
  fun nights for me too. I know it's like 105°.
• 1:14:21
  When we were packing 800 backpacks this year in July, it
• 1:14:24
  was hot, everybody was sweating. We're all dying back there.
• 1:14:28
  But when you're handing out 800 backpacks to kids that need them
• 1:14:31
  in the community, it's and they're so excited about getting
• 1:14:34
  them, you know, it makes big differences too.
• 1:14:39
  Real quick before we get too far in, because I know we have Will
• 1:14:41
  Wiggins coming up shortly, Sheldon Lindlag did have a
• 1:14:45
  question. You know what does when does
• 1:14:46
  practice start at New Paris? That he needs to bring out his
• 1:14:49
  streets back so. Lindlag.
• 1:14:53
  No, you're the only one that's been asking.
• 1:14:55
  We just had this conversation. Just had it tonight.
• 1:14:58
  So we've been, we've been holding #1 because of the
• 1:15:00
  weather obviously, just like you guys are saying.
• 1:15:03
  The biggest potholes I think I've seen in mine.
• 1:15:05
  I'm just going to say 50 plus years.
• 1:15:07
  So y'all don't know how old I am, but I'm old out there right
• 1:15:09
  now. The track underneath underground
• 1:15:12
  was still froze. OK.
• 1:15:13
  And so if we put people out there, guess what's going to
• 1:15:15
  happen? So a race track.
• 1:15:17
  So we've been watching that and we were just thinking no.
• 1:15:19
  And we're talking tonight about it.
• 1:15:20
  We're getting to the point about the point that we can do that.
• 1:15:22
  We've had people out there, we've cleaned the track, we've
• 1:15:25
  had the track sweepers out. So the track is ready as far as
• 1:15:29
  cleanliness goes. We were waiting for the weather
• 1:15:32
  to to roll through for us, but probably.
• 1:15:35
  Possibly, possibly. I'll throw it out there and get
• 1:15:37
  strangled for it later, but. Next week.
• 1:15:40
  Possibly, possibly this Saturday if the weather forecast changes.
• 1:15:43
  We got putting, we're also putting new, we're putting new
• 1:15:46
  stoplight lights up on the track too.
• 1:15:48
  So for our Figure 8, so you're instead of having turn one, turn
• 1:15:52
  234, you're gonna have double lights going all different
• 1:15:54
  directions out. That's where they're coming
• 1:15:56
  through those figure eights. You're seeing those lights from
• 1:15:57
  different angles. So we're actually making a
• 1:16:00
  little more progress out there as far as safety too as we
• 1:16:02
  listen to the drivers on that. So I don't know if that's the
• 1:16:06
  case. We're going to have to figure
• 1:16:08
  out how to get those through with the lights going up also,
• 1:16:11
  but. We're on.
• 1:16:12
  We're on our second weekend now trying to set up.
• 1:16:14
  Obviously the biggest thing about getting the drag started
• 1:16:17
  for the year is, is getting the weather to cooperate enough to
• 1:16:19
  turn water on. And then let's go find the 50
• 1:16:22
  leaks that you got to fix around the place.
• 1:16:25
  Usually we got it down to 5 or 6 every year, but we're still
• 1:16:27
  getting them it. Was only 5 yesterday.
• 1:16:30
  So yeah, we we possibly outsiders chance hoping to start
• 1:16:34
  practice on Saturday Sheldon. So that's an answer for you if.
• 1:16:37
  Not next Thursday. Look, kind of not.
• 1:16:39
  Next Thursday we can do that. We also we've been getting a lot
• 1:16:43
  of requests about tires. The first load of tires will be
• 1:16:47
  in towards the middle to end of this week and we'll be prepared
• 1:16:53
  to start getting the people their pre season tires by
• 1:16:56
  Saturday and possibly Friday night there.
• 1:16:59
  So yeah, it's getting to be Showtime and you know it's time
• 1:17:04
  to start going through. We've already checked all the
• 1:17:06
  lights, everything's working there.
• 1:17:10
  Replaced the light that's going into the track entrance 'cause
• 1:17:12
  that gets a little dark there when they're waiting to enter
• 1:17:14
  the track. So that's.
• 1:17:15
  Brighter now. We added that this year we'll
• 1:17:19
  slowly progress on putting upgrading some of the speakers
• 1:17:22
  around the the facility. We've already gotten a couple of
• 1:17:26
  nice amplifiers. The pits is much better than
• 1:17:30
  ever was the tracks better than it was.
• 1:17:31
  But we still got, we've still got some improvements to make
• 1:17:34
  and, you know, we'll just keep pushing forward.
• 1:17:39
  I know April 18th. But yeah, April 18th is like.
• 1:17:42
  Night of destruction, you know, if you're not ready, then the
• 1:17:46
  arena of destruction will get you ready for sure.
• 1:17:49
  That's and I keep I keep trying to trademark that because I
• 1:17:52
  think that's just a cool name to call it.
• 1:17:54
  Is it because it truly is an arena.
• 1:17:57
  And if people don't know what that means, come watch Pac-Man
• 1:17:59
  and you'll know what it means when it's the arena.
• 1:18:01
  It was a fun race that that we invented, too.
• 1:18:04
  Between the two of us, we're trying to figure out a new race
• 1:18:06
  and Chris kind of came up with it.
• 1:18:10
  I tweaked it and then made the Pac-Man over the winter.
• 1:18:14
  So that was, yeah, that was, that's been a fun race for us.
• 1:18:19
  I'll give you guys credit, but I'm going to blame Lewis for
• 1:18:21
  stealing it. It was a nice addition to the
• 1:18:23
  September. Lewis did steal it.
• 1:18:25
  I did. I admit it.
• 1:18:27
  It's like you came up with Ghostbusters too, you know, for
• 1:18:30
  our October 1. And that's the other thing with
• 1:18:32
  knighted restriction. We are always open to new ideas.
• 1:18:34
  Always trying something now. Moving flagpole race.
• 1:18:39
  Moving flagpole race. We've.
• 1:18:40
  Done it, We've done that and we used to have it.
• 1:18:44
  We'd put it on the record and move it.
• 1:18:46
  So we've done that one. And then, you know, one time,
• 1:18:48
  one year, we went to tires and thank you, Frank Gasco for
• 1:18:51
  moving it because he got on the tire, moved the tire 3/4 away
• 1:18:56
  around the track. And nobody can figure out where
• 1:18:57
  the tire was except the Pike. But that was a fun one, too.
• 1:19:02
  So when we went from poles to tires, that kind of changed his
• 1:19:05
  dynamics also. But we used to have two.
• 1:19:07
  We used to have them on wreckers.
• 1:19:08
  And then when we redid our infield and did, you know, spent
• 1:19:12
  a lot of money to redo the infield one year and a lot of
• 1:19:14
  drainage to keep that dry, which is great.
• 1:19:17
  You know, racing, it dries out really faster now.
• 1:19:19
  But we kind of went away for that for a little bit to give
• 1:19:21
  that infield a chance to to grow in one year.
• 1:19:23
  And then, yeah, so I think that's why we went to tires that
• 1:19:26
  year. It is.
• 1:19:27
  It is definitely Sunday, Sunday morning after night of
• 1:19:30
  instruction. The crew gets there extra early
• 1:19:32
  and they get all the big stuff off the track and then it's
• 1:19:36
  typically myself sitting in a sitting in a skid loader with a
• 1:19:39
  broom on it he gets. The ACI have the tractor with
• 1:19:43
  the brush. He gets the ACI.
• 1:19:47
  Don't get all dusty as as much, but it's, you know, it's a, it's
• 1:19:52
  a good eight hours and then, you know, the tracks still not
• 1:19:54
  ready. You got to bring in, you got to
• 1:19:56
  bring in a professional sweeping service.
• 1:19:58
  And then sometimes the fire department hose that thing down
• 1:20:01
  and you know, because we want it.
• 1:20:03
  It's safe and. Have as much traction for the
• 1:20:08
  racers, which are typically coming in the very next week.
• 1:20:13
  Yeah. So.
• 1:20:15
  Awesome. Well we appreciate your time
• 1:20:16
  tonight and certainly we'll have done this year.
• 1:20:21
  Where can they find new pair of Speedway on social media and
• 1:20:24
  then the web? New pair of speedway.com and.
• 1:20:29
  And we've got the Facebook. We've got the Facebook page for
• 1:20:33
  new pair of Speedway. We also have individual driver
• 1:20:37
  groups within Facebook. We've kind of gotten away from
• 1:20:41
  using those. They weren't, they weren't
• 1:20:42
  overly popular, but you know, we can be.
• 1:20:45
  We can be found both places. Also, we're in our fifth or
• 1:20:48
  sixth year now using Slash, partnering with my race pass.
• 1:20:55
  They do. They host the format for our
• 1:20:58
  website. We have some personal control
• 1:21:01
  over that website to make changes and schedules and stuff
• 1:21:04
  like that, but then through the My Race Pass app, it's been
• 1:21:09
  really good. Another thing we got into I
• 1:21:11
  mentioned earlier was the pit pay, which is part of the same
• 1:21:14
  group that does ticket Hoss. It's made it nice for drivers a
• 1:21:18
  they can save themselves a couple bucks buy their pit pass
• 1:21:22
  ahead of time. And waivers out of time.
• 1:21:24
  Do their waivers ahead of time and for insurance purposes.
• 1:21:27
  They literally can show up at the track.
• 1:21:29
  Show us the QR code on their phone, we scan it, they're
• 1:21:33
  checked in. Done.
• 1:21:34
  All they got to do is come see us, find a transponder.
• 1:21:38
  So yeah, this is this has been nice.
• 1:21:40
  It's nice to be able to sit outside and do this.
• 1:21:42
  It's. Like we need a power cord
• 1:21:43
  because we're all in this. Power 444 tab was stuck in her
• 1:21:46
  car. Yeah, and our laptop's about to
• 1:21:48
  die. So what's the?
• 1:21:52
  We're not trying to escape, but. Oh, no one at eight O 5.
• 1:21:57
  We're sorry. Yeah, but but you might owe him
• 1:22:00
  a a street stock race one time. You might, you know, maybe he
• 1:22:03
  might, you know, be interested in bringing Ohio women, you
• 1:22:05
  know, over there. So it might be like, yeah, you
• 1:22:07
  know, we kind of, you know, we got you in time a little bit.
• 1:22:09
  Maybe we could talk about a race over here so.
