Latest / Top Row Racing Media Monday Night Rewind / Episode 35 | Monday Night Rewind | Parker Tatro | David Allio | Cei Bowen

Transcript

Episode 35 | Monday Night Rewind | Parker Tatro | David Allio | Cei Bowen · Top Row Racing Media Monday Night Rewind

1:04
What's up race fans? It's Monday and it's time to
1:06
rewind on the Monday Night Rewind Live on top of Racing
1:10
Media, your digital scrapbook, short track racing in Indiana
1:13
and Michigan and beyond. Another great show lined up for
1:16
you tonight. We have dwarf Car champion
1:18
Parker Tatro joining the show at seven O 5.
1:21
Very accomplished and long tenured racing photographer
1:24
David Aleo, who's been to over 1000 race tracks in his career
1:28
will join us at 7:40. Definitely a lot to talk about
1:30
there. And the big star from New Paris
1:32
This past weekend, first time feature winner Sai Bowen will
1:35
join us on the show with that very good look at #17 St.
1:38
Stock. My name is Buju, Host of some
1:41
things and sometimes a race car driver.
1:43
Yeah, very excited to be a race car driver.
1:44
Bahama Brackets this weekend, joined by the man in the top row
1:48
himself, Louis Noakes. How are we doing, Louis?
1:50
Good. Well before we get into all
1:52
that, why don't we do the cheap plugs so we don't forget to do
1:55
it later. But as you said, Bahama brackets
1:58
Morris, IL October 16th through 18th.
2:01
That's the place to be this weekend.
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But if you can't make it to the Bahama brackets where it
2:06
definitely will not feel like the Bahamas this weekend.
2:08
If you checked out the weather forecast where frost is in the
2:11
forecast for possibly Sunday morning where I said I am in a
2:15
hotel room, frost will not bother me.
2:18
But so so. But if you can't make it to the
2:23
Bahama brackets where definitely will not feel like the Bahamas
2:26
today felt like the Bahamas in the 80s and and Northwest
2:29
Indiana, southwest Michigan. But night of destruction at
2:33
Hartford Race of doom. If you've not seen the recent
2:36
race of doom before, take Cars 3 where Lightning McQueen is being
2:42
chased by a school bus with pyrotechnics and all the things
2:45
and there you go. There's the race of doom.
2:46
That's the night of destruction this Saturday, October 17th at
2:51
Hartford Speedway and then Nightmare on Bowie St. or Bowie,
2:58
whatever Nightmare on that street is October 24th.
3:02
That's the national compact touring series, slash dirt
3:05
Midwestern compact touring series because Matthew Elsie
3:08
Junior will be going dirt racing that day.
3:10
So that's why I threw in national compact touring series.
3:14
But they will they will have a lot of things going on there.
3:17
So I figure we forgot to do that last week.
3:19
So I thought before we get into the chit chat, I need to, as the
3:23
producer, make sure that we put the cheap plugs in there.
3:26
So that way once we get into the conversation, I don't sit there
3:30
and go shitake mushrooms. I forgot to do that again.
3:32
So but yes, it's a it's a great show.
3:36
I'm excited, of course, you know, the you know, with
3:39
Federated auto parts, the LHD tailing national compacts,
3:43
helping to promote the the Monday night rewind.
3:45
I'm so excited for our 35th episode.
3:48
Hard to believe or climb into 50.
3:51
And you know, I don't know that when Drew and I first started
3:55
that I don't know that I would have thought we would have made
3:58
it this far because you never know, right?
3:59
But and for it to be where it is.
4:01
But but otherwise, I'm doing pretty well.
4:03
It's Bahama week. I'm excited.
4:06
I had a great conversation to start a virtual conversation
4:09
with Steve earlier, the promoter over at Grundy.
4:12
I'll be talking with him after the show, too.
4:15
We'll be debuting the 21 names. He'll have cameras this weekend
4:18
at the Bahama Brackets after Parker's interview.
4:22
So about 735 Michigan times, 635 Illinois time you get to be a
4:30
race car driver this weekend. So we can't say pretend race car
4:33
driver, we can say you get to be a race car driver.
4:36
So that's pretty exciting that you get to do that.
4:38
So I know I I'm excited to get down there.
4:42
Yeah, it's, I've said it a million times, but it is very
4:45
much one of my favorite weekends of the year, if not my favorite
4:48
weekend of the year, to be quite honest.
4:49
So yeah, I'm fired up for it. I should have a competitive car,
4:53
knock on wood, we did last year. So hoping to repeat that
4:56
performance. And yeah, just excited all
4:58
around. It's such an awesome.
5:01
Well, what I'm excited for too, is that there's a lot of people
5:04
in Grundy who are also excited for like me to be there, right.
5:08
And so that's awesome when they're, you know, we had so
5:11
many names sign up. I forget the total, but it, you
5:14
know, it's like, OK, we got to get down to 21 names out of all
5:17
these. But you know, with Spring Ports
5:20
Michigan Cup, this is my final three day weekend.
5:22
So I'm I'm excited in that sense too, because it's definitely
5:26
been a grind. And this week I'm at Michigan
5:29
International Speedway for the Michigan Promoter Association
5:32
meeting, Speedway Promoters Association meeting.
5:34
So I'm excited, I get to write along with Leah, Andrew, Jack on
5:38
our way to Michigan International where I get to
5:39
learn about the state of racing from our Michigan tracks and of
5:43
course get to talk to a lot of people who are involved with
5:46
racing as associate members, which Topper Racing Media is an
5:50
associate member of the Michigan Speedway Promoters Association.
5:53
So we get to be at Michigan International this Thursday.
5:57
So I'm excited for that this Wednesday before we bring on
6:01
Parker. Also cheap plug Monday time.
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We will. It's my birthday on Wednesday,
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so I'm not doing anything live or active on top row that day.
6:09
I will be scheduling tomorrow, everything for that.
6:12
So top row will kind of be on autopilot on Wednesday because I
6:16
probably won't be paying attention to social media too
6:18
much. Plus also getting ready for a
6:21
busy weekend that we're going to be replaying the Bahama
6:24
interviews individually. So they would be uploaded
6:27
individually to Facebook. So you'll get to talk to Sean or
6:30
you'll get to hear from Sean again.
6:32
If you missed that episode. He was an absolutely incredible
6:35
interview. We're I definitely want to talk
6:37
with him. Be like, dude, we need to bring
6:38
you back on, you know, because that was, it just feels like we
6:42
could cover a lot more with him. And he had, I mean, it's like
6:45
all natural for him, right? And then Nick Stremi will also
6:48
play and then Ryan Lagasse, his interview will also play.
6:52
If you are going to Bahama, I highly encourage you to fill up
6:56
in Indiana if you can. If you can make it down past,
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you know, Michigan border, you'll be passing me probably on
7:03
your way if you're coming from Kalamazoo, Galesburg, because
7:06
I-94 will take you right there. So when you pass the Cook
7:09
nuclear plant, you can wave to me.
7:11
I buy the nuclear plant, but I would get gas and diesel in the
7:16
state of Indiana. I would avoid filling up if you
7:19
don't have to in Michigan or in Illinois you're paying a dollar
7:26
plus more so not to hurt our economies but definitely fill up
7:30
in Indiana and help out the Hoosier state who has AI mean
7:33
it's like a dollar cheaper if you cross the border so it's.
7:37
Sad. I'm 16 miles from cheaper gas.
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That's how close I am to cheaper gas by a dollar.
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So so there's plenty of spots in Michigan City and everything to
7:46
get right off so pretty easy. Even going from Saint Joe County
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to LaPorte County, it swings 30 to $0.40.
7:51
Sometimes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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You get to that central time zone down around there.
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And so, yeah, definitely cheaper to fill up again if you're
8:01
coming from Michigan. You're welcome, Jamie and Jamie
8:04
Kaufman. I will be talk with you and
8:07
Jeremy, because I'd love to. I want to get victory by design
8:09
on here too, because they've had some good runs going.
8:11
And Jamie, of course, racing full time this year.
8:14
I want to get you on, you know, just tell your story and how you
8:18
got into racing. But that just reminded me seeing
8:20
her pop up. I never got to get back to her
8:22
at Michigan Cup and be like, hey, I actually do want you on
8:25
my show. But but yeah, if you could fill
8:28
up in in Indiana, do so 'cause it is cheaper.
8:32
Michigan and and Illinois have similar pricing based on the
8:35
GasBuddy. So yeah.
8:38
But anyways, I we took a little bit into Parker's time 3 minutes
8:41
into this time, so. Have you heard about the gas
8:44
prices? Yeah, well, well, that's every
8:47
now and then. Like when I see someone from
8:49
Indiana comment about gas prices I'm like.
8:52
Hey, it still hurts. It's still high.
8:55
It it is, but I'm like, OK, here's my price.
8:59
I don't want to hear too much about it, you know, and you
9:02
know, and, and it's something that it's like it's still high
9:05
no matter where you go, but it's like we're like a dollar more.
9:09
So, and, and that's even now tourist season is over.
9:13
I mean, tourist season is over that, you know, we get a lot of
9:15
Illinois residents who obviously come to Michigan during the
9:18
summer. So all the prices in this area,
9:20
you know, I'm in a lake town, right?
9:22
So all these prices go up. Even our restaurants, they
9:25
literally have prices for summer.
9:26
And if you wait until this time of year, you're even for like a,
9:30
a steak dinner, whatever, you're paying probably $10 less than a
9:33
few weeks ago. Literally like they switch over
9:36
because that's when the local matter to them because they need
9:39
to keep paying their bills. So it's like, oh, you remember
9:41
us now, but you also know we're not going to pay those inflated
9:44
prices. But we're smart.
9:47
We avoid you during the summer times.
9:49
We wait until you go to like typical pricing, but yeah, yeah,
9:55
I call it real season pricing, but but yeah.