• 1:22:12
  Well, I'm also. Watching, but you know, the
• 1:22:16
  bottom line is we appreciate what the three of you do for the
• 1:22:19
  the sport, short track racing and and your perseverance and
• 1:22:23
  sticking with it then and Louis over the last few years getting
• 1:22:30
  to know you. You know it's not just business
• 1:22:32
  thing. We can.
• 1:22:33
  We can send as well. Oh yeah.
• 1:22:35
  And I, I just, I, you know what I, how I know about you guys and
• 1:22:39
  everything that you've done for me personally and
• 1:22:41
  professionally. So that's where, you know, I
• 1:22:43
  have your guys's back over at New Paris because you, you who
• 1:22:46
  are incredible and have treated me with nothing but respect to
• 1:22:49
  my time there. And I've been there long enough,
• 1:22:51
  right? I, I joke sometimes I'm like,
• 1:22:52
  we're fights. I heard about all these fights
• 1:22:56
  and I feel like I've been a little, I've been denied a
• 1:22:57
  little bit, but we're not also encouraging that either, so.
• 1:23:02
  No, no, no. No, no, we went from family
• 1:23:04
  friendly place. If we, if we.
• 1:23:06
  Changing that. We've.
• 1:23:08
  Kept it down the last few years to about one fight per year or
• 1:23:11
  so. I think we're that's enough.
• 1:23:12
  A lot better than when I was going there as a kid.
• 1:23:14
  But you know, we'd still, we'd prefer the zero.
• 1:23:18
  Yeah, we get it. People are so passionate,
• 1:23:20
  especially the especially the regular stock car razors, I
• 1:23:23
  mean. Adrenaline.
• 1:23:25
  It's they are so passionate and dedicated to this sport.
• 1:23:28
  I, I don't, I don't know how they do it, but and you know,
• 1:23:31
  maybe I should spend some more time going around the track with
• 1:23:33
  a few more cars and, and maybe I'll, I'll figure out what that
• 1:23:36
  is. But once again, thanks you guys.
• 1:23:38
  I know, again, thank you Chris and Tracy and I know we'll see
• 1:23:40
  you on April 18th for the season opener Night of Destruction and
• 1:23:44
  then the week after on April 25th there's also the season
• 1:23:47
  over opener for Weekly Racing. So again, lots to come for class
• 1:23:50
  racing and we'll get ready to go right.
• 1:23:53
  So we'll see you guys here in a couple weeks.
• 1:23:59
  Yeah, we'll we'll pull Will in and and we'll have Chris and
• 1:24:04
  Tracy exit stage left here. So again, Will Wiggins, thank
• 1:24:07
  you so much for coming on tonight.
• 1:24:09
  I know we're just a few minutes behind, but hey, like maybe
• 1:24:12
  maybe if you need a race up here that you could say, hey, you
• 1:24:15
  know, remember this one time on the podcast when you took a
• 1:24:17
  little bit, you know, But again, Will, I know you have a huge
• 1:24:21
  show coming up on April 11th, but I'm going to have Drew take
• 1:24:26
  over because I feel I need a drink really quick.
• 1:24:28
  I'll always my throat's going to, you're going to hear like
• 1:24:30
  grogginess here in a second. So Drew, why don't you go ahead
• 1:24:33
  and get us started with Will? Because I know I only know you a
• 1:24:36
  few. I've met you a couple times, but
• 1:24:38
  I know you and Drew have a really close relationship over
• 1:24:40
  the years. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:24:43
  So Will, welcome to our show Monday Night Rewind.
• 1:24:46
  You had me on your podcast a couple weeks ago and we talked
• 1:24:49
  to the Ohio base Tonight. We're going to introduce the
• 1:24:52
  Michiana Group to what the wheel man is.
• 1:24:54
  So I think there needs to be a little bit of clarity.
• 1:24:58
  I don't think there's much difference between the Street
• 1:25:00
  Stocks and the Super Stock series.
• 1:25:02
  So let's talk about some of the local drivers that will be
• 1:25:05
  racing with us, the rule set compared to what's here.
• 1:25:09
  So maybe we can pick up a couple more drivers that will race at
• 1:25:11
  Russell's M40 Speedway on April 11th.
• 1:25:15
  Yeah. So over the years we've my goal
• 1:25:20
  has been to slowly bring St. Stock racing more like
• 1:25:23
  modifieds. Unfortunately, every year it
• 1:25:24
  seems like outside of Ohio they just take another leap into
• 1:25:28
  limited late models as far as St.
• 1:25:31
  Stock chassis and and front ends and calipers and rotors and
• 1:25:35
  spindles is the huge thing. This year that changed and over
• 1:25:38
  the last two seasons up, up your way.
• 1:25:40
  But every year I try to make the rule package to where as we
• 1:25:44
  travel, we can gain more local guys.
• 1:25:48
  I'd say this year as far as Michigan, Indiana, Ohio goes and
• 1:25:52
  the Wheelman series now anywhere else in Ohio, you're going to be
• 1:25:55
  wait. They probably wouldn't be
• 1:25:57
  allowed because they're like historic rules, like probably
• 1:26:00
  late 90s straight stock rules. But the biggest rules, different
• 1:26:05
  difference for us that I've noticed, like Tyler Hufford,
• 1:26:08
  he's ran with us many times over the years and there's been a
• 1:26:11
  couple guys out of his shop that ran with us.
• 1:26:13
  General Jerry Andrews has ran with us.
• 1:26:15
  His dad, I know Tyler's fiance has ran with us, Ricky with
• 1:26:21
  Duke, You know, we got Cody, Cody Lawler from Motor State.
• 1:26:26
  Anybody who has a Motor State accountant knows Cody.
• 1:26:28
  He's a my sales Rep up here in Ohio for Motor State.
• 1:26:31
  But I know he's been planning on making the trip.
• 1:26:33
  I just spoke to him this past Friday.
• 1:26:37
  But the biggest difference is, from what I read in the rules
• 1:26:40
  this going into this season #1's carburetor, which varies in
• 1:26:45
  street stocks from track to track, usually as it is anyway
• 1:26:48
  #2's tires, which is the same thing.
• 1:26:51
  Every track you go to is on a different tire.
• 1:26:54
  But the biggest difference I would say this year is just
• 1:26:57
  front suspension, mostly in the spindles.
• 1:27:01
  You know, we still make our guys run stock style spindles.
• 1:27:06
  You know, they're allowed to run, you know, basically any
• 1:27:12
  spindle drop you want. So talking with, you know, some
• 1:27:17
  of these guys like Tyler who does a lot of these spindles for
• 1:27:20
  these guys, that was that's really the biggest difference.
• 1:27:22
  So to to run this series, it will be very simple just to
• 1:27:26
  throw a #2 spin one. They're very easy to come by.
• 1:27:29
  They're very high commodity. I mean, everybody's got them
• 1:27:32
  laying around shops. You still get the same big
• 1:27:35
  rotor, the same big caliper. It's just steel instead of
• 1:27:38
  aluminum and stuff. So but I do know we got a
• 1:27:41
  handful of guys. There's not much we need you to
• 1:27:43
  change. Just basically carburetors,
• 1:27:44
  tires and we allow open engine packages.
• 1:27:48
  So as long as it's a cast block and a cast head, you're legal.
• 1:27:51
  We allow basically any exhaust setup as long as it's not the
• 1:27:56
  windows. Don't like try wise frame
• 1:28:01
  heights. You can be as little as 5 inches
• 1:28:03
  or as little as 4 inches with the series.
• 1:28:06
  And we're our basic cars are about 3100 lbs fifty 7% left.
• 1:28:13
  So I I said we're pretty much in the same wheelhouse might be a
• 1:28:16
  percent from track to track here in their left side, which is as
• 1:28:19
  easy as changing 1% of your offsets.
• 1:28:22
  You can gain a percent of left or take a percent of left away.
• 1:28:25
  So there's not, there's not a lot to do like people think when
• 1:28:27
  traveling or trying the series when they come into your home
• 1:28:30
  track, you don't have to change your setup.
• 1:28:33
  And Ricky would do prove that. One year we came up to Kalamazoo
• 1:28:36
  and he didn't change anything to join our series other than the
• 1:28:39
  carburetor and his tires and he smoked us in the third groove.
• 1:28:44
  So with A10 bolt rear end stock calipers, I I'll never forget
• 1:28:49
  that. My tech guys come up like, hey
• 1:28:51
  man, what what do you want me to look at this car?
• 1:28:53
  And I'm looking at his front end.
• 1:28:54
  I'm like, dude, you got stock spindles and stuff.
• 1:28:56
  He's like, yeah, like like get A10 bolt in this thing.
• 1:28:58
  I'm like, yeah, there's nothing to look at.
• 1:29:01
  But anyway, so you don't have to have fancy cars and all this
• 1:29:04
  stuff to come round. Just a couple changes will get
• 1:29:06
  you in there. And our tech guys are really
• 1:29:09
  good. We've got, you know, we travel
• 1:29:11
  with this year we'll have three to five really good tech guys
• 1:29:15
  with the series. I mean, we bring an ABC jig and
• 1:29:18
  you know, we have a carburetor guy, we have an engine guy, we
• 1:29:20
  have a, you know, chassis guy. We try to make sure everybody
• 1:29:23
  that joins the series is on the same page.
• 1:29:25
  And I think that's what's built. It's the brand so much over the
• 1:29:28
  years as we inspect what we expect when you come to the
• 1:29:31
  series, you know, so. So not only do you have the Ohio
• 1:29:36
  Super Stock series, you have the Juice Box series.
• 1:29:40
  Talk about that. That's a really cool thing that
• 1:29:42
  you guys are doing as well. Dude, my wife's about ready to
• 1:29:44
  kill me over these juice boxes. Anybody that knows me, I'm, I'm
• 1:29:48
  not a halfway kind of guy. I'm either in or I'm out.
• 1:29:51
  Like I, there's no my foots, not halfway into anything.
• 1:29:55
  I'm very passionate about things I choose to do.
• 1:29:58
  And the juice boxes have just been, I don't know, they just
• 1:30:03
  hit my sweet spot. I guess watching the smile on
• 1:30:05
  these kids faces and being able to hand them trophies and give
• 1:30:07
  them an opportunity to race on the big track like they're
• 1:30:10
  heroes. And you know, for me, it's
• 1:30:14
  keeping racing alive. You know, unfortunately, as
• 1:30:16
  promoters and owners and things, they've get so lost in the
• 1:30:20
  financial burdens and the, you know, trying to come up with the
• 1:30:23
  next biggest event or the next biggest show or the next sponsor
• 1:30:27
  or the next this or that. They I wish I could get on my
• 1:30:34
  camera right now and send a picture of my shop.
• 1:30:36
  I probably have 12 juice boxes laying around on top of four St.
• 1:30:40
  stocks. But for me, it's just a passion
• 1:30:45
  with the kids. So we started this thing, you
• 1:30:48
  know, couple last season kind of took it over and it, it was
• 1:30:53
  cool. We started with just my son and
• 1:30:55
  one of the kid, the first race of the year.
• 1:30:56
  And by the end of the season we had 12 kids and probably 75
• 1:31:01
  people on the racetrack, all their parents, grandmas,
• 1:31:03
  grandpas, aunts, uncles. So from a track perspective, the
• 1:31:08
  cool part about booking the Wheel Man series is not only do
• 1:31:11
  you get 20 to 30 St. stocks show up through gate, our guys travel
• 1:31:14
  four to five people per car. So that's a huge pit gate
• 1:31:18
  presence as well as we have the juice boxes who are going to be
• 1:31:23
  heavily traveling this year with us.
• 1:31:24
  These families are committed to the series, are committed to me.
• 1:31:27
  They believe in my mission. I mean, we've got, I couldn't
• 1:31:31
  even tell you. I bet you when we show up at
• 1:31:33
  M40, there's going to be no less than 12 carts that show up
• 1:31:36
  there. Some tracks we go to will
• 1:31:38
  probably have more juice boxes than they have in some of their
• 1:31:40
  nightly divisions. You know, so that's the exciting
• 1:31:44
  part about the juice boxes is these kids are going to be the
• 1:31:47
  ones that buy cars and get in the compacts and get in street
• 1:31:49
  stocks and late models and you know, mini wedges and quarter
• 1:31:52
  midgets and you know, that's this is the start, you know, so.
• 1:31:57
  The interactions with the conversations between Tabitha
• 1:32:02
  and the folks from New Paris Speedway is getting fan
• 1:32:06
  interaction. This is something you're doing
• 1:32:07
  with the juice boxes. Explain at M40 how a kid or a
• 1:32:12
  young race fan might have an opportunity to participate in
• 1:32:15
  the show. So we have my, I have some of
• 1:32:19
  the best staff and drivers in the in, you know, of course,
• 1:32:21
  every series promoter says that, but we truly do.
• 1:32:24
  So these things are like 400 bucks.
• 1:32:25
  You can find them brand new online right now.
• 1:32:27
  They're completely sold out. Your kid can run these things
• 1:32:30
  from age 3 to 8 years old, So there's not a racing car you can
• 1:32:34
  buy in the country that you can race for 400 bucks and your kid
• 1:32:37
  can get five years of enjoyment out of it.
• 1:32:39
  Not only that, they're becoming huge.
• 1:32:41
  If you most tracks, I would say most, there's quite a few
• 1:32:43
  tracks. I would say six.
• 1:32:45
  I've noticed this year that has picked up the division so they
• 1:32:48
  can't even keep in stock right now.
• 1:32:50
  So I just the other day found four I just bought.
• 1:32:55
  I'm putting bodies on. I'm painting them getting I just
• 1:32:57
  ordered wheels for them and different, you know, different
• 1:32:59
  parts that they need to get them race ready and stuff.
• 1:33:03
  But it they don't. There's there's the cool part
• 1:33:06
  is, is what we're going to do between with a couple of my
• 1:33:08
  staff, a couple of my drivers and the ones I just bought,
• 1:33:10
  we're going to randomly select people out of the crowd.
• 1:33:15
  Their kids could be out of the pit, Pit kids could be
• 1:33:18
  grandstand kids. Depending on the venue we're at
• 1:33:21
  this summer, how much time they have.
• 1:33:23
  We may give everybody the kid that comes to the gate a ticket
• 1:33:26
  and just raffle kids off, which will obviously take more time.
• 1:33:29
  So if there's promoters trying to sell hot dogs and hamburgers,
• 1:33:31
  you know, we'll do it that way. The quick way to do it would
• 1:33:34
  just be have our teams and drivers just go to staff, go
• 1:33:37
  pick a couple kids out. So we'll probably coming to M40I
• 1:33:41
  know for a fact I'll have 123, possibly 3 or 4 carts available
• 1:33:49
  for fans to be able to have their kids come out.
• 1:33:52
  You won't need anything. We'll have helmets provided, the
• 1:33:55
  cart provided, so we'll pick 3 or 4, three to five year old
• 1:33:59
  kids and we'll pick three to four, 6 to 8 year old kids that
• 1:34:03
  will also get a chance to ride those same carts because we'll
• 1:34:05
  run two different races, 3:00 to 5:00 and then 6 to 8.
• 1:34:09
  So we'll have about, you know, 4:00 to 8:00.
• 1:34:11
  We'll have at least 6 to 8 kids that'll get a chance to go on
• 1:34:14
  the big track and race the juice box and you know, have a chance
• 1:34:18
  to win some trophies. We got some really cool custom
• 1:34:20
  trophies made for this deal this summer as well as some, some,
• 1:34:25
  we'll call them participation prizes.
• 1:34:28
  And one of our families is doing custom tumblers for all the kids
• 1:34:32
  that, well, it's going to be about the 1st 20 kids that race
• 1:34:36
  this summer. She did 20 custom cups with our
• 1:34:38
  logo on it. And I have custom stickers made
• 1:34:41
  for every race. So the kids will be able to put
• 1:34:44
  on their juice box bumpers where they've been, the track they
• 1:34:47
  raced at the year, the Ohio Wheelman juice box.
• 1:34:49
  Just kind of some memories for the kids.
• 1:34:51
  Like we have kill stickers for the racers, you know, heat wind
• 1:34:53
  Dash wins fast on features. Just something for the kids to
• 1:34:56
  be able to at the end of the summer be like, wow, we've been
• 1:34:59
  to Michigan and M40, we've been to Corrigan Oil, we've been to
• 1:35:01
  Jenner's Town, we've been to, you know, Midvale, so on and so
• 1:35:05
  forth. Just kind of a cool deal.
• 1:35:07
  So, Lewis or do you have any questions for Will?
• 1:35:13
  Well, I was thinking, you know, what's the, you know, as you've
• 1:35:16
  had the Street Stock series, I know you've had the modified
• 1:35:18
  series in the past and, and, and you've raced too, if I recall
• 1:35:22
  correctly, right. So, you know, with all of this,
• 1:35:25
  what do you find has been the challenge for you, You know,
• 1:35:28
  being a racer because, you know, sometimes you're behind the
• 1:35:31
  wheel yourself and then, you know, being a a series owner and
• 1:35:34
  sometimes interacting with some of the same drivers.
• 1:35:37
  Well, you might race against, you know, at another track or I
• 1:35:40
  want to say you were at the Trident last year, if I remember
• 1:35:42
  racing. So you know, then obviously that
• 1:35:45
  race ended with some excitement. And so, you know, how do you how
• 1:35:49
  do you handle that being kind of you're not just one or the
• 1:35:53
  other, you're all in on all of it, as you said, right?
• 1:35:56
  So, you know, how do you handle that?
• 1:35:58
  Yeah, So it's, it's some nights it's hard because for me as a
• 1:36:02
  promoter, I I get one side of the business and on the same
• 1:36:07
  side I put on the driver's hat. I've been fully invested in
• 1:36:09
  cars. I mean, I own three St. stocks
• 1:36:12
  that will be running this summer.
• 1:36:13
  We have one of my shop people know the Merc, John Bennett, the
• 1:36:16
  O3. We are bringing her back out
• 1:36:19
  this summer. him and I are slowly tweaking and massaging it
• 1:36:22
  back to life. But you'll see that this year in
• 1:36:26
  the series, this summer, eventually.
• 1:36:27
  We're hoping for Dinnerstown. But, you know, that's, it's kind
• 1:36:32
  of it. You know, I'm able to wear both
• 1:36:33
  hats. But there are times that make it
• 1:36:35
  difficult. You know, I did not race at all
• 1:36:38
  last summer. That's a year I took off the
• 1:36:40
  year just to focus on the series.
• 1:36:43
  But I think racers appreciate it because I understand where
• 1:36:47
  they're coming from when they come, you know, when they're
• 1:36:50
  upset or don't agree with the call or something, you know, I
• 1:36:53
  can man up and just like, listen, I get it.
• 1:36:55
  Yeah, I suck. I made a terrible call tonight,
• 1:36:58
  you know, I apologize. It'll I wish I could tell you it
• 1:37:01
  never happened again. And you know, it's part of
• 1:37:05
  racing and it's an unfortunate side of it.
• 1:37:06
  But you know, I think guys, I think I just get more respect
• 1:37:09
  because of that. I'm not just a guy trying to
• 1:37:11
  make money off them. You know, I'm, I'm in the
• 1:37:14
  trenches with them. I'm in the motor state catalogs
• 1:37:16
  trying to find the same parts they are.
• 1:37:18
  They're getting discontinued or out of, you know, out of stock
• 1:37:20
  or, you know, thrashing. We got guys in my shop right now
• 1:37:24
  thrashing cars together, trying to make sure we're or fully
• 1:37:27
  ready to come out and compete. And, you know, so I think that's
• 1:37:31
  just it. There's just so many hats I got
• 1:37:33
  to wear. And I think people appreciate
• 1:37:35
  that because I, I can level with them.
• 1:37:37
  Like, yeah, I get it. The cost sucks.
• 1:37:38
  That's why we switched tires this year.
• 1:37:39
  You know, I, I, I don't feel right selling Hoosiers for $200
• 1:37:43
  when an American racer is willing to bend over backwards
• 1:37:45
  for our business. And now I can resell our weeks.
• 1:37:48
  We're saving $30 a tire this year.
• 1:37:50
  That's $120.00 a set. I mean, that's freaking pit
• 1:37:53
  passes for the race that night, you know, for your whole team.
• 1:37:56
  That's big time money. You know, for our traveling
• 1:37:59
  teams, that's, you know, I'm a racer, I understand the cost.
• 1:38:03
  So I try to save everywhere we can.