10:00
So anyways, let's go ahead and let's bring on Parker because
10:03
we've already cut it to his time, but we could talk more
10:05
about the brackets a little bit later.
10:08
Yeah, well, no, we're done with that one.
10:10
But Parker Tatro, the 2026 MCR Dwarf Champion.
10:16
I didn't get to watch the dwarfs this year.
10:18
Oh, cutting my face off again. I didn't I not that anyone needs
10:21
to see my damn face anyways, but it's kind of like I don't know.
10:24
I kind of do like you know, the not having a graphic like making
10:28
me look almost like what is that 2 faced from Batman?
10:31
You know, although his is like this way.
10:33
But but again, Parker was actually looking for a photo.
10:36
I had to steal a photo. I don't know who to give the
10:38
credit to, but I'm like 98. I'm like, I know I have a damn
10:42
photo of that car and it's, it was 23 last year.
10:46
But if I remember you did a throwback scheme this year with
10:49
the throwback logo and everything cuz or was that last
10:52
year where it was like 20 years of Tatro racing?
10:54
So I'm like, I did have a picture, but I'm like, well, you
10:57
were 98 this year so I better not use the 23.
11:00
So but I almost was going to use the 23 cuz I hate using other
11:04
people's photos and videos. I like, I'd rather just use my
11:06
stuff cuz then you get in the hole.
11:09
Got to give credit and all the things and I just like rather
11:11
have mine. But but yeah.
11:13
So welcome again to the Monday night Rewind.
11:15
I'm super excited to have you on.
11:16
I've had the chance to watch your race, but this year we lost
11:21
the show at Kalamazoo, we lost the show at Corrigan.
11:23
So I haven't seen the drug cards this year.
11:25
But obviously top row has a huge following from all the all the
11:29
winter tournaments that you guys always seem to come out in full
11:33
force and get those drug cards to the championship rounds of
11:36
almost everything that you're a part of.
11:38
So as you know, Parker, there's a lot of people who may be
11:41
watching who don't know who you are.
11:43
So why don't we start there? And and even if you want to dive
11:46
a little bit into what a dwarf car is, because obviously in
11:50
Indiana there's a lot of legends.
11:51
So it's a little different terminology too.
11:55
Yeah, so for those who don't know me, my name is Parker
11:58
Tatro, as Lewis introduced me to.
12:01
I've been racing for this was my 21st year now.
12:05
I've raced in multiple different cars.
12:07
I started in kick hearts. My dad bought me one when I was
12:10
5, maxed out a credit card to get me going.
12:12
So we started racing at my local track, JAXA Speedway.
12:17
We raced there for many, many, many, many years, raced all
12:21
different kinds of cars there. Mini cups, which my good friends
12:26
Zach and Matt came from. Brace those on both, you know,
12:29
cement and dirt and then we kind of made our way into the dirt
12:34
scene a little bit more prominently with the micro
12:37
sprints and we stayed in there. I think we got in that first
12:40
year was 2018 and we stayed in those till about 2024.
12:43
About halfway through from then back in 20/19, I made a made
12:49
contact with the MCR dwarf car series getting a text message,
12:53
which actually just came up in my memories recently from one
12:56
Matt Kemp saying hey, we have an open seat in the dwarf car.
12:59
Would you like to get in? And who am I to say no?
13:03
And he's like, well, it's just for a feature race, so throw me
13:06
to the wolves right away, I guess.
13:08
But so yeah, 2019 kind of got my feet wet and the Dwarfs in the
13:13
feature race just put it around in the back.
13:16
Then I did another race, I think the year after or a couple years
13:19
later at M40. And I think in 2024, we decided
13:25
that the micro sprints were getting a little bit too
13:27
expensive for us and having to travel 2 1/2 hours away because
13:31
our local track, Jackson Speedway had closed.
13:35
So the nearest track was Circuit City Speedway Down in which I
13:38
think is now known as Miami County Speedway down in Indiana.
13:43
And that one ended up closing as well.
13:46
So like the next nearest one was like US 24 and that was like 3
13:49
hours plus. So it was like we need something
13:52
a little bit more cost effective.
13:54
So the dwarf car opportunity came up and since then we've
13:59
been off to the races with the dwarf cars ever since then.
14:03
So what is it like for you to win the championship and, and
14:06
have your name with people like Matt Kemp, who you've come up
14:09
with and and raced with and then Zach Nichols and I mean Eric
14:16
Hoffman. I mean, you're, you're in this
14:17
championship stratosphere now and maybe a little bit of a dark
14:21
horse, maybe a lot of people wouldn't have put you there yet,
14:24
right? You know, just because there's
14:26
such elite talent. And I always tell people like,
14:29
if you want to see elite talent, pick anybody from an MCR drawer
14:32
group because they could go next level in anything and be very
14:36
successful. So what's it like for you to now
14:38
be within those names? Oh, God, I don't even know if
14:43
it's fully sank in yet that I'm even a champion in the series
14:46
yet. Yeah, maybe when that's when the
14:49
championship's in my hands, maybe.
14:50
But just to join such an elite list, like as you mentioned,
14:54
Matt, who's off doing his thing in the ARCA series, you know,
14:59
and Zach, who I've grown up with, we started racing together
15:02
when we were five years old at Jackson Speedway.
15:05
So we've been racing together and we've known each other for
15:08
20 plus years. We're like brothers practically,
15:11
but like you kind of said, you know, the long list of names
15:13
from Rob Rooney, John Furness, the Hoffmans, Eric and Troy,
15:17
John Wiley, I never would have ever even guessed that I was
15:23
ever going to be champion in the series.
15:24
Never would have even put it on my radar at all.
15:28
You know, winning alone in the series with the amount of talent
15:31
that's in there, that's an accomplishment in and of itself
15:34
the way I see things. So to be A, to be the champion
15:38
in MCR, it's an absolute honor to be able to not only, you
15:42
know, represent MCR, but represent MCR as a champion.
15:46
Well, and again, there that's a class that is just so fun to
15:51
watch wherever they race. And so you know with that for
15:55
you too, what's your favorite track?
15:57
Because obviously you're traveling around, you've been in
15:58
the micro Sprint, so you've been at things that can like fly and
16:02
all and all of that. So like, you know, what's it
16:04
like then for you, you know, when you're traveling around and
16:09
doing these, like what tracks stand out to or what are your
16:12
favorite tracks? And then what's it like the
16:15
difference for you going from a micro Sprint to the dwarf car?
16:21
I mean, to start with a favorite track, I, I mean, I'm biased
16:25
just because it's where my first win happened, but I'd have to
16:27
say Berlin Raceway. Zach and I did so many races
16:32
there this year and we were side by side, bumper to bumper the
16:35
whole time, putting on barn burner after barn burner after
16:38
barn burner over there. So we had a really fun time over
16:42
there. Berlin Raceway, Owosso, I would
16:45
say, is another one that's up there.
16:46
What a beautiful, beautiful facility.
16:48
Owosso, they've done a phenomenal job with really
16:52
revamping that place and getting it up to just like a staple
16:55
short track in Michigan. But the transition from dirt
17:02
with the micro sprints to the dwarf cars, at first it was kind
17:05
of odd, you know, because you kind of go from kicking it
17:09
sideways and giving it just enough throttle to carry you
17:12
through the corner to OK, now I got to plant my tire and not
17:17
blister my tire, you know, because on asphalt you can just
17:20
cook them, which I did notoriously for the first year
17:23
or two. And I still occasionally do it
17:25
because I get a little throttle happy.
17:27
But I just think dirt prepares you so much for asphalt.
17:33
I mean, you see it on the mainstage with guys like Tony
17:37
Stewart, Kyle Larson, you know, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, all
17:41
these guys that have crossed over from dirt to asphalt.
17:44
It helps so much with the car control and the throttle
17:47
control. Like I was such a a mediocre
17:51
dirt racer, honestly. But I don't think I would be
17:54
half the driver I am now. And I I try not to toot my own
17:57
horn very often, but I don't think I would be even near the
18:01
front of the pack in the MCR dwarf cars at all if it wasn't
18:04
for what I learned on the dirt by far.
18:07
Well, you're a champion. You're allowed to toot your own
18:09
horn. Like I think now that gives you
18:13
privilege to kind of toot your own horn, right?
18:15
And well, and that's where I know we had talked about
18:18
possibly having you on even last week, but you were busy because
18:21
you had a wedding. So, you know, congratulations to
18:24
you on your marriage. And so like 2 two rings in the
18:26
same year, right? And you know, like, I mean not
18:30
unless you're like Matthew LC Junior and you get all these
18:33
championship, you know, titles and everything in like 1 day.
18:36
Not too many people have that opportunity, right?
18:38
So you know, with that. So what is it like then?
18:41
Been for you before I passed off to Buju so he can learn more
18:44
about you too. What's it been like then for you
18:46
to have wedding planning going on during race season at the
18:49
same time? Oh gosh, I mean, I I can tell
18:53
you right now I can think of about multiple times throughout
18:57
a just a week alone where my wife probably wanted to RIP my
19:00
head off just with how stressed I was with trying to get a race
19:03
car ready and then trying to plan for a wedding.
19:05
We just got this house back in March, so our schedules have
19:09
just been packed this year. So they, to say the least, I've
19:13
been just a walking ball of stress for the last few months.
19:16
So I'm not sure how my wife's even said yes to me when I
19:20
proposed, but didn't even dealt with me for that long.
19:23
But you know, yeah, God bless her.
19:26
She she really put up with a lot with me.
19:29
So I'm, I'm a very blessed man to have that kind of woman in my
19:31
life to, to not only support me in my racing and stuff, but to
19:35
support me outside of that as well.
19:37
Well, and again, if you can find a wife who's into the racing
19:40
scene and and can handle all that and do all that and you
19:43
know, be there for the people who cheer you on and for the
19:46
people who start to Boo you or whatever else, right?