• 1:38:04
  And if it means we got to change tires and you know, we go into a
• 1:38:07
  company that wants our business and that's where we're going to
• 1:38:09
  be. Well, and I know that around the
• 1:38:12
  same time that Barry from Great Lakes Super Sprints announced
• 1:38:17
  that he was changing tires and, and I remember seeing him at the
• 1:38:20
  Michigan Auto racing fan club. And I said, that's kind of like
• 1:38:23
  sending the message, isn't it? And I said, not that that may
• 1:38:25
  have been his goal. He said, Oh no, that was the
• 1:38:28
  goal is to to send a message, right?
• 1:38:31
  Like that. We cannot continue to operate at
• 1:38:34
  this level, you know, and, and put on a good product or put out
• 1:38:38
  a good product when tires are killing our product, right?
• 1:38:41
  And maybe not, maybe not killing, maybe that's a strong
• 1:38:44
  way to put it, but it's huge cost, you know, that that teams
• 1:38:50
  are taking on that there's no almost like no relief insight.
• 1:38:54
  And so I know, you know, you made that switch.
• 1:38:56
  I know Russell's M40 Speedway's the only track in this local
• 1:39:00
  area that said, you know, we're not going to go with Hoosier
• 1:39:02
  anymore. We're, you know, we're switching
• 1:39:04
  over. And so, and I know that wasn't
• 1:39:06
  popular, right with with Plymouth IN being, you know,
• 1:39:09
  right there, purple, purple power right down there.
• 1:39:12
  And so, you know, this area is very much Hoosier loyal, right?
• 1:39:15
  I mean, everywhere. But you know, have you gotten
• 1:39:18
  any, you know, blowback or, or negative feedback on that tire
• 1:39:22
  change or your team's like, hey, you know, like this is going to
• 1:39:25
  be good for us. Maybe the speeds won't be the
• 1:39:27
  same or maybe the timing won't be the same, but we're also
• 1:39:29
  saving a lot of money. Yeah, I think racers are racers.
• 1:39:33
  You know, we as a series, I limit the guys in the amount of
• 1:39:36
  tires they buy, right? Because, you know, as racers
• 1:39:38
  just like myself, when I go out and race, if there's 4 tires I'm
• 1:39:41
  allowed to buy, I'm buying 4. You know, whether I can truly
• 1:39:44
  afford it or can't afford it or want to afford it or, you know,
• 1:39:47
  irregardless, I'm buying four. And sometimes, as racers were
• 1:39:49
  our own worst enemies. And so we put a tire on last
• 1:39:54
  year and I saved my team $5000 on one season just in tires.
• 1:39:59
  Beginning of the year, I was a jerk.
• 1:40:01
  This is stupid. You know, mid season I was,
• 1:40:04
  dude, that was the smartest thing you did all year, you
• 1:40:06
  know, you know, yeah. Could I buy 4 tires in a week?
• 1:40:09
  Sure. But now I've got, I saved enough
• 1:40:11
  money, I can freshen my motor, you know, I can, you know, buy a
• 1:40:15
  couple sets of shocks for next year and and try some new stuff.
• 1:40:18
  And so by the end of the year, the guys just probably a few
• 1:40:22
  guys that still hate it because there's guys that want stickers
• 1:40:25
  every weekend, right? But the mass of our series was
• 1:40:30
  very thankful to especially the blue power guy.
• 1:40:32
  They can't afford for you know, they're buying two, one or two
• 1:40:34
  regardless, because that's what they can afford now.
• 1:40:37
  They don't feel out competed, out bought.
• 1:40:40
  You know they can't. They're not.
• 1:40:41
  Nobody can buy wins in the series I guess is how I easiest
• 1:40:45
  way to put it. I will tell you my first time in
• 1:40:49
  13 years I'm open to tire testing this year.
• 1:40:54
  Wow. For different brands.
• 1:40:55
  So we'll leave it at that AU wait till March to give you your
• 1:41:01
  tire increase which is almost $30 more tire than what you've
• 1:41:06
  been paying. That changes your opinion of
• 1:41:09
  things and we've made it known to other.
• 1:41:13
  We we tend to try to be a leader in sports, compact racing and
• 1:41:17
  we've been very loyal to a certain tire carrier and we've
• 1:41:21
  made it very apparent to competitors that for the first
• 1:41:24
  time in 13 years we were open to tire testing.
• 1:41:28
  Yeah, My cost was just to get the tires last year to my door.
• 1:41:32
  It cost me $26 per tire between shipping and tax per per per
• 1:41:38
  tire just to get it to my door to be able to resell it, which
• 1:41:41
  is just like they can't. There's no nothing left.
• 1:41:45
  There's a combination of everything.
• 1:41:46
  It has to be a good tire that fits the need of our series of
• 1:41:49
  building the world's fastest compacts.
• 1:41:51
  It has to be an economical tire and it has to be a good tire.
• 1:41:55
  We're not just gonna switch to get a a cheap pricing.
• 1:41:59
  But at the end of the day, I don't want to leave Hoosier, but
• 1:42:03
  there's more options out there now and it's time to to wake
• 1:42:05
  people up. And it's of almost 5050.
• 1:42:09
  There was not ever an American race tire up here at a track.
• 1:42:14
  It was big news when Cobra went to Galesburg for a year or two.
• 1:42:18
  What the even bigger news was Berlin Raceway going to American
• 1:42:22
  races, Russell's important Speedway, Angola Motorsport
• 1:42:25
  Speedway. You go even more down South.
• 1:42:29
  Well, I don't know if you're equivalent.
• 1:42:31
  They are picking off the the purple gang like any numbers
• 1:42:35
  down there, down South in Florida, Georgia, where they
• 1:42:38
  used to have a lot of control down there.
• 1:42:40
  Again, I believe in, you know, fair equity of market and not
• 1:42:45
  understanding that, but you got to do what's right for the
• 1:42:47
  divers. We're at a time where the
• 1:42:49
  expenses are getting higher with fuel, parts are getting
• 1:42:52
  expensiver and it's it's time for the travelling series, the
• 1:42:57
  race tracks to stand up to these ones that are gouging these
• 1:43:00
  drivers for money. Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:43:04
  That's kind of where we're at, man.
• 1:43:05
  We've tried, we've tested a bunch of tires and these that
• 1:43:08
  seem to be the best fit for the series.
• 1:43:09
  It was very comparable to the Comanche, same times, probably a
• 1:43:14
  little bit, but probably a little bit faster on lap 30.
• 1:43:16
  They don't have as much fall off, which is a good thing, you
• 1:43:20
  know, can be a good thing. But we're excited to put the
• 1:43:25
  push shows on this summer. We got a lot of really cool
• 1:43:27
  venues. We're bringing the belts back,
• 1:43:29
  which anybody, I mean, I've had a few tracks this winter reach
• 1:43:33
  out to me like, hey, where do you order those belts from?
• 1:43:35
  You know, I'm like, it's hard to give that stuff.
• 1:43:38
  I spent a lot of time and Drew knows he has cool awards too.
• 1:43:41
  I mean, as promoters, you try your very best to try to think
• 1:43:44
  outside the box and bring cool awards to your show because, you
• 1:43:47
  know, as from a racing perspective, the money's nice.
• 1:43:51
  But really, we waste for we race for trophies and stickers.
• 1:43:53
  And when people come to show up to your event because they want
• 1:43:57
  their trophy as much as they want the money, you've won,
• 1:44:00
  you've succeeded as promoter. And those belt races we've put
• 1:44:03
  on, it's been our have been our marquee events for the past five
• 1:44:06
  seasons. They're not cheap to pay for,
• 1:44:11
  but at the end of the day, you know, those shows are our
• 1:44:15
  biggest car counts of the season.
• 1:44:17
  You know, this year we're going on the 7th annual Josh Neff
• 1:44:20
  Memorial that we've had 40 plus cars at that that event, you
• 1:44:24
  know, which is super cool. So do.
• 1:44:28
  You want to talk a little bit about your venues that you're
• 1:44:30
  going to that you're as I think you've run on what, a 7 or 8
• 1:44:34
  race schedule? If I saw right, I could be
• 1:44:36
  wrong. So I have not.
• 1:44:38
  I didn't check like today like I wanted to, but I felt like it
• 1:44:41
  was a, you know, couple races there.
• 1:44:44
  You're dead on. So I mean, typically we like to
• 1:44:46
  stay between 8:00 to 12:00 just so guys have half their summer
• 1:44:50
  still to be able to go support local racing because last thing
• 1:44:53
  I that's what I want to do. We've always kept it minimal so
• 1:44:56
  guys can choose to go home and race and you know, support big
• 1:44:59
  shows outside of our area. But you know, we are still
• 1:45:05
  potentially talking to a couple tracks right now looking to add
• 1:45:09
  to that. We're not completely, I would
• 1:45:11
  say it's not when I'm not done, but nonetheless, you know,
• 1:45:16
  obviously everybody you know it's.
• 1:45:17
  Two weeks before race season, right?
• 1:45:19
  Well, yeah, in Michigan, Ohio doesn't start till May.
• 1:45:24
  I still got four weeks from Ohio time, but yeah, so, you know,
• 1:45:31
  obviously we've been killing it promoting the heck out of M40
• 1:45:34
  coming up. I know I've talked with Bill
• 1:45:36
  Russell. We've we've, you know, been back
• 1:45:38
  and forth for cross promoting and and doing shows back and
• 1:45:41
  forth and we're excited. You know, we've we were there
• 1:45:45
  our first year, I believe, with the series and we had a three
• 1:45:48
  wide finish going across the flag standard wrecking and
• 1:45:52
  nobody got tore up, thankfully, but it was a cool finish and I
• 1:45:55
  can remember fans high 5 me when I'm trying to find drew like, Oh
• 1:45:58
  yes, you own the series. Like, man, that's the coolest
• 1:46:00
  show we've seen all summer. Man, thanks for coming and tell,
• 1:46:03
  tell me want you to come back. And just the just the that's for
• 1:46:06
  me as promoter, that's the joy I get is the fan interaction.
• 1:46:09
  Like, dude, you guys got shirts with you today or you know, I
• 1:46:13
  drove all the way. We have a couple that drives
• 1:46:15
  Mike and Vicki Delaney. They follow us all over the
• 1:46:17
  country. They've seen us at M40 our first
• 1:46:20
  season and they have followed us every race since.
• 1:46:24
  He does the paintings for our champions for us.
• 1:46:26
  I mean, they're just die hard fans out of Michigan and we
• 1:46:29
  always joke about doing a Michigan versus Ohio St. stock
• 1:46:32
  showdown or something, you know, Ohio versus Michigan and you
• 1:46:36
  know something. And but yes, we're excited.