19:49
And take all that, I mean, that says keeper right there, right?
19:52
So, you know, so it's one of those that it's not easy.
19:55
A lot of people, you know maybe don't think about like spouses,
19:58
male or female, right? Because there's female racers,
20:01
right, Who you know. Are married too and maybe their
20:04
husbands or whatever don't don't race so it's like it takes a lot
20:08
of patience and and understanding and knowing like
20:12
hey it's race season so I'll see you at midnight tonight you know
20:15
like yeah yeah you know or whenever I'll see you guys 3
20:18
days from now so that it takes a lot of patience to be a race
20:22
family so. Definitely.
20:24
So again, congratulations on the wedding too.
20:26
Thank you so much. Thanks so much.
20:28
Oh no, you're welcome. So.
20:32
Yeah, go ahead. I would assume the main focus is
20:33
probably the MCR Dwarf series again next year.
20:37
Probably, you know, I'm always open to trying new things, but
20:42
MCR is definitely my home. You know, it's it's going to be
20:44
for a very long time. Gotcha.
20:46
So any eyes on anything down the road, any future thoughts or
20:50
just focusing on that at the moment?
20:52
I haven't really put together anything yet as far as like
20:55
future plans go. I know MCR is definitely going
20:58
to be the primary focus probably from here on out, but my doors
21:02
are always open to try new things.
21:04
But MCR will be my home no matter where I go.
21:07
I think it's, you know, I've, I've, I've been open to multiple
21:11
things like Jayden Kurtasi, we've talked about me probably
21:14
getting in one of his prolates in the future that's still on
21:16
the radar. You know, I'm always open to try
21:18
new things. Sure.
21:21
You mentioned that Berlin and Owosso are among your favorite
21:24
tracks so far. What are some tracks maybe you'd
21:26
like to see added to that dwarf car schedule to try?
21:29
Out. Oh God, we're going to be here
21:31
all night. We do that.
21:35
I'd love to see Springboard come back.
21:37
Honestly, I would love another shot at that track.
21:40
I only had one shot at it and I felt like, you know, just
21:43
because it was my first time in the car, I didn't have enough
21:46
experience under my belt for that.
21:47
But I would love to or shot at that track.
21:51
I know what is it? Corrigan Oil Speedway was one
21:55
that we're going to visit this year.
21:56
We got a couple rain outs there. I think I seen years back they
22:01
went to new Paris Speedway. I I think that would be a fun
22:04
one to definitely go try Angola Grundy.
22:08
There's so many. All.
22:10
All of them. Give me all of them, bring them
22:12
all. I'm up for a challenge.
22:14
And we probably have a lot of Grundy people watching, you
22:17
know, which I don't. Brian Kuseba's birthday is
22:19
tomorrow. So if you know Brian Kuseba,
22:21
wish him a happy birthday for tomorrow.
22:24
But that's something that obviously with us going to the
22:26
Bahamas this weekend, we probably and announcing on
22:30
boards, probably Grundy, people watching Steve might even be
22:32
watching the promoter. So there you go.
22:34
I know Chris Mandela's watching. He's new Paris's owner.
22:39
So you're you're shouting out some names that we probably have
22:42
some of them watching. So I know, I mean, I would, you
22:46
know, selfishly, I would love to see the MCR dwarf cars at New
22:49
Paris. I think it would add a flavor to
22:51
their schedule that they haven't had in the last couple years
22:54
because it's just kind of been here's our weekly racing, here's
22:56
our night of destruction, but here's Sizzler and here's
22:58
Flagger boy, but here's our weekly racing that, you know, it
23:01
kind of spices it up a little bit to have different classes,
23:05
different things. I mean, they've had VROA for a
23:06
little bit, they've had others, but it's like, man, those dwarf
23:09
cars, though, if you want to guarantee 14 cars, get the dwarf
23:12
cars because they're about the only series that can guarantee
23:15
you. Well, like cars, like, I mean, a
23:18
lot of them, not just a few of them.
23:19
So what do you I know I'm cutting booze, but like, you
23:23
know, what do you think that allegiance is?
23:25
Like any like even Drew Jack and I've had this when he's talked
23:28
about like, well, Lewis, I'm coming up with the show.
23:30
What do you think in Star dwarf cars?
23:32
That's one of my top answers because I'm like, if you want to
23:34
guarantee 14 cars and they'll show you guys sometimes show up
23:37
with 18. Like I didn't know there was 18,
23:39
but it's like, if you want guarantee car count, MCR drive
23:43
cars. You you can't convince me pretty
23:45
much anyone else. So Tri states, right.
23:48
So I was getting there, but most other traveling series you can't
23:51
guarantee that. And So what do you think the
23:52
loyalty is with MCR drive cars? Like what stands out that you
23:55
guys are like, you go to a show, you're it's like a convoy, like
23:59
you're going to the show. I think like the way I see it,
24:03
like even kind of like as you said, it's a guaranteed 14 cars.
24:06
But even then we've been growing so much, so many people have
24:09
just been showing interest of wanting to get in the MCR dwarf
24:12
cars. And I think that's awesome.
24:14
I've been trying to be a part of that growth and even helping out
24:17
Eric get in some of these new people and lead in some people
24:20
that I've actually known in the dirt world to come in the dwarf
24:22
cars. So the more the merrier.
24:24
But even then, I think the way that the dwarf cars race is so
24:29
different to like anything else that we traditionally see on
24:32
asphalt. You know, at Berlin, for
24:34
example, I don't think they expected us to put on near half
24:38
the show that we did there. We were going on lap 1 going
24:42
into turn one. We're going 3-4 wide through one
24:44
and two, like it's a superspeedway, like it looks
24:46
ridiculous. But I, I think it's a sleeper
24:50
show really with these dwarf cars.
24:52
I don't think anybody truly expects these things to put on
24:55
the show that they do. And the speeds that they carry
24:58
is phenomenal. So I think it it's a sleeper
25:01
category. If nobody's seen them race on
25:03
asphalt, you're in for a tree no matter where we're going to be.
25:07
Well. You know, like in a lot of
25:09
places too in the country, the legends which would be close to
25:12
the dwarfs. There are some, obviously there
25:13
are differences between the two, but a lot of people would think
25:16
of legends. Like if I just showed the
25:17
picture and then call it a dwarf car, they would think it's a
25:20
legend, right? Which you see a lot in
25:21
Wisconsin. Obviously you're part of
25:23
Indiana. There's a lot of legends in that
25:26
area. You go to other states, they're
25:28
legends and and a lot of times they're racing on dirt, they're
25:31
not racing on asphalt. So I think that's what makes you
25:34
guys unique too. And you went to and you guys
25:36
have been to South Bend so many times.
25:37
So it's like you can handle 1/4 mile, you can do the quarter
25:40
miles, you could do the big three eights, you could do a
25:42
Berlin right. And wherever you go, it's like
25:44
it's a quality show. I've never walked away from a
25:48
MCR race going man, that's disappointing.
25:50
Like I've never had that experience ever.
25:52
But but that's where I wondered and while doing cheap plugs,
25:56
right? And also knowing that we have
25:57
promoters who are watching the show right now of let's sell,
26:01
like why should you bring the drive cards?
26:02
Well, one, you're going to get 14 cars guarantee like minimum,
26:06
you know, I would be so I would probably fall over and put
26:09
myself in a grave if there was less than 14 because I would be
26:12
like that doesn't happen, right. You and Eric both would probably
26:15
be doing that. Yeah, yeah.
26:16
Because it's like, that would be so unusual, right?
26:19
That would be way out-of-the-box.
26:21
Like some crap had to have happened and like torn up cars
26:26
USA for that to happen, right. So it's like if you want a show
26:30
that's going to put fans in the stands, I mean, your fans travel
26:34
and they watch right, you guys. And and you know, whether it's
26:37
Zach, whether it's you, whether it's Matt, when Matt gets into
26:40
the series again, it's if it's a Hoffman's, like they're
26:43
traveling around, even sigh, you know, sigh had his fans who
26:46
followed him. And it's like, you know, the
26:49
dwarf car puts on a on not they put on a show.
26:52
So it's like if you're looking at your schedule and you're
26:54
thinking we could use a little boost here, we could use a
26:56
little something different flavor MCR dwarf cars.
27:00
I mean, you, you just for the, for the cost that it is to bring
27:05
them in and for the show you're gonna get, and the fact that
27:07
like 5 people come per trailer, like, you know, it's, it's
27:12
definitely something that should be on people's schedule if it's
27:15
not. So, so I figure I don't want to
27:17
cut into Boujou's time because I want him to learn about you too,
27:20
because you know, this is the chance for the rewind.
27:22
Like we get to learn about drivers, right?
27:24
I've had a few conversations with you, but I don't, I've not
27:27
known a lot about you, right? So it's like, but let's also
27:30
cheap plug it too. And because you guys have
27:33
incredible support no matter where you go.
27:35
But. I'm going to throw it back to
27:37
Boujou and shut up. Pardon my ignorance, but what
27:41
tires are you guys racing? On Right now we race on American
27:44
racer slicks. OK So what are your opinion of
27:46
American racers cuz we know the tire debate is a hot topic right
27:50
now. Tire's a tire, I'm gonna shred
27:51
it no matter what. Oh yeah, brother.
27:53
Oh yeah. I think American racers are
27:55
great, honestly, and I don't I try not to say that you know, as
27:58
because we were partnered with the series, but I think they're
28:01
a great tire. I think we see all the time, you
28:04
know, post about bashing tires, whether it's Cobras, whether
28:07
it's Hoosiers or you name it, there's tire bashing of all
28:11
kinds. But I've had no issues with the
28:13
American racers. I think they're a great tire.
28:15
Gotcha, have you been on Hoosiers in the Dwarfs just for
28:18
computers? Not in the dwarf, just on Dirk.
28:20
Gotcha. OK.
28:21
I was just curious. You're trying to create a debate
28:24
here. No, no, I'm not.
28:27
Just curious the. Series long enough to be on the
28:29
Hoosiers. I know there's guys that were
28:30
back there on the Hoosier times, so.
28:32
Fair enough. I have one more question, but
28:34
I'm gonna blame it on Lewis for forgetting it.
28:37
Yeah, I haven't done anything yet today.
28:39
I'll take the blame. Lewis, if you don't jump back
28:43
yet, I'll rattle. It Oh yeah, it'll come back.
28:45
Well, so like so Cam Cameron MacArthur, he's in here
28:49
obviously, you know, he's a rumble.
28:51
You know, there's always like a reunion that everyone has once a
28:54
year at the rumble in Fort Wayne at the Allen County War Memorial
28:58
Coliseum. That's coming up in December
28:59
also like time. But you know, he was mentioning
29:03
he had one of his best races against you.
29:04
So what are some races that stand out to you where, you
29:07
know, obviously champion, you get a championship, but in the
29:10
lead up to this and racing for as long as you have, like what
29:13
races do you sit back and still think about today like man like
29:18
or race tree like? It didn't go our way, but I had
29:21
so much fun. I, I already know that race that
29:25
Cameron's talking about. That memory sticks out to me
29:27
like a sore thumb. And it's not sore cuz it's, it's
29:31
a good, it's a great memory. I love Cameron, great guy.
29:37
We were side by side for so many laps at Jackson Speedway, which
29:40
if anybody knows Jackson Speedway, it goes rubber down
29:43
one groove and you're not passing unless you're moving
29:45
somebody. And that night in particular, I
29:49
watch Cameron make the bottom work unlike anybody I've ever
29:52
seen make it work. Like he did a great job.
29:54
Like it was like a whole new driver down there.
29:56
I'm like, wow, OK, so shout out the camera.
30:01
Great guy. Another one, some other races
30:05
like Zach and I, I think we were side by side at Berlin earlier
30:10
this year, I think it was for like 8 or 9 laps and with like
30:15
just that much room between us, like one wheel hop away from one
30:18
of us going flying, you know? And like, if anybody asked me
30:23
who I'd want to race with for the rest of my life, I'm picking
30:25
Zach every day and twice on Sundays.
30:27
So there's just so many races that stick out to me, so many
30:32
memories. I'm sure I'm forgetting some.
30:33
That's just part of the wrecks that happen where you forget
30:36
some things sometimes, you know? Right.
30:38
But yeah. But no, I've.
30:40
I've had so many good memories. Maybe I'll take the blame off
30:43
you and blame it on my wrecks too, Lewis.
30:44
That's why I. Thought the question.
30:46
Oh yeah, you got to be in the race car first to wreck.
30:50
Well, I did last time I was. Keeping track, It's true, yeah.
30:56
No. Oh, no.
30:56
OK. How long do you do you feel, do
30:59
you feel like it took you to belong in the end at the front
31:02
of the field in the Dwarf Guard? You mentioned the transition
31:04
wasn't all that easy at first, so how long did it take before
31:07
you felt like you were a competitor and you were a front
31:09
of the pack guy in the Dwarf Guard series?
31:11
I had to really feel like I had to earn my keep there, you know?
31:15
I felt like when I finally found the speed, it came down to
31:18
harnessing it and being clean because I've always tried to
31:21
pride myself on clean racing. I don't want to move anybody.
31:25
I don't want to wreck anybody. I don't want to go down and, you
31:30
know, put somebody in the chokehold.
31:31
I don't want to do that. You know, that's not what MCR is
31:33
about. That's definitely not what I'm
31:34
about. But there were definitely times
31:36
where I stepped on some toes early on.
31:38
When I finally got that speed in the car, it was like, OK, I got
31:41
to step back a bit. So then it was harnessing the
31:44
speed, learning the lines and everything.
31:46
So I mean, I'd take it like, I kind of only ran three races in
31:50
2024 before 2025 hit. I would say about halfway
31:54
through 2025 was when I finally was like, OK, I feel like I have
31:58
something. It's just learning how I can set
32:01
this car up differently to basically handle the way I want
32:05
it to because everybody likes something a little bit
32:06
different. So there's a baseline set up
32:10
with every car but every car. And even if you ask Eric, every
32:13
car is fast in this series. It's just one thing that every
32:17
car likes a little bit different than the others.
32:19
And I mean drivers, it's a driver series as well.
32:24
You know a fast driver is going to really prevail in these cars
32:27
do. You have a least favorite track,
32:30
so Nick's tremie bringing on the smooth operator to drive.
32:33
So he will be at the Bahama brackets this weekend.
32:35
If you're and Nick probably should stick around a little
32:38
bit. He might or may not be on the
32:40
list coming up shortly. So but so favorite or least
32:45
favorite track. I think you talked a lot about
32:48
your favorite too. So like, even at least like that
32:51
stands out. We're like, yeah, I don't have
32:53
to go back to. That one maybe not least
32:55
favorite 1 you haven't figured out just yet.
32:57
Maybe I have a least favorite. I'm not going to bash a track by
33:02
any means, you know, it's not to say that it's a bad track by any
33:05
means. I would just say 1 I haven't
33:08
figured out yet is probably Whittemore.
33:11
And I can't even, I can't even say Corrigan Oil yet because I
33:14
haven't ever raced there. You know, Whittemore is that
33:19
Whittemore is a tricky one. It's just a very unique track.
33:22
It's very different than like anything else that we have here
33:24
in Michigan. So I'd say that's one that's
33:27
least favorite currently just cuz I haven't figured it out
33:30
yet. Well, that's how we'll put it.
33:32
Like least favor doesn't have to mean track bashing, right?
33:34
Cuz that's, you know, cuz it's one of those like as even as a
33:37
fan there, there are tracks like obviously I'm gonna go support
33:40
tracks, but there are tracks that stand out to me where I'm
33:42
like I if I don't go back, it's OK, right?
33:45
Like it's, you know, like I'll support it, I'll promote it,
33:48
I'll do all of that. We'll share schedules and all
33:51
that, but it's like it doesn't like if I have a choice to
33:55
another track first, you know, like it's not one way or
33:58
another. It's just sometimes the racing
33:59
doesn't maybe stand out at one track versus another where you
34:02
as a driver, it's like, man, it's just I get there and I hit
34:05
the wall every timer, man, I get there and like something breaks
34:08
or man like you know, so that's for anyone watching.
34:10
That's how we'll take it is like it's just a track where you're
34:13
like, I have bad luck when I get there, you know, I could win 4
34:17
races in a row, but I get to that track and I look like I've
34:19
been a field filler all week or. And that was kind of the thing
34:24
was like with Whittemore, we've had some bad juju, not Buju, but
34:28
bad juju that has surrounded us that's gone to that track.
34:32
We did have a good race there this year.
34:33
We got like third. I think Steve Bobeck ended up
34:37
winning that race. And like the last two or three
34:39
races he showed up to, he was winning.
34:41
And I'm like, I'm getting real sick of you showing up, you know
34:43
that, right? But yeah, Winamore, Winamore is
34:47
a really unique track. It's a fun track, but it's one I
34:50
just haven't figured out yet. But it's also been a link to
34:53
some bad juju around that one for us.
34:57
Oh, what if that did become like the phrase next year?
34:59
Man, I just got some bad buju over here.
35:04
You know, that could be like, instead of like all these other
35:07
phrases that people come up with, we could just #booju.
35:10
Yeah, I blame Booju. Yeah.
35:14
At least they put the bull ring on the NSL.
35:16
They we used to get the branding in there.
35:19
I mean, that's cheap advertising.
35:21
I mean, that cost nothing. But but I know as we wind down
35:24
here, certainly you know, you have not only your own race
35:27
page, but you also do YouTube where you do vlogs and you do
35:30
different things. So if you want to do your own
35:31
cheap plug time, it's our Mankind Monday of the moment
35:34
where you know, cheap plug, you know, all the marketing partners
35:37
that you have that helps get you to the track.
35:39
You're really good about tagging them all the time and all of
35:42
your posts and sharing them. So who all helps with your
35:45
program? And then of course, where can
35:47
everyone follow along? So that way as you travel and do
35:50
your different things, they can also see where you're going
35:53
next. So as Lewis brought up there, I
35:57
do YouTube vlogs. If you look up Parker Tatro on
36:00
YouTube, you can find those. My Facebook page is Parker Tatro
36:04
Racing. It saw a huge surge in followers
36:08
last year that was linked to doing a little flippy do over at
36:14
M40 is what we'll call that one. That was so that was me.
36:19
I was that guy. I don't know if the video, I
36:24
think the video is still on my Facebook page there.
36:26
I thought I want to say it's up to like 920,000 views around
36:30
there. So I attribute that we call that
36:33
one the Michael McDowell effect. So but yeah, if you want to
36:38
follow me, my Facebook page is Parker Tatro Racing, my YouTube
36:41
is Parker Tatro. You can follow me on both of
36:43
those. I have a A The saying is it
36:49
takes a village and it definitely does around my racing
36:52
program. And it definitely wouldn't be
36:53
possible without my family with my mom and my dad, my now wife,
36:58
that's in the other room. All the sponsors, crazy Cowboys
37:02
been with us since we were on the dirt.
37:05
Hoffman Motorsports Outlaw Chassis Eric has given me so
37:08
much knowledge between on the track and off the track with
37:10
working on these things. I can't thank him enough.
37:13
I attribute a lot of our success to him.
37:17
Hoax Graphics Jaden makes every car look great.
37:21
He's made our car look beautiful every time that we've ever went
37:24
to him. Frickersmith isn't really a
37:28
sponsor. It's just me and my friend's
37:30
dumb idea in a dumb quote that kind of happened, so it just
37:33
sticks on a car. So that's Team No Chance
37:36
Motorsports. Fricker's men right there for
37:38
you. So R&M Towing, Mike and Rhonda
37:42
down in Indiana, met them a few years ago.