• 1:46:39
  M40 April 11th and then gives our guys about 3 or 4 weeks off
• 1:46:43
  when we travel up to Jennerstown for May, May 9th, that'll have
• 1:46:48
  the street stocks to pro compacts and the juice boxes.
• 1:46:52
  And then May 23rd we go to Midvale.
• 1:46:56
  That'll be our race one of the King of Ohio miniseries we have.
• 1:47:01
  We were bringing that back again this year.
• 1:47:03
  Those are our belt races. So that'll be the Schwart
• 1:47:06
  Memorial. Then we go come back up to
• 1:47:09
  Michigan up to Corrigan Oil with the national compacts for for
• 1:47:18
  our show up there on June 5th. That'll be a new racetrack for
• 1:47:22
  the series, but it is not outside of our wheelhouse
• 1:47:25
  considering we friend the Paintsville Speedway many times
• 1:47:27
  over the years. So I think our guys will be able
• 1:47:30
  to up and ready to ready to tackle that place.
• 1:47:32
  I know some of the local favorites like Bill Lux and he's
• 1:47:38
  chomping at the bit to bring out the old 40 Camaro for some of
• 1:47:41
  these Michigan shows. So we're excited about that to
• 1:47:45
  see some of the local local guys come out and compete with our
• 1:47:48
  boys. And we go back to Jenner's town
• 1:47:50
  for July 4th. That'll be a big event for us
• 1:47:54
  there. And then July 18th we got
• 1:47:57
  Midvale Speedway. We'll be back to there for the
• 1:47:59
  Josh Neff Memorial. That's historically our biggest
• 1:48:02
  event of the year. That's that's the 7th year we'll
• 1:48:06
  be running this event. That'll be two or three for the
• 1:48:10
  King of Ohio Deal Belt 2 and then Jennerstown August 29th.
• 1:48:18
  And we'll be finish up the year with September 19th at Midvale
• 1:48:22
  Speedway for the 4th annual Bill Wiggins Memorial which will be
• 1:48:27
  Championship night and King of Ohio Championship night.
• 1:48:31
  So it'll be a double header champion crowning that night
• 1:48:34
  out. Of what you've.
• 1:48:40
  That you've even raised, that you're looking forward to going
• 1:48:43
  there like it's your favorite. It just feels like every time
• 1:48:46
  you guys are there, you're cautious lock down and perform
• 1:48:49
  out or is there, you know like with Corgan, you said first
• 1:48:52
  time, is there something you're looking forward to a challenge
• 1:48:55
  of going somewhere new in new market and new all of that?
• 1:48:58
  I, you know, there's always tracks I look forward to as a
• 1:49:01
  promoter. I mean, selfishly, when I
• 1:49:03
  started this series, it was to, to save St.
• 1:49:07
  Stocks in Northeast Ohio. I mean, I was racing at the time
• 1:49:10
  and we were getting 4568 cars, you know, and that's for me, it
• 1:49:14
  wasn't fun. So I started this for the reason
• 1:49:18
  I'm like, well I'm going to start travelling outside the
• 1:49:20
  Ohio then you know, I want to race with Michigan and Indiana
• 1:49:22
  where the cars are. So I started looking at the
• 1:49:25
  rules and I realized very quickly that I'd have to build 3
• 1:49:27
  or 4 cars to be able to travel and race competitively around
• 1:49:30
  the country. That's kind of how the series
• 1:49:33
  was born. I said, you know, this is silly.
• 1:49:35
  You know, I want to build one rule package where guys can come
• 1:49:37
  race, we can travel around the country, still go to these
• 1:49:39
  premier facilities and put on shows for the fans and do it in
• 1:49:43
  a respective manner. You know, I wouldn't say I have
• 1:49:47
  a favorite track per SE. I mean, I do Kalamazoo's
• 1:49:52
  probably one of my favorite tracks we've been to just
• 1:49:55
  because it was our for me, it was our first real NASCAR feel.
• 1:49:59
  I know some of the locals might laugh about that because they
• 1:50:01
  get the they get that, you know, parking experience in the
• 1:50:05
  infield and then be able to watch the races from the infield
• 1:50:08
  experience on a weekly basis. But from Ohio, we don't really
• 1:50:12
  have any tracks like that. So that was really cool.
• 1:50:16
  Jenner's tonic forward to every single year.
• 1:50:18
  Probably some of the nicest track owners I've ever met in my
• 1:50:22
  life that we've ever raced for. I mean, they, they, they would
• 1:50:27
  run us every weekend if I would get the guys to be able to
• 1:50:29
  travel out there. They're just very thankful for
• 1:50:32
  us. Each year that we ran with them,
• 1:50:33
  they've added and added and added to the shows that they
• 1:50:36
  would like to have us. They the first year they ran us,
• 1:50:40
  they said that was the first time they've ever made money off
• 1:50:44
  of a travelling series, you know, So for me that speaks
• 1:50:49
  volumes. You know, if we can show up to
• 1:50:51
  your gate now, you know what the street stocks and the juice
• 1:50:54
  boxes and you know, we'll have anywhere between, to be fair,
• 1:50:58
  I'd say 30 to 50 cars. I don't know, a tractor wouldn't
• 1:51:02
  want that, you know, and that's, I kind of built the series
• 1:51:04
  around that to where why wouldn't you want us?
• 1:51:06
  You know, you could you not use 50 cars and 300 people, you
• 1:51:10
  know, so, but yeah, that's, that's kind of the exciting part
• 1:51:14
  of the season this summer. We've got some really cool
• 1:51:16
  shows. We've been hit, kicked really
• 1:51:19
  hard with three, losing 3 tracks out of our schedule that that's
• 1:51:23
  probably the hardest thing for us this year.
• 1:51:25
  So some people say, oh, it's thanks.
• 1:51:27
  You're at this track three times and that track three times and
• 1:51:30
  you know, or drive on 4 hours to go here there.
• 1:51:33
  And yeah, I get it. I mean, these race tracks are
• 1:51:35
  for sale. Go buy them and I'll come put on
• 1:51:37
  shows with you. I'll help you promote it.
• 1:51:39
  You know, I, I tech, I even tried to buy one of them myself.
• 1:51:43
  So I, I put many offers in to buy one of these race tracks
• 1:51:47
  locally to try to save one. And you know, so nonetheless,
• 1:51:52
  it's exciting. We're thankful for the people
• 1:51:54
  like Drew and Jennerstown and Midvale, the smart family that
• 1:51:58
  you know, that we've been with for years and they know that
• 1:52:01
  we're we bring a good fan base and good, beautiful cars and we
• 1:52:05
  put on a good show, you know, and that's really what you want
• 1:52:07
  as entertainers and promoters. And you want to be able to put
• 1:52:10
  on a good show for your fans and make a couple bucks and go home.
• 1:52:12
  And you know, that's where we're at.
• 1:52:16
  I, I know I'm going to jinx this, but early forecast 72°
• 1:52:20
  partly cloudy for April 11th. So let's, let's hope that stays
• 1:52:26
  that way 'cause then if it is that way, you have no excuse not
• 1:52:29
  to be at Russell's M40 Speedway. You got probably 25 to 35
• 1:52:33
  compact, 16 to 20 super stocks, hopefully 1520 Crown Vics and
• 1:52:40
  the juice boxes. And I don't even know if Will
• 1:52:42
  knows I, I promote anything. We're going to have the racing
• 1:52:45
  lawn mowers there too, so. Dude, has anybody got one of
• 1:52:48
  those I can run? Are they going like slaps or is
• 1:52:50
  it like a Derby? No, it's, it's a, it's they put
• 1:52:53
  a small track up front, but. They're.
• 1:52:57
  Going to I'll I'll talk to Ed. We might be able to get you a.
• 1:52:59
  Lot dad probably is way too old. I don't know if that thing I
• 1:53:02
  think we blow smoking. But no, so we we have a very,
• 1:53:08
  very good show for kicking it off.
• 1:53:11
  And if the weather cooperates and we get a decent car count,
• 1:53:14
  we have 300 people for an enduro a week ago, two weeks ago, I
• 1:53:18
  don't remember, I'm losing my mind, but I was talking to the
• 1:53:22
  Russells quite a bit yesterday at the car show at the South
• 1:53:25
  Bend Auto Show. By the way, one of your drivers,
• 1:53:28
  Tyler Hufford, won a Best Appearing Car award from.
• 1:53:31
  The I've seen that. He'll be racing Russell's M40
• 1:53:34
  Speedway on the 11th. They're very excited about it.
• 1:53:38
  But man, we we have potential to have 800 or 1000 people there if
• 1:53:43
  we market this right. And the weather's there.
• 1:53:45
  And that would be amazing for the wheel, man.
• 1:53:47
  It'd be amazing for Russell's M40 Speedway and it'd be one
• 1:53:49
  hell of a way to kick off a season.
• 1:53:51
  So there's multiple events going on that day.
• 1:53:55
  But I keep saying it don't matter what frickin race track
• 1:53:58
  you go to, go to a racetrack, put an ass in the seat, give
• 1:54:02
  your 20 dollars $15.00 to get in and support these tracks because
• 1:54:07
  they're becoming less and less you.
• 1:54:08
  You look you. Exactly what Will said he lost.
• 1:54:10
  He never thought he'd lose 1 track, let alone 3 in the same
• 1:54:13
  year. Ohio.
• 1:54:16
  I mean, what happened to Ohio this winter?
• 1:54:18
  That's where I went to Painesville last year a couple
• 1:54:20
  times and Lorraine a couple times and I built a a good
• 1:54:24
  connection with a lot of drivers over there 'cause I purposely go
• 1:54:27
  around and get to know the drivers and they follow.
• 1:54:29
  I've met quite a few who follow me because they like watching
• 1:54:32
  Kalamazoo. And then, yeah, we watch
• 1:54:34
  Kalamazoo every single week. And it's kind of funny when you
• 1:54:36
  say like that's your for your guys.
• 1:54:38
  That was like a NASCAR feel. And I think that that's true
• 1:54:41
  that sometimes Kalamazoos are weekly, right?
• 1:54:44
  So, you know, a lot of times for us it's like normal, you know,
• 1:54:47
  but when other people come in, it's like, wow, look at this
• 1:54:49
  facility. I saw that with the Kenya
• 1:54:51
  midgets. Here's the 500 for for first
• 1:54:53
  time drivers were like, man, this is a weekly track.