37:45
They're phenomenal people and they've been very supportive of
37:48
me. They came on recently, I want to
37:51
say in 2025, they came on. So they've been a big supporter,
37:55
a big proponent of our program. Hawkeye Speed Shop does great
38:00
work on the motors. Good Lord, Copperhead
38:06
Consulting, that is my brother's AI security program that he's
38:10
been working on since leaving the Army.
38:13
He's invested into private security, so he's been working
38:16
on that one. He's been really, he's really
38:20
impressed a lot of people with how much he's learned.
38:22
If you had met him when I was like 4 or five years old, you'd
38:24
be like, this kid is just dumb. But I love him.
38:30
That's my brother and I love him.
38:32
I'm super proud of him. Apex performance and calibration
38:36
is another one that came on this year as part of our budget
38:39
friendly marketing program. They got to be on the one side
38:43
of the car all year long and I gave them about the same
38:45
exposure as everybody else our and then what's the other one?
38:50
Epic Dumpster Rental, Jamie, I'm sorry, Jamie, I'm forgetting you
38:53
buddy. I'm sorry.
38:54
Jamie Sarkis, who also raced with us and his dad, Chuck
38:57
Sarkis, thanks to those guys at Epic Dumpster rental.
39:00
They they really, they've been a really big supporter and I love
39:04
racing with those guys. Those are great people there too
39:06
as well. And I love everybody I race
39:08
with. And the MCR Dwarf Car Series.
39:10
We're like one big traveling family and we have a great time
39:12
everywhere we go. Now I can't tell cuz I can kind
39:16
of see but can't see. Are you wearing your famous
39:18
shirt? That I know they caught up with
39:21
you at Owosso, so if you want to tell, I mean we did cut 4
39:24
minutes into your time, so I owe you a few minutes here.
39:27
There we go. So for those that don't know,
39:34
Earl Darn Junior AKA my wife was sitting right here in the
39:39
simrig. So I don't get on the simrig as
39:41
well. It's unfocusing.
39:43
Hold on, fix that. Maybe not.
39:46
It's a good yet we see it. There it goes, There we go.
39:50
Earl Darn Junior is my wife's alter ego.
39:54
So we got on the simrig, which I'm not on as much anymore
39:57
because I'm just so busy. It's so covered in dust right
40:01
now. But anyway, so I got her on here
40:05
to get her on iRacing to try it because she really wanted to try
40:08
it. So I sat her down, got her in
40:09
the simrig, was going over the controls with her.
40:12
Finally I'm like, she was revving it in neutral, I'm
40:15
pretty sure. And I'm like, yeah, you have to
40:18
shift. You know, it's not an automatic
40:20
like you still got to put it in drive.
40:21
You know, it's just, it's normal.
40:23
So I'm like all right, shift in the 1st and she's like shut up.
40:26
I'm Earl Darn Junior and I'm like.
40:29
You mean Earnhardt Junior? And she's like, yeah, whatever.
40:33
And then this took off. So that was the meaning behind
40:37
that shirt there. So it's been a running gag ever
40:40
since. So maybe one day we'll get Earl
40:43
darn Junior in a dwarf car. Who knows?
40:46
You never know. And it better have that name
40:48
right there, you know, of course.
40:51
But that's where I was. McFarland.
40:52
Yeah, Right. Right, and I mean, and you see
40:55
what he's been able to do. I mean, he owns a racetrack, he
40:57
owns a private jet and and helicopters and does all these
41:01
awesome things all over the place.
41:02
But but yeah, that's where I was, like I said, when I was
41:06
scrolling through, right? Just because I always like to do
41:08
background research and everyone we bring on, even if I know the
41:11
guests I like to. Did I miss something or should I
41:13
know something or bring it up on here for people who may not
41:16
know, right. And so it's one of those things
41:18
that I was looking and then I saw that and of course it's on
41:20
Tiktok. And I don't usually use Tiktok,
41:22
but I'm like, I have the Tiktok account.
41:24
And so I got to watch it. I'm like, OK, if he has that
41:27
shirt on, we'll bring it up. And if you didn't have the shirt
41:29
on, I was going to maybe let you have a free pass on it.
41:32
But but I was kind of looking and on our screen, obviously we
41:36
can't see it, but in the staging area, I'm like, I think that's
41:39
the shirt. So I kept kind of looking.
41:41
And what also helped is David popped in in the staging area.
41:43
So it made me kind of look to when his picture popped up down
41:47
there. So that's what made me look
41:48
down. And I'm like, I think it's the
41:49
shirt. And I'm like, but I can't tell
41:51
because then you're your partner's kind of over it,
41:53
right? So I'm like, I'm just going to
41:56
say it on air. I think that's the shirt.
41:58
And I'm like, I knew we had a few minutes since we cut into
42:00
your minutes a little bit there. But I'm like, so we're going to
42:02
tell this story before we let you get going here.
42:04
But but again, congratulations on your 2026 championship in the
42:09
MCR, you know, in that MCR Dwarf series.
42:11
I mean, that's not easy. There's so much elite talent.
42:14
I always tell people, like I said earlier, if you want to see
42:17
elite talent who could be next level and go and be successful
42:21
in anything they want to do, Matt Kemp is helping to show
42:24
that right, and he's not the only one.
42:26
There's others that opportunities will hopefully
42:29
come to them. So so hopefully those auto you
42:31
know, those opportunities come to you as well, especially, I
42:34
mean you travel all over your them sure are is on video all
42:38
the time. I mean, whether it's flow racing
42:40
at or or racing America, wherever you guys are, sometimes
42:43
you end up or obviously, if you come countless, you've been on
42:45
top Rd. Not that that's the same as flow
42:47
or racing America, but it's up there and our crashers adventure
42:51
over them 40 like there's always video coverage somewhere.
42:54
So so it's obviously people can go and watch what you guys are
42:57
doing as a series and get a judgement for themselves.
42:59
And yeah, this is a series you won at your track.
43:02
So so again, I appreciate you coming on and, and, and just
43:08
telling your story and sharing your your season.
43:10
Of course, now we know where the now everyone, if they missed
43:14
that video, knows where the shirt, the the name and the
43:16
shirt comes from. So so again, congratulations on
43:20
your season again wedding. Thank you guys.
43:22
I really. Appreciate it and and thank you
43:25
guys for having me on and thank you for both of you for what you
43:29
guys do for the short track scene for around Michigan,
43:31
Indiana and so on. You guys do a awesome job with
43:34
putting content out there, especially for the MCR dwarf car
43:37
series. Whenever you guys are at a track
43:39
and we're there at the same time, I hate that we didn't go
43:41
to K Zoo this year. That's my favorite race every
43:43
year, but maybe next year we'll see.
43:45
But no, thank you guys for having me on and and showcasing
43:49
MCR and everything that the short track racing is about in
43:53
Michigan, Indiana and so on. Oh, no, you're welcome.
43:55
That hey, that's what we're here for.
43:56
And I know like now that I see Cam in here too, I'm like, oh,
43:59
that reminds me. He was already on my contact
44:02
list as we get closer to the Rumble in Fort Wayne.
44:04
But I figure since he's watching, I'll let him know to
44:06
be to look in his inbox around November, mid November, probably
44:11
before Thanksgiving to get that scheduled because I want to
44:14
start pushing Rumble in Fort Wayne as we get closer to that
44:17
time. And he's always at Rumble.
44:19
He'll he always has for camera. I'm like, you're always going to
44:21
get a camera as long as you want one at Rumble.
44:23
Sometimes, although I feel like it's bad luck for him, but last
44:26
year he did really he had a really good run on that that
44:29
Saturday show. But but I definitely when you
44:31
say Cam's a good guy, if no one's had a chance to go talk
44:34
with Cameron, you need to make time to go talk with him at the
44:37
Rumble in Fort Wayne. He always parks in the very back
44:40
area where they park all the 600 wing and non wings.
44:42
And he's definitely one that you need to go and learn his story
44:46
and everything that he does. So so again, that's where when
44:50
he popped in and told that story about that race.
44:52
I'm like, OK, let's bring that up too.
44:53
So again, thank you so much, Parker, for taking time out of
44:56
your night tonight. And and we'll see you hopefully
44:59
next year at one of these tracks, but you'll probably be
45:02
at the if you have time, I know you'll get invited to the
45:06
Michigan Auto Fan Racing Club banquet.
45:08
So if they, if you're there, hope to see you there.
45:12
Yeah, Yep, I'll be at the Michigan Auto Racing Fan Club
45:15
banquet and I'll also be at the Rumble too.
45:17
That's always a visit I like to do whether I'm in the car or
45:19
not. Probably not, but I do like to
45:21
go watch and deal with the next case of Rumble Hangover the day.
45:25
After that is a thing I I didn't like.
45:28
That's definitely a thing. So someone, someone's like,
45:31
that's not a thing. I'm gonna go.
45:32
It's a thing. I had it last year.
45:33
I can tell you it's a thing. But but again, thank you so
45:36
much, Parker. It sounds like we'll see you
45:37
here in sometime in December then.
45:39
Yes, Sir, Sounds good. Thanks guys.
45:41
No, thank you. And again, we've been talking
45:43
with Parker Tatro, so if you miss any part of his interview,
45:46
if you join late, of course, once we're done live, you'll be
45:48
able to go back and watch it. It'll also be on Spotify
45:51
probably sometime tonight, if not tomorrow.
45:53
I know sometimes I forget to put it on Spotify, but it will be on
45:56
Spotify before we bring in David.
45:59
I know, like I said, we're just a few minutes behind.
46:01
He popped in. I'm so excited.
46:03
I mean, over 1000 tracks, if you want to know tracks.
46:06
What I loved about David is I had a chance to talk with him at
46:11
Kalamazoo briefly and I went up and I said, well, I'm just a
46:14
phonographer and, you know, and he, and he obviously he has his
46:17
camera equipment and everything. And he said, do you know how
46:20
many tracks I've actually gone to?
46:21
And that's all I've used is my phone.
46:23
And I went really. And you know, and he's done like
46:26
at some events he's just done like his phone.
46:29
And I went, OK, you know, and I thought that was really cool,
46:33
you know, because I've definitely come across
46:36
photographers who put down pornographers.
46:39
And I'm like, you know, I, I know what I am.
46:41
And I'm like, my, my equipment is in cars and on the roof.
46:45
Like I spent enough money on that.
46:48
I don't need to get in the photographer lane.
46:50
But obviously I'd like to use her for, for promotions and all
46:52
that kind of deal. But he just, it was in, I want
46:56
to say it was in Pennsylvania and I'm forgetting the track,
46:58
but I want to say it's Pennsylvania.
46:59
He can confirm when he gets on. But that's where he reached 1000
47:02
tracks. And if I remember correctly,
47:03
Kalamazoo was like 993 or 994 when he was there last year for
47:08
the Kalamazoo Clash. And he got to be part of that.
47:11
So I'm so excited to have someone like him on, not only to
47:15
honor like what he's done. I mean, 1004 tracks when I
47:19
messaged him. I might be more now, but it was
47:22
1004 when I messaged him. But he has a whole website that
47:26
you can go to for, you know, photos all over.
47:28
But before we get to him, I definitely want to share our
47:31
Grundy list. So these are the Grundy 21 for
47:35
the Bahama brackets. Now.
47:36
Any name that was in the comments section is on the wait
47:39
list and almost always I can get to a wait list too.
47:43
So and if some mounts come in, I might have two more cameras with
47:47
me that usually are used for Kalamazoo track services and
47:51
David Lux at Kalamazoo. Obviously KTS and David won't be
47:56
at Grundy. So those are two cameras that I
47:57
can maneuver over. I do unless Steve tells me
48:01
different. I do plan to bring track cameras
48:03
to get some other angles of Grundy, so those won't be
48:07
available, but I might have two available.
48:10
I keep hearing Ding's Buju, so I might hand it over to you for a
48:12
moment just to make sure it's not like sigh or somebody who's
48:15
like, hey, I don't know if I'll make it or not, but I'm like, I
48:18
keep hearing dinging and but I wanted to show the list.
48:21
I'm excited. John Cope, you know, he was
48:23
going to have it at Kalamazoo Super Shoe, but with engine
48:26
issues and also ran out of time. So I'm excited to have John.
48:30
He was on that for that whole episode, almost all three hours
48:33
watching and listening along. Of course, we have Ryan Lagasty.
48:37
You'll get to hear his interview again on Wednesday.
48:39
Sean Wiltshire, you'll get to hear his interview.
48:41
Nick Sturmi. That's why I like Nick Sturmi.
48:43
Stick around for a little bit. Your name might, may or may not
48:46
be. He ran as a limited late model
48:48
at New Paris because he had no roof and he had sideboards,
48:52
which obviously is not street stock.
48:53
Rules not. Quite.
48:56
Yeah, not quite and but I'm excited too.
48:59
Trevor Sturrick. If you don't know the Sturricks,
49:01
you got Big Daddy, who's one of the key announcers over Grundy.
49:05
He does a lot of the entertainment side.
49:07
So Trevor and his wife, I want to say it's Katie.
49:12
I hope I didn't mess it up. I'm pretty sure it's Katie
49:15
basically showed for me around that property all over the
49:17
place, showing me different spots of Grundy.
49:19
So I'm excited to get there. So this is a mix of the Grundy.
49:25
Oh, OK, so size good. So I don't know who's messaging
49:27
me then I'm going to go figure it out really quick while we
49:29
introduce David. But oh, it's Brian.
49:33
OK, now we know who it is. And I'm like, I know somebody's
49:36
messaging me and I'm worried when I hear messages on
49:38
Facebook. Well, and it was Ding, Ding,
49:41
Ding, Ding. And I'm like, oh, we're ringing
49:42
the bell here. You know, totally sounded TKO
49:45
where Cy's like, Hey, I can't make it like, OK, but, but I
49:50
want to cut it more into David's time.
49:51
So like I said, I know we were 4 minutes over, but I wanted to
49:54
announce that since we said we would do it after Parker's.
49:56
This, this will also be on Facebook tomorrow at 7:00 PM
50:00
again. But if someone commented and
50:02
you're like, hey, I'm not on on the list, trust me, I still have
50:04
your name. Steve has your name too.
50:07
And if we need to get into the wait list, we'll get into the
50:09
wait list. So oh, Gray, sorry, it's gay,
50:15
Alex gay. That's my fault.
50:16
I'll fix that. Oh, cuz Daryl's on there.
50:17
So I spelled it. I spelled one name right and one
50:19
name wrong. That's my fault, but but it is
50:23
Alex gay. Then we have also Derek Gay
50:26
who's on there too. So thank you, Steve for catching
50:28
that. I'll fix that before I make the
50:30
official graphic. This was the just for the show
50:32
graphic. But let's bring on David because
50:35
he has been waiting patiently and the staging area again over
50:40
1000 tracks that he has visited. So David, Oh, I almost messed it
50:45
up here on the graphic here. David, welcome to the Monday
50:48
night rewind. I know we're a few minutes
50:49
behind here from what I first told you, but I'm so excited to
50:53
have you on. Well, thank you, Louis.
50:55
It's a pleasure to be here. Well, and I know we got to meet
50:59
over at Kalamazoo and I got to know just a little bit of your
51:02
story, right? It was kind of between events
51:04
where I got to come over and introduce myself and welcome you
51:06
to Kalamazoo. But on this show, we, we call it
51:10
an aim for or, or shoot first, aim second.
51:13
You know, we're not scripted. We just kind of go wherever the
51:16
show goes. And so for you, David, for those
51:20
who don't know, again, 1004, unless it's changed in the time
51:24
when we last talked to like 1006 or something, but who are like,
51:29
tell your story. Like who are you?
51:31
How'd you become a racing historian and do this?
51:35
Because again, I mean, I don't know how many photographers,
51:38
storytellers of racing, you know, gets to 1000 tracks, you
51:44
know, summary and hundreds. I mean, you literally to have
51:46
thousands. So why don't you tell us who you
51:49
are? Tell a little bit about your
51:50
story for those who are watching.
51:53
OK. Where do you want me to start?
51:54
Do you want me to start with discussing the technology of
51:57
cameras or? You know, wherever you want to
52:01
start. You seem to be just a little put
52:04
off by the fact that you had all sorts of smaller cameras to work
52:09
with. But the technology behind the
52:11
cameras is something that I've talked at Thomas University in
52:15
Georgia, this is pre COVID, but learned the technology of that.
52:20
And once I learned the resolutions and other technical
52:23
matters, there's a lot of really good equipment out there that
52:28
people are ignoring simply they're turning their nose up to
52:33
it. But yeah, I'm, I've done quite a
52:36
few of these tracks with either drone cameras, which are even
52:40
smaller than the cameras you tend to use, or with cell phones
52:45
because the resolution is such that I recently had a magazine
52:49
that published A2 page spread of a photograph that I did with a
52:53
cell phone. So it, the technology's there
52:56
and it's constantly improving. So there's, there's nothing
53:00
wrong with what you're using and the results that I've have been
53:06
evidence of of your show and your reach.
53:10
And it seems like you're doing a lot right.
53:12
Because I, I think I mentioned in a note to you at one time
53:16
that I was filling up my car with gas the day after the
53:20
Kalamazoo race and somebody came up on the other side and said, I
53:25
saw you on, on the thing from Kalamazoo.
53:31
And I, what do you mean they went into detail.
53:36
I said I was on maybe 30 seconds.
53:38
What are you talking about? The reach is incredible.
53:43
And I'm sure that's one of the reasons that there are so many
53:48
active tracks around the Kalamazoo area.
53:51
I traveled the country, as you can tell from the 1000 race
53:54
tracks. I've been to 48 to 50 states.
53:58
And I started doing this because I, I had, I had 7 or 8 race
54:03
tracks close to where I grew up, which was if you put a pen in
54:07
Bristol, TN where Bristol Raceway is, then circle out from
54:12
that, you kind of get an idea of the radius that I had.
54:15
And the odd thing was when I started looking at the fact I
54:21
was driving by race tracks and I'm like, I need to at least
54:25
stop in and see if the gates open.
54:27
I need to take a look and see if this is a place that I can find
54:30
a story or find some history, find somebody to talk to about
54:34
what's going on here. And it was just it it after that
54:39
it became part of the pattern when I could, when the schedule
54:44
would allow, if I was driving from a race track in in Omaha,
54:48
NE headed towards Saint Louis, I might go by 6, seven race
54:53
tracks. So I would, if nothing more, get
54:55
a photograph to sign out front. And in several cases, especially
54:59
with the rain falling, that was about all I got.
55:02
But there are other tracks. And because you're based
55:06
primarily in the Michigan area, I, I've picked out some race
55:11
tracks there that have been significant in what I've done
55:16
over the course of this time. And it's this time spent 55
55:20
years, so my 25th racetrack is Mount Clemens, MI.
55:28
Oh, OK. Yeah, and I went to Mount
55:30
Clemens twice, once in 81 and once in 82.
55:35
And I remember Cindy Winkler just rolling out the red carpet
55:39
to anybody that would come by and do some history on her
55:42
track. And it was rich in history.
55:44
And as I find it, there's more and more tracks in these areas
55:49
that have a history. And a lot of times you stop by
55:52
the track and you've got somebody that's willing to talk.