• 1:54:56
  Yeah, we race every week. And you know, I know where you
• 1:54:58
  can watch it top row racing media.
• 1:55:00
  But but with that, that's something that I, I mean, I
• 1:55:03
  don't think a lot of people understand who are in this area
• 1:55:07
  and how devastating it's been over in Ohio this year and that
• 1:55:10
  you you know, that takes a you lost a lot of tracks at one time
• 1:55:14
  and some are still iffy And it's like it's it's getting rough out
• 1:55:17
  there. So I, I know I'm excited to see
• 1:55:19
  you guys again. I know we met in 2023 when you
• 1:55:23
  came to Kalamazoo and, and that Street Stock race I think came
• 1:55:26
  down to the final lap, if I remember right, between Billy
• 1:55:29
  Roberts and and someone else. So I know I'm excited to see you
• 1:55:32
  guys do it again. Yeah, You know, we lost half our
• 1:55:35
  schedule. So we're we're, we're struggling
• 1:55:37
  along and, you know, if any tracks are watching this,
• 1:55:39
  they're interested in talking to me.
• 1:55:40
  You know, we do have, I would probably take one or two more
• 1:55:43
  shows. You know, I know I am talking to
• 1:55:46
  a couple facilities right now and you know Kilcare is one of
• 1:55:49
  them. They always put out a late
• 1:55:50
  schedule and they got new owners this year and we're still trying
• 1:55:53
  to figure out what's going on there.
• 1:55:55
  But you know, there's a few places where we're still working
• 1:55:58
  on and we would we would still take another show or two
• 1:56:02
  providing the schedule we worked out on our schedule if.
• 1:56:05
  There's any promoters? I'll let you in.
• 1:56:08
  It's M40 Speedway on April 11th. If you're interested in a wheel
• 1:56:11
  man race from Michigan, Northern Indiana, come check it out.
• 1:56:16
  Just send me or will a note. I'll get you guys in.
• 1:56:19
  We'll honor a promoters card or that you're a track owner.
• 1:56:22
  Don't pretend to be a track owner 'cause I know who they are
• 1:56:24
  so. Yeah, I've met quite a few of
• 1:56:27
  them. I know most of them.
• 1:56:29
  Now, but to be honest with you, I you know, even I know it's out
• 1:56:32
  of your wheelhouse a little bit, but Grundy County Speedway, it's
• 1:56:35
  another good race track over there.
• 1:56:37
  It's probably an extra 3 hours for ya, but I mean, you've,
• 1:56:40
  you've gotten some drivers that came from Grundy to race the 1st
• 1:56:44
  M40 race. You know, national compacts.
• 1:56:49
  We're, we're lucky enough to have all these asphalt tracks in
• 1:56:51
  Michigan and you know, door opens in Wisconsin or Canada
• 1:56:55
  that we can, can do this. Not all states have what we do
• 1:57:00
  have for racing in Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana.
• 1:57:03
  So don't take that for granted because of any day the lights
• 1:57:07
  can go off. Yeah, my, I'm building a
• 1:57:10
  personal, a car for me personally this summer.
• 1:57:12
  My seat hasn't been in the car in almost two years and I'm
• 1:57:15
  trying to put a schedule together.
• 1:57:17
  It looks like I'm going to be mostly traveling throughout
• 1:57:19
  Michigan and Indiana. You know, so we're as a, as a
• 1:57:21
  Ohio guy with a shop full of cars and parts and tires and
• 1:57:24
  fuel. We're, we're, we're forced to
• 1:57:27
  travel 3 hours because we, we can, there's not a track in Ohio
• 1:57:31
  that fit our, our rule package anymore.
• 1:57:33
  We used to have Sandusky, Lorraine, Haynesville and and
• 1:57:40
  those 3 tracks were all in the same rule package with the
• 1:57:42
  Wheelman series. So it worked out beautifully.
• 1:57:44
  We had four basically 4 divisions you could run at any
• 1:57:48
  place. And now my guys have nowhere
• 1:57:50
  Ohio to race. We can't fit the rules anywhere.
• 1:57:54
  So it's it's put us, a lot of our guys in a bind and not
• 1:57:58
  really a bind because it's thankfully they have the series
• 1:58:00
  to be able to still race and race for good money.
• 1:58:02
  I mean, we don't pay less than $2000 to win anywhere.
• 1:58:05
  We have three shows this summer that pay more than that.
• 1:58:08
  The King of Ohio shows at at Midvale, but we pay no less than
• 1:58:15
  200 to start our all of our Jennerstown races pay 300 to
• 1:58:18
  start. You know, so we try to make sure
• 1:58:22
  we do our right by our guys. If you come race our series and
• 1:58:24
  you win one night and you finish in the top three.
• 1:58:28
  Hey, thanks Vicki. I just they just to my shop
• 1:58:31
  Sunday, but you know, if you finished in the top three, we at
• 1:58:35
  least know you can break even and get ahead for the next race
• 1:58:37
  a little bit, you know, and that's kind of what racing needs
• 1:58:39
  and it's not always easy to do. You know, we have we probably
• 1:58:43
  bring in 30 to $40,000 in sponsorship every season to help
• 1:58:47
  cover the back end of the purse. So on the track promoter side,
• 1:58:51
  just to help you guys out a little bit and track owners,
• 1:58:53
  when this is the biggest kickback they get when they book
• 1:58:56
  us as their locals are like, well, why are you bringing these
• 1:58:58
  guys in and paying them 2000 to win?
• 1:59:00
  And that's 200 to start. We why don't we ever get that
• 1:59:02
  kind of pay? Why would you?
• 1:59:04
  The tracks don't pay that. We do as a series.
• 1:59:06
  You know, the tracks pay us a percentage.
• 1:59:08
  They do pay us to come, no, no doubt, but they don't pay us
• 1:59:12
  nowhere near our purse. We bring that purse as a series
• 1:59:15
  to back into the purse to cover that.
• 1:59:17
  It's not on the tracks. So I can't tell you over the
• 1:59:21
  last five years, how many tracks like, oh man, I'm getting beat
• 1:59:23
  up by my locals and you know, they, they, they don't fit your
• 1:59:26
  rules. And now it's a big pay show and
• 1:59:28
  that's not on the tracks, that's on the series.
• 1:59:30
  You know, we, we bring the back into the purse.
• 1:59:32
  We create the purse. We, you know, we, we supply the
• 1:59:35
  purse and the tracks help us cover some of that cost
• 1:59:39
  certainly, but, but it's not the up to the tracks how much we pay
• 1:59:42
  out each night, you know, So I, I just thought I'd throw that
• 1:59:46
  out there. I I will attest that to will he
• 1:59:49
  does not charge any track nearly you you add up the purse versus
• 1:59:53
  what it is that he charges his track.
• 1:59:56
  It's probably what, $3000 more per race, $2000 more?
• 2:00:01
  Yeah. You know, so I know that my my
• 2:00:04
  average purse is 10 to 12,000. We charge half, less than half
• 2:00:07
  that or just around half so. Just off $3000.
• 2:00:11
  What's that? Yeah, it's only 5 or 6 grand.
• 2:00:16
  We we do bring a heavy, a heavy end of the purse because, you
• 2:00:19
  know, at the end of the day, when I I show up the tracks, I
• 2:00:21
  want them to win, you know, I want them to.
• 2:00:23
  Oh, that was cool. That wasn't, you know, the
• 2:00:25
  downside the most traveling series is you have to find
• 2:00:29
  sponsorship to help cover some of that cost to bring them in,
• 2:00:31
  especially when you're talking this month.
• 2:00:33
  They hammer down and I'm just using them example because I
• 2:00:35
  know they're expensive. I'm not bashing them by any
• 2:00:37
  means. They're cool shows.
• 2:00:38
  I. I don't hear if I were casino
• 2:00:40
  when I need a sponsor, I put 100 and I'll walk out with you.
• 2:00:44
  Yeah, they usually work. That way bet on red or black,
• 2:00:47
  right? But yeah, so we we bring a lot
• 2:00:51
  of our own sponsorship. And you know, my goal this year
• 2:00:54
  is to I have a lot of big plans when we show up the race tracks.
• 2:00:57
  M40 we're kind of we'll have some of it going.
• 2:00:59
  I'm still waiting on a few things.
• 2:01:01
  But we plan on having some costume characters show running
• 2:01:04
  through the stands and throwing up T-shirts, wheel man shirts.
• 2:01:07
  And you know, we've got some really cool things for our juice
• 2:01:10
  box kids with the awards that we're giving them this summer.
• 2:01:12
  And you know, we've got a couple people that will be bringing
• 2:01:16
  different things like sponsors of they people that are from the
• 2:01:19
  area. If you want to bring hats to
• 2:01:20
  give to the kids or shirts or whatever the all the competitors
• 2:01:23
  for the juice boxes I'm in. Like anything we can give these
• 2:01:25
  kids is cool. So you'll have fans for life,
• 2:01:28
  that's for sure. But yeah, all's I ask is when we
• 2:01:31
  show up, cheer for us. These kids are going to be the
• 2:01:33
  future racing. You know we'll have probably
• 2:01:35
  about 12:15 of them running at M40.
• 2:01:39
  You know, car big cars. Don't let these little kids out
• 2:01:42
  travel. Yeah, I mean I got some of these
• 2:01:44
  kids that are traveling four or five hours to come to M40 to put
• 2:01:47
  on a show for four laps. I mean truly they're going to
• 2:01:50
  run four or five laps and they're going to be done for the
• 2:01:52
  night. Don't get out car counter and
• 2:01:54
  I'll be upset we got more juice boxes and St. stocks or compacts
• 2:01:58
  or compacts. So regardless, the fans are
• 2:02:01
  going to see a great show. You know, I think Drew and I
• 2:02:04
  were talking we're we're looking at a good field of cars and all
• 2:02:07
  the divisions and you can't beat it for the buck.
• 2:02:09
  You're paying to get in the gate.
• 2:02:11
  Plus you get to see the kids and they're it's, I'm telling you,
• 2:02:13
  these kids, my son will be racing and he gets more.
• 2:02:19
  He he's like this the whole race trying.
• 2:02:22
  He's trying to see everybody cheer for me.
• 2:02:23
  He's like, Dad, you see all the people cheer for me.
• 2:02:25
  Yeah, I did. But what about the 10 kids you
• 2:02:26
  wrecked? You know, what are you doing?
• 2:02:30
  It's just, it's a ton of fun, man.
• 2:02:31
  It's like little. It's like Little League, you
• 2:02:33
  know? The the Wheel Man do do some
• 2:02:36
  bumping and begging and put on a great race, but our friends here
• 2:02:39
  at Top Row Racing Media have put up an extra $1000 for the Crown
• 2:02:43
  VIX, the factory Fords. So they're racing for a big
• 2:02:46
  purse. They're racing for 5:50 and
• 2:02:48
  almost 200 to start the top men. Fishing.
• 2:02:52
  So Lewis and I work together on this and it should be a lot of
• 2:02:56
  fun if we can get 15 Crown VIX out there 15 to 20.
• 2:03:00
  What's 16 to 20 wheel man and 35 compacts?
• 2:03:04
  You're not going to find a better racing show that day and
• 2:03:07
  racing lawn mowers and juice boxes.
• 2:03:10
  I mean this, this has the potential to be a show stealer
• 2:03:16
  if everybody does their part and show up I.
• 2:03:18
  Mean, listen, I got tires and a helmet and a suit.
• 2:03:21
  If anybody's got a Crown Vicar, a lawn mower, the orange motor,
• 2:03:26
  the Ohio Wheel Man Series wins opening night at M40, how cool
• 2:03:29
  would that be of a headline? Yep, but no.
• 2:03:34
  I appreciate your time. Where can they find your series?
• 2:03:37
  On Facebook, social media and the website.
• 2:03:40
  So we've got a website, Ohio Wheel Man series.
• 2:03:43
  I'll be honest, I'm not the techist guy in the world, so it
• 2:03:46
  is probably the last thing to get updated.
• 2:03:48
  Although our rules and stuff are on there for this year.
• 2:03:52
  Facebook is the place to go usually if you want to stay up
• 2:03:55
  to date. We do do our own podcast show
• 2:03:59
  every Thursday at 8:00. You know, we have driver
• 2:04:02
  interviews every week or sponsor spotlights.
• 2:04:04
  We'll have different stuff similar to what you guys do.
• 2:04:07
  Our show's just on Thursdays at 8:00, but you can check us out
• 2:04:10
  Ohio Wheelman Super Series on Facebook, Ohio
• 2:04:13
  wheelmanseries.com on your Internet.
• 2:04:17
  You know, I'm readily available by phone and a lot of people I
• 2:04:20
  have, it's quite a few people know me at this point.
• 2:04:22
  You know, they've either friends on Facebook or have my phone
• 2:04:24
  number. But I answer the phone 99% of
• 2:04:27
  the time whether I recognize the number or not, just because I
• 2:04:29
  have people call me from over the country all the time.
• 2:04:32
  So I know who it is. So yeah, we're very easy to get
• 2:04:35
  a hold of. Go ahead and follow.
• 2:04:37
  And like our page, you know, we're getting about a quarter
• 2:04:41
  million views every 28 days through our social media.
• 2:04:45
  So that's that's spiked quite a bit over the last summer or last
• 2:04:49
  year, I should say. So that that'll keep you up to
• 2:04:52
  date with all of our stuff. Like you said, it's the easiest
• 2:04:54
  way. Awesome.
• 2:04:56
  Well, I look forward to having you a part of the M40 show.
• 2:05:00
  This all happened less than six weeks ago.
• 2:05:03
  It did. You guys, You were down in
• 2:05:04
  Florida and I was on the phone looking for an event.
• 2:05:07
  Will called me and he says is there anything you can help me
• 2:05:10
  with? And I said I'm standing right
• 2:05:13
  next to him. Give me a minute.
• 2:05:15
  And it turned out that Drew Jack is taking another risk.
• 2:05:19
  But I think it'll work out and Will and I, it's actually a
• 2:05:22
  partnership between Will and I to make this happen.
• 2:05:25
  And the Russells can't say enough about Johnny and Bill and
• 2:05:29
  Megan, that whole entire family there, Penny.
• 2:05:33
  They could have easily said no because we are taking one of
• 2:05:36
  their hot lap sessions or test and tunes get ready for the
• 2:05:39
  season. Plus they have, oh, a home and
• 2:05:45
  garden show or a camping show the following week that we were
• 2:05:48
  actually targeting. So they could have easily said
• 2:05:51
  no, but they didn't. They gave us an opportunity and
• 2:05:54
  that's why I'm saying it. Not only the compact guys, the
• 2:05:56
  Crown Victoria guys and the Ohio Wheel Man series.
• 2:05:59
  Will heard me preach out on his show.
• 2:06:01
  It's very important to support this show.
• 2:06:04
  It looks like we're going to get the weather to benefit it
• 2:06:07
  because they could have took an opportunity for them to benefit
• 2:06:10
  themselves at their own venue. But they sacrificed a major
• 2:06:15
  important thing of an open practice session which they can
• 2:06:19
  make. It's easy money for them, and if
• 2:06:23
  we waste their time by putting 200 people in the stands and 30
• 2:06:27
  race cars, I'm going to be extremely disappointed.
• 2:06:29
  I don't think that'll even be close to that.
• 2:06:32
  But again, I'm not saying that to be negative or anything like
• 2:06:34
  that. They sacrificed a lot at
• 2:06:36
  Russell's M40 Speedway to give the wheel man, the midwester
• 2:06:41
  compacts, the Crown Vics, the racing lawn mowers and the juice
• 2:06:45
  box is a chance. And I, I don't think they'll let
• 2:06:47
  us down. I mean, I don't want to make a
• 2:06:49
  billion dollars off this, yes, I do.
• 2:06:51
  But at the end of the day, I want this to turn its own nut.
• 2:06:55
  I want Russell's to be able to get a benefit out of it 'cause
• 2:06:59
  if this show loses money, then we've wasted their time.
• 2:07:02
  We've wasted Will's time. So that's the promoter speak of
• 2:07:07
  it. Let's get this show going.
• 2:07:09
  We need the help of the Ohio family, the Michigan family and
• 2:07:12
  the Indiana family. We want race fans there.
• 2:07:15
  We want new people to the venue. There's probably not a more
• 2:07:19
  rising race track than the Russell's M40 Speedway that was
• 2:07:23
  brought from the ashes. That was almost under the same
• 2:07:27
  fate of Lorraine Sandusky and Norton, which is Barberton.
• 2:07:34
  So I'm going to get off my soapbox, but I just wanted to
• 2:07:37
  make it a very good point that the Russell sacrifice a lot.
• 2:07:42
  They did not have to do this. They literally had a
• 2:07:47
  conversation with me and Johnny before he went to Florida.
• 2:07:50
  And then we were sitting there watching the Super Bowl and he
• 2:07:52
  goes, oh, by the way, Penny, we're doing another race, so.
• 2:07:58
  Yeah, I'm looking forward to meeting them for the first time.
• 2:08:00
  And like I said, we haven't been to M Fourty since since man, I
• 2:08:05
  can remember our first time there was grass going through
• 2:08:07
  the track and stuff the weeds. And I'm like, I'm looking at
• 2:08:10
  Drew and I'm like, what are we going to do?
• 2:08:12
  You know, it's fine, like, all right.
• 2:08:14
  So I'm excited to see how much the facilities changed the last
• 2:08:17
  five years and how much the Russell's have done to it to to
• 2:08:21
  bring the excitement back. And I know the car counts are
• 2:08:24
  great. All summer.
• 2:08:25
  I've been watching them and I'm like I said, we're we're stoked.
• 2:08:28
  We race well there and it's exciting for silly to watch
• 2:08:32
  racing too so. Well, well, thank you for your
• 2:08:35
  time. Sorry we ran a little late.
• 2:08:38
  Some guy didn't pay attention that we triple booked the show
• 2:08:41
  tonight. But with next week being a
• 2:08:43
  holiday weekend, I thought it was important to get you on here
• 2:08:47
  because I, I'm not sure I'm going to be in Michigan next
• 2:08:50
  Monday. I might be in Minnesota doing
• 2:08:52
  something stupid. Peeing in Vegas, betting I'm
• 2:08:55
  red. I got a show coming up.
• 2:09:00
  I got to make some money. I do I don't fly, so I I I would
• 2:09:06
  have to start driving now to get.
• 2:09:08
  We have We have sat at a blackjack table once, once in
• 2:09:11
  days. You are high Wheeler out there,
• 2:09:14
  roller or whatever, juice just a little.
• 2:09:16
  Here's $100 up. I'm done.
• 2:09:18
  I'm going to the bank and a guy. So no, no, no.
• 2:09:23
  Well, cool man. I appreciate all you guys.
• 2:09:25
  I mean, it's, it takes a army, you know, they say it takes a
• 2:09:28
  small army to raise a family, raise a kid.
• 2:09:30
  And it's the same thing with racing.
• 2:09:31
  It takes an army of us to, you know, passionate people that
• 2:09:35
  care about racing to keep it alive, you know, and, and it's,
• 2:09:38
  it's slowly, it's slowly gained some ground.
• 2:09:41
  And I think with, with people like you guys doing podcasts
• 2:09:43
  and, and bringing on different series and tracks and promoters
• 2:09:46
  and stuff, it's just, it's, I can see people on here.
• 2:09:49
  Hey, would you guys come to Berlin?
• 2:09:50
  And you know, people, some people still not heard of us
• 2:09:53
  even going into our sixth year, they don't know anything about
• 2:09:56
  the Wheel Man series. So this stuff kind of stuff is
• 2:09:58
  important for racing to grow and succeed.
• 2:10:00
  So again, thank all you guys Drew, I appreciate the
• 2:10:03
  relationship with you all these years was racing and and helping
• 2:10:07
  each other out with shows. And I remember our first show,
• 2:10:10
  we put that on you're like, what the heck did I just do like shut
• 2:10:13
  up like 5 cars. Our first ever event like Oh my
• 2:10:15
  gosh. But we grew.
• 2:10:20
  Hey, Mr. Mr. Chris mice who were kind of doing this event for you
• 2:10:25
  don't have anything to worry about.
• 2:10:26
  I'll take care of it. I'll make sure they take care of
• 2:10:28
  you at 40. And you did.
• 2:10:29
  You had 1516 cars. That was a heck of a show.
• 2:10:33
  And ever since then, we've had a pretty good relationship.
• 2:10:35
  And we look forward to Corrigan Oil and M40.