55:55
I found a track recently in Indiana that everyone said, oh,
56:00
it's gone. Nobody's seen that track in 20
56:04
years. Well, I, it was a track that was
56:08
sponsored by, owned by the Lions Club in Upland, IN.
56:13
And I'm like, well, there's a Lions Club building still there.
56:16
Let me go see what's going on. So I went by, I was adding Gas
56:21
City to my list and it it had just recently closed and I was
56:25
curious as to the facility and I've seen too many race tracks
56:30
close in the past few years. But I went to the Lions Club
56:37
building and there was a guy across the street, I guess he
56:41
kind of kept an eye on the place or whatever.
56:44
But when I pulled up into the parking lot, there's a sign that
56:46
says Upland Lions Club Speedway. And so I talked to the guy from
56:52
across the street and he says, yeah, the tracks, the tracks not
56:56
been operating since 86 or something.
56:59
They're still holding fares and other things.
57:01
And they were obviously keeping the grounds up.
57:04
And he said, I got somebody, I'll call.
57:06
You got 5 minutes. I said sure.
57:08
So they call. And the guy was a a former
57:12
member. He was still a member of the
57:13
Lions Club, but he was formerly in the administration of the
57:17
racetrack itself. And he gave me a real history of
57:21
the track and why it wasn't running.
57:23
Now he said we'd love to still be racing, but there's water
57:26
flowing under the track and it keeps running it out to the
57:29
point it's a dirt track and we just can't keep the track under
57:32
it. We lose Turn 2 three or four
57:35
times every race that we tried to race.
57:37
So there's a history and there's a track that people had
57:41
forgotten. They'd just written it off.
57:44
And it became a real interesting story to go in the history of
57:48
what I do. That's recent.
57:51
There was a recent one in my garden out in front of my house
57:56
in Indiana. There's a piece of pavement.
57:59
Now, I don't go around collecting pavement from
58:01
everything, but I pulled up to the track at multiple and I was
58:10
taking a photograph of the sign out front and there was a
58:13
groundskeeper mowing while I was there.
58:17
So while I was taking some photographs from that out past
58:21
the parking lot, he rode his mower over and we started
58:24
talking a little bit and he was a race fan, but his church had
58:28
bought the track and they were going to turn it into a
58:33
building, either a bigger church or an educational facility or I,
58:38
I have not followed up on the history of that, but I, I, I do
58:42
know that they had plans for the property.
58:44
And as we talked a little bit longer and he said, well, I got
58:48
to get back to work, but take a look around.
58:51
So I put my drone up in the air. And for the record, I am a
58:55
licensed one O 7 drone pilot and I've had an FAA license for
59:00
almost 10 years now. So everything I do is, is buy
59:05
the FAA book. There are a lot of tracks.
59:09
I see a lot of people have a lot of tracks that are flying drones
59:13
with no license and no concept of what the rules are.
59:17
And that's causing problems for all of us that are licensed just
59:22
not to have to put that plug in there.
59:24
But it's not it's not hard to get a license, but you have to
59:29
stay recurrent every two years. They want to make sure that
59:32
you're up to date on what the rules are.
59:34
But anyway, I put the drone up and took a look at the track
59:37
from the air before walking out to the track.
59:40
And the track was gorgeous. It was race ready when I walked
59:44
there. And then I could just imagine
59:48
the people that raced there and I talked to several, I talked to
59:52
some at Kalamazoo about the track and I walked into the
59:57
track, walked onto the track and looked at it and it was it just
1:00:02
broke my heart that they're not going to be racing there
1:00:05
anymore. But as I was walking out, John
1:00:07
came over and said. We saved a few pieces of the
1:00:11
pavement from over in the pit area before whatever happens
1:00:15
here happens. And he handed it to me.
1:00:18
And so I put it in a special spot in my garden and I get to
1:00:22
see it every every time I'm out there checking the flowers and
1:00:26
everything else that you grow there.
1:00:27
So, and the story that he gave me of his experiences at the
1:00:33
track, add to that history, that record that I have.
1:00:37
And it's even if I go into a track and there's nobody there,
1:00:43
there's a track in Georgia that nobody really knew that it raced
1:00:48
in the 50s. Nobody really knew about the
1:00:50
track until they did some construction and exposed the
1:00:55
outer wall in the construction zone.
1:00:58
So I caught a weekend and walked up, climbed up the hill to where
1:01:03
it was, and the track was so old the guard rails were made out of
1:01:08
four by 12 LB planks. And then you get on the inside
1:01:13
of the track and start looking at it.
1:01:15
You can see where the track was. Obviously it's not been
1:01:18
maintained for that many years, but you can still see the
1:01:21
outline of the track. And as you looked at the wood
1:01:25
that made-up the guard rails, you could see gouges and Marks
1:01:30
and stars. And every one of those stars
1:01:33
tells the story. And as I was going through the
1:01:38
racing community in that North Georgia area, there were a
1:01:41
couple of people that their dads or granddads had raced at that
1:01:45
track. So they had some bench racing
1:01:48
stories that they could share about that facility.
1:01:51
But they're those are stories of the tracks that aren't active.
1:01:55
Then there's the stories of the track tracks like Kalamazoo that
1:01:59
are still active and very active in the area.
1:02:04
And I understand I'm bad with names.
1:02:09
I'm going to have to check. I made a note here.
1:02:12
I understand that Chloe Mazen Gotti, sorry if I butchered the
1:02:18
night. Oh.
1:02:18
No, you know, it's Masakati, Yeah.
1:02:21
Yeah, so when I was at Kalamazoo, she was having a
1:02:25
tough time qualifying for the Clash, but her third attempt
1:02:29
out, I think she ran fast enough to be the fastest 1 to ever
1:02:34
qualify for the Flash. Maybe the first woman.
1:02:37
I've not checked my notes on that, and I'm sorry I didn't
1:02:40
check the notes, know which number Calvin's who actually
1:02:42
wind up being at the end. But I understand she's really
1:02:47
had a good season this year. So Oh yes, keep up with the
1:02:50
tracks even after I've been there because a lot of times
1:02:53
I've been back and visit and some of the tracks I go back
1:02:56
almost annually and Kalamazoo's a little out of range for me
1:03:02
from here. But it's you never know when
1:03:05
I'll pop in and then add another event, but it doesn't add
1:03:09
another track once I've been there.
1:03:10
I've been there and my first track was, as I mentioned,
1:03:15
Bristol, TN and that was back. I went as a fan in the late 60s
1:03:21
and Donnie was there and he and I still talk about that event
1:03:29
because one of the few people still around there can remember
1:03:32
it. But I I couldn't believe that
1:03:37
from the first time I saw a NASCAR Grand National race at
1:03:41
Bristol, it was seven years later.
1:03:45
I was the chief drag photographer there and the first
1:03:48
year I was chief drag photographer.
1:03:49
There's some some young worker named Earnhardt that won his
1:03:53
first race and it was on April Fool's Day.
1:03:56
So those are always the pieces of trivia that I try to hang on
1:04:01
to on every one of these places that I got.
1:04:06
And Bristol, I've lost track of how many times I've been there
1:04:10
for how many events. But I was track photographer
1:04:14
over 4 different decades and only only left there when I went
1:04:21
to Las Vegas and became track photographer there for 20 years
1:04:26
with a couple of years of interruption because of COVID.
1:04:30
But it's been even with those tracks, even with spending as
1:04:35
much time at those tracks. I've been fortunate to Add all
1:04:39
these other tracks to it. And the track that was #1000 was
1:04:44
Pittsburgh, PA, is what in Imperial, PA?
1:04:49
Obviously it'd never been there before, but the folks said Lucas
1:04:52
Oil Bracing really rolled out the red carpet.
1:04:56
They helped us get everything set up and helped us with
1:05:00
anything that we needed to celebrate this personal
1:05:03
milestone. It's certainly not a milestone
1:05:06
in racing. There are spectators out there
1:05:08
and there's a website that's dedicated to it, spectators that
1:05:12
have over 3000 races they've been to and it's, it just floors
1:05:17
me that they can, they've been around that long and can do that
1:05:23
much in the course of a year of racing.
1:05:28
But I've been known to expand, expand the schedule every now
1:05:32
and then. In 1988 I went to Australia and
1:05:36
the Thunderdome that was down there and it was interesting to
1:05:43
see a track that had four turns that were from 4 different race
1:05:47
tracks that I've been to. It was like it had turn 1 was
1:05:54
I'll probably get these wrong because I don't have, again, I
1:05:57
don't have the notes in front of me where I've documented all
1:06:00
this, but it was 4 terms. One of them was Rockingham, one
1:06:04
of them was Dover, one of them was Charlotte, and one of them
1:06:07
was daytime. And it was it was an incredible
1:06:11
track to race. And then the Aussies race what
1:06:15
they call the Oscars, and Oscars ran in reverse.
1:06:20
So what traditional North American racing is.
1:06:24
So that that again was a a lesson.
1:06:28
I was fortunate that I had had some Rd. racing experience, so I
1:06:31
had learned how to pay him from left to right step, right to
1:06:34
left. Now, Steve, so the promoter over
1:06:38
at Grundy County Speedway, he has some of the comments here
1:06:40
are if you are from Stock Car Racing Magazine or if you like
1:06:45
he knows your name. So that's where he's, he's like,
1:06:49
I remember the name from when I was a kid.
1:06:51
So he's wondering if you were a part of the Stock Car Racing
1:06:54
magazine. I was I worked with Dick Bergman
1:06:58
for almost 25 years. While Stock Car magazine was a
1:07:02
property first at Lopez Publication in the later General
1:07:05
Media, it was eventually bought by Peterson Publishing and the
1:07:09
title, the title itself was absorbed into another magazine.