• 2:10:39
  We'll have you on here probably the end of May or early part of
• 2:10:42
  June to talk about that one. And anytime you got a big race,
• 2:10:46
  reach out to Lewis or myself or Buju.
• 2:10:48
  We'll get you on here. OK, cool.
• 2:10:50
  Thank you, guys. Have a great night and I'll see
• 2:10:52
  you soon. Yeah, absolutely.
• 2:10:54
  Here in a couple weeks. All right.
• 2:10:59
  Well, again, I know Drew, we if we want to touch base one more
• 2:11:03
  quick, one more quick. Oh my gosh, one more time on the
• 2:11:07
  the Triple Crown. I know obviously with Will's
• 2:11:09
  thing, but just remind people, I know we, we have, we're kind of
• 2:11:13
  up and down. I know it's spring break this
• 2:11:14
  week, so, you know, we might be getting some stragglers who've
• 2:11:16
  been partying at Florida or down in Mexico or whatever.
• 2:11:19
  But just one more time, as Drew mentioned, we do have the when I
• 2:11:25
  approached him about, you know, doing the sponsorship and
• 2:11:27
  spreading throughout the field. That's a big belief of mine.
• 2:11:30
  So, you know, a lot of times when sponsors, they just want to
• 2:11:33
  be attached to the winner and that's, you know, they want the
• 2:11:35
  big trophy. They went all that.
• 2:11:37
  And I just I've never bought into that philosophy where I
• 2:11:40
  like spreading it throughout the field.
• 2:11:42
  It's something I did at Springport when I helped Donnie
• 2:11:44
  and them over at Springport is, you know, let's get this to 5th,
• 2:11:48
  6th, 7th, you know, wherever I'm back.
• 2:11:50
  And so again, we have the Royal Pursuit Triple Crown that's
• 2:11:53
  coming up and this is starts April 11th at M40 and then it'll
• 2:11:58
  continue throughout the season at Hartford for the other two
• 2:12:01
  races. But I know that payout that when
• 2:12:04
  I came up with this and I was doing the math, I wanted to
• 2:12:07
  spread it out. And so I gave everyone $100
• 2:12:10
  first through 9th. And then I had a little extra
• 2:12:13
  and I tried to stay to what what Drew's breakdown was where 10th
• 2:12:16
  started the 100 on back to start so that I kept it that way.
• 2:12:21
  But otherwise, 5:50 to win, plus what Ron Brash is doing with his
• 2:12:24
  lap board, someone could walk away with a lot of money if they
• 2:12:28
  win this race. So again, this this is the
• 2:12:30
  payout for the April 11th race to add M40 specifically.
• 2:12:36
  So again, it's the first leg of the royal pursuit 5:50 to win
• 2:12:40
  all the way down to, you know, 9th and up.
• 2:12:42
  You can get at least 200 bucks. So that that's not that's not
• 2:12:46
  too bad of a a payout. You know, obviously I don't have
• 2:12:48
  a lot of money where I can, you know, make that like 10,000 to
• 2:12:52
  win. That's not going to happen.
• 2:12:54
  I'm already broke, but I know this is a very important show
• 2:12:57
  for you. And so I'm I'm again glad for
• 2:12:59
  our partnership and I appreciate you taking on the the extra
• 2:13:03
  chance and and me being like, I want to name it something I want
• 2:13:06
  to you know, I want to have branding to it.
• 2:13:07
  So I'm like, I made a logo. I want to use the logo some way
• 2:13:11
  somehow. So and that's not AII made that.
• 2:13:15
  It was a pain in the butt at first, but I made it so.
• 2:13:18
  I don't care unless somebody wants to volunteer their
• 2:13:20
  services for free. Until my guy gets out of the
• 2:13:23
  clink, you're going to have to deal with AI.
• 2:13:25
  So Oh no. And I wasn't taking that as a
• 2:13:27
  child. No, no, no, no, no, I'm you and
• 2:13:30
  I talk about this, but it's the other people.
• 2:13:32
  You want to volunteer your services?
• 2:13:34
  I'll be more than happy to, but I'm bet my AI can do better than
• 2:13:37
  what half the people bitching are doing.
• 2:13:39
  So anyway, Bujo, thank you for joining us tonight.
• 2:13:42
  You got anything in closing tonight?
• 2:13:44
  Nope, excited for racing. Yep, I'm gonna I'm probably
• 2:13:48
  gonna leave you 2 with Verash next week because having three
• 2:13:52
  loud mouths in there, poor Boojie might not be able to sit
• 2:13:54
  there and say anything all night long.
• 2:13:56
  So. I'll have fun anyway.
• 2:13:58
  Ron Verash is the man I'm excited for next week.
• 2:14:01
  Yep. So Ron Verash will have the
• 2:14:02
  whole episode next week with us. I'm not doing another, not doing
• 2:14:06
  another guest with him because he just has so much.
• 2:14:08
  I mean, you just get started on one conversation and before you
• 2:14:11
  know it, you're on 40 other conversations.
• 2:14:13
  So he'll be on next week with us.
• 2:14:16
  But I want to do save the dates because now we're knocking on
• 2:14:19
  the door to April. So again, April 17th is the
• 2:14:22
  Terminator 105,000 win outlaw super late models that night to
• 2:14:27
  at the you know, that's how we're kicking off the season at
• 2:14:29
  Kalamazoo. I expect there's probably gonna
• 2:14:31
  be thousands of people in attendance for that one.
• 2:14:33
  I'm excited. Tons of late models.
• 2:14:35
  I'll be there. Yeah, I'll be on the roof and my
• 2:14:38
  car will hit area if they use that as a pace car again this
• 2:14:42
  year. And so we'll have April 17th and
• 2:14:45
  then my second race date will be April 18th.
• 2:14:49
  That weekend I'll be at the New Paris Speedway for their night
• 2:14:52
  of destruction. Again, if you've not seen a
• 2:14:54
  night of destruction at New Paris, definitely check out the
• 2:14:57
  night of destruction there. It is absolute chaos, especially
• 2:15:01
  that that Pac-Man race alone. That Pac-Man race alone is worth
• 2:15:04
  the money. But they'll, they'll have tons
• 2:15:06
  of cars. That's one of the biggest ones
• 2:15:07
  of the year that they'll show up because everyone's ready to go
• 2:15:10
  crashing. So don't forget for sure then
• 2:15:13
  what we were just talking about the race on April 11th for M40
• 2:15:17
  Speedway. That's coming up in 2 weeks.
• 2:15:19
  And then also if you need to shake down your car with
• 2:15:22
  Kalamazoo Speedway, that's they'll have two practice
• 2:15:25
  sessions on a rotating basis and based on interest for the second
• 2:15:29
  session on how many cars are interested in going back out.
• 2:15:31
  So again, that's open practice April 11th at Kalamazoo
• 2:15:35
  Speedway. Other than that, I know we've
• 2:15:37
  kept people's attention quite a long time tonight with the three
• 2:15:41
  guests, but you know there's a lot to cover.
• 2:15:43
  So if you missed anything of it, I know when you join on the live
• 2:15:47
  you can't go back. But I purposely will not post
• 2:15:50
  anything until 10 AM tomorrow morning, which will be the we're
• 2:15:54
  in the final week of the March Motor Madness.
• 2:15:56
  I'm excited. I haven't checked the voting
• 2:15:58
  lately, but the the quarter midgets and the mini wedges,
• 2:16:01
  that's the battle right now. And it already had over over 100
• 2:16:06
  votes within a couple hours. I mean they are lighting it up.
• 2:16:08
  So that goes until 11:59 tonight PM for voting for that tomorrow,
• 2:16:13
  10 AM, which are MCR dwarf cars and St. stocks.
• 2:16:17
  That'll go from 10:00 AM to 11:59 PM Wednesday's off so we
• 2:16:22
  can do a 2 day championship battle that'll start 10 AM on
• 2:16:26
  Thursday and go until 11:50, fifty, 9:00 PM on Friday.
• 2:16:30
  So I know with it being spring break for a lot of people, I
• 2:16:33
  want to give them a lot more of a window to operate because I
• 2:16:35
  know some people in different time zones and doing different
• 2:16:37
  things that it just made it easier to say at the end of the
• 2:16:40
  day. So, so anyways, that's going on.
• 2:16:43
  That's our final week. So someone will be a champion by
• 2:16:46
  by Saturday morning. It won't be me.
• 2:16:50
  No, it, it's AMCR dwarf car which they this is the the
• 2:16:54
  second or third time, I think being the number one seed or
• 2:16:57
  second time. So could be them, but I, I don't
• 2:17:00
  know I have a feeling it's gonna whoever wins the mini wedges or
• 2:17:03
  quarter midgets. I think unless the street stocks
• 2:17:06
  and MCR dwarfs, which MCR dwarfs have done really well this
• 2:17:09
  tournament. They, they got to show out
• 2:17:11
  'cause if they don't, I mean these many wedges and quarter
• 2:17:14
  midges have N 90 plus votes they hit they have annihilated
• 2:17:17
  everybody. So they're really passionate
• 2:17:19
  about getting those kids exposure.
• 2:17:21
  So I know that's really exciting for them.
• 2:17:23
  So anyways, this will be on Spotify at some point tonight
• 2:17:27
  and then it disperses out from there to iHeartRadio, Amazon
• 2:17:31
  Music or Apple podcast. So if you haven't watched it on
• 2:17:36
  YouTube, it'll video versions will be on YouTube, Spotify and
• 2:17:39
  obviously here on Facebook. If if you're in the car and you
• 2:17:43
  want to listen to it, it'll be on iHeartRadio, Amazon Music or
• 2:17:47
  Apple podcast sometime overnight into tomorrow.
• 2:17:49
  So again, great show guys round Rash next week.
• 2:17:53
  Any parting words before we head out?
• 2:17:57
  I'm actually exhausted. I'm trying to stay awake.
• 2:17:59
  Oh yeah, well, no need to fall asleep.
• 2:18:01
  That's why I should have wore my Napa.
• 2:18:03
  I should have wore my Napa hat because I'm like, you won't need
• 2:18:06
  a Napa while we're on. So if you're falling asleep,
• 2:18:09
  that means it's time to go. So it's almost time to go
• 2:18:12
  racing. We'll see you guys here in a
• 2:18:14
  couple weeks at the racetrack. Until then, turn left and let's
• 2:18:18
  go fast and Buju your closing line.
• 2:18:21
  See you at the races. See.
• 2:18:23
  You at the races.