1:07:13
I didn't follow that path at that point, but I've been
1:07:20
associated with the follow up to that, which is Speedway
1:07:24
Illustrated. And I've, I've been fortunate to
1:07:27
work with a lot of the same folks and that is Speedway
1:07:31
Illustrated now. But yeah, I, my son and I went
1:07:35
to Grundy on a really, really hot July afternoon for an ASA
1:07:40
Midwest race And I, that's another racy place, but
1:07:46
unfortunately I saw really trying to tear down the wall
1:07:50
then. Well, and that's where I, I, I
1:07:56
grew up going to Santa Fe. I was born in Chicago, so I
1:07:58
spent a lot of my time at Santa Fe Speedway.
1:08:00
But when we moved to Joliet, when I was in going into third
1:08:04
grade, we moved to Joliet. And so, well, well before Route
1:08:08
66 was even a thing, that in fact, the drag strip, when we
1:08:12
were moving my 5th grade year, we moved halfway over winter
1:08:15
during my 5th grade year, they had just started putting in the
1:08:18
tube, two strips for the drag strip.
1:08:20
There's nothing else, 4 light poles and two strips of concrete
1:08:23
or asphalt, whatever it is. And that was it.
1:08:26
Everything else was still farm field and all that.
1:08:28
But that's when we started going to Grundy.
1:08:30
And so I hadn't been there until this year.
1:08:33
I went over Labor Day weekend for the first time in almost 30
1:08:35
years. If not, it's been 30 and, and
1:08:39
so, and I'm excited because now I get to go Bahama brackets this
1:08:42
this weekend. But it's like, so not only did I
1:08:45
get returned back to Grundy for the first time since my third,
1:08:49
third and 4th grade year, but or as 4th grade, we moved halfway
1:08:52
through. So we were only there for a
1:08:54
little bit. But it's like I, it's like I got
1:08:56
to go back and I get to go back again only a few weeks later.
1:08:59
So I'm, you know, I'm I'm excited to be there, but that's
1:09:02
a that's a fun track too. So, you know, when you think of
1:09:05
all these tracks, David, again, over 1000 of them now, and
1:09:09
you've mentioned a whole bunch of them already.
1:09:12
You know what 1 you know, stands out to you even the most where
1:09:16
you know, you just had like, even if you only been there one
1:09:20
time, active or deactive, right? Like that just stands out to in
1:09:24
your memory where you like you, that one will always you'll
1:09:27
remember or that one always reminds you why you do this.
1:09:32
Well, one that stands out in my mind from this year is actually
1:09:38
a Michigan track. It's in the Euper.
1:09:41
It's called Sand Speedway. Don't know if you've ever been
1:09:45
there, but if you've ever been there, you will never forget it.
1:09:49
It's a quarter mile racetrack and the specs on the track,
1:09:55
according to the track officials, is that the front
1:09:58
stretch is about 20 feet higher than the back stretch.
1:10:02
So you literally go down into turn 2 and up into turn 4.
1:10:07
But I'm looking at A2 story building sitting there and I can
1:10:11
see over the roof when I'm on my when I'm up on the front stretch
1:10:15
and when I'm down in the pits, I'm I'm looking at two stories
1:10:19
plus the a roof. So just the fact that they're
1:10:25
racing on that track and it's a quarter mile and they're they're
1:10:31
running downhill. And I was in a car with Jim
1:10:35
Robinson in Seattle on the road course there and they've got to
1:10:39
turn after you get down the drag strip on the front straightaway
1:10:42
and turn right, you turn left. They've been what they call a
1:10:45
carousel. And he's starting down the top
1:10:48
of that carousel in Winston W car and he's on the gas and I'm
1:10:53
looking at we've got a hairpin turn at the bottom of this hill
1:10:58
and I'm my feet are on the firewall.
1:11:01
They're not on the floor. They're on the firewall.
1:11:03
So I can imagine that it's pretty much the same thing.
1:11:06
It's sands, but it's an action filled track.
1:11:09
It's a scenic track. If you get seats up on the top
1:11:13
of the grandstands, you can see Lake Superior.
1:11:16
So it's, they're struggling like so many short tracks with local
1:11:22
officials and with, with car counts and everything else.
1:11:27
But they, they've been running Sunday afternoons for 58 years
1:11:31
about their call, correct. And, and they're just a great
1:11:36
group to be around. And they seem to have a heck of
1:11:40
a lot of them. And that's, that's the one
1:11:42
element that I see missing in a lot of racing right now.
1:11:46
People are just struggling to get cars to the track.
1:11:49
And I grew up in an area when there were times we could get in
1:11:53
eight races in a week every night and twice on Saturday or
1:11:57
twice on Sunday. But those days are long gone.
1:12:02
But you have that track really stands out in my mind.
1:12:05
But I'm also going to share this with you.
1:12:08
One of the most scenic tracks that I've seen is the Dickinson
1:12:13
County Fairgrounds called Norway Speedway.
1:12:16
It's also in the youthful, OK, I saw I guess a Midwest race up
1:12:21
there this year and the track is meticulously maintained.
1:12:29
It's it reminded me of places about the golf course.
1:12:34
But there's subtleties built into the infield that help
1:12:38
drivers if they spin out, save a car because there's not a wall
1:12:43
to have to hit or other things. They've got it graded so that
1:12:48
the car will naturally come to rest and you can you can roll on
1:12:52
down the track and keep on racing and there's big exits off
1:12:56
the turns. And although I saw and
1:12:59
photographed and had published and Speedway illustrated a
1:13:02
photograph of a guy in a Corvette that was on his roof
1:13:07
out off of 1. There's a lot of room out there
1:13:11
if it if you have a general spin, but this guy was in there
1:13:15
before he ever left the track. So it's an exciting track, but
1:13:19
it's got a grandstand. That's I want to say it.
1:13:24
They said it was 120 years old and the grandstand is, is it's
1:13:31
gorgeous and it's sun, the sunsets bright behind it.
1:13:34
So as the lights come on, that white grandstand really stands
1:13:39
out. So those are two that are
1:13:42
recent. If you go back, there are some
1:13:46
tracks and you mentioned Santa Fe Speedway.
1:13:49
I never got to Santa Fe Speedway.
1:13:51
I know where the track existed and then I wanted to go, but
1:13:56
they ran like on Thursday nights.
1:13:58
And yeah, I went to, I went to Mount Clemens on a Thursday
1:14:05
night, but it was tough to get in and out around Chicago on a
1:14:10
Thursday night to try to get to a race there.
1:14:13
So that was one of the few tracks that I missed up in that
1:14:17
area from that standpoint. And I'm not been to Wilmont yet,
1:14:22
but it's on my list. There's 2 tracks there that are
1:14:27
very close and one's still active.
1:14:30
One's not, but I say it's not. It's still active for spectator
1:14:35
events and so forth, but it's specials that they may run on a
1:14:40
holiday weekend or something like that.
1:14:42
And it's not for professional racers.
1:14:45
So there's, there's a few there, but I'll tell you what, the
1:14:51
longest course that I've been to is just a little further up in
1:14:57
Wisconsin from there and it it's up at Rd.
1:15:01
America. Oh.
1:15:04
OK. Yeah, yeah.
1:15:05
Course because it's like you go and go and go.
1:15:09
It's over 4 miles if I remember the full course and I saw mini
1:15:13
car there a couple years ago. Really impressive, impressive
1:15:17
place and it's packed with people that are camping at the
1:15:21
weekend I was there. They set record heights
1:15:24
temperatures which was not great but also being a road course
1:15:28
they had a few shade trees that. I could, yeah.
1:15:32
Yeah, take advantage of that when you can get that because
1:15:36
there's a lot of tracks. You don't get shade.
1:15:39
Yeah, well, there are a few that I've been to.
1:15:41
The original Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway, I had a row
1:15:45
of trees on the backstretch when they reconstructed, they took
1:15:50
out the trees and, and you don't have any, any semblance of that
1:15:57
now. And there was another one,
1:15:59
Franklin County, Virginia, Franklin County Speedway in
1:16:03
Callaway, VA, had a bunch of big pine trees in the pit area just
1:16:08
to shade the pit area from the sun as it set toward the West.
1:16:12
And that was the photograph representing that track on my
1:16:17
website is is shows the pits, cars coming out of the pits with
1:16:23
the pine trees on the end of it. So there are a few around, but
1:16:27
not many. And now television trying to pan
1:16:32
from the top of the grandstand for every, every one of their
1:16:35
action photos or videos or whatever, they want a clear line
1:16:41
of sight. So any obstruction they want out
1:16:45
of the way, there's a movement foot to try to get rid of the
1:16:48
scoring pylons that are a lot of these tracks because of the
1:16:52
interference it causes with the cameras painting the process.
1:16:56
They follow the clause in the terms, so the sport changes.
1:17:01
Yeah, yeah. I hadn't thought about that, but
1:17:06
it's too bad though, because I mean that Kalamazoo, you, you
1:17:08
saw like when I'm on the roof there, I mean, I'm above the the
1:17:13
Enfield tower, but where I used to stand, the tower would be
1:17:16
right in the way. And I couldn't imagine going to
1:17:18
the owners and be like, I think you need to get rid of that.
1:17:21
Like I think that needs to go because it's in my way where
1:17:25
like new Paris, I don't have obstruction.
1:17:27
Springport, Mid Michigan Speedway, there's no
1:17:29
obstruction. Corrigan oil, there's no
1:17:32
obstruction. Have you?
1:17:34
Oh Springport? Yes.
1:17:36
Oh yeah. I've been to 38 race tracks in
1:17:39
Michigan, so OK, so you can look at the list on on my website
1:17:44
because I've posted a photograph from every track that I've been
1:17:47
to. I've been to more tracks than
1:17:49
that, but we're talking about tracks that we're talking about
1:17:54
tracks that I have a photograph that sure verifies that I've
1:17:59
been there. Got.
1:18:00
You. Well, and that's where I it's so
1:18:02
perfect. I figure as we get ready to
1:18:04
close here that we would bring up the website because you can
1:18:08
find all the tracks in your history on this website.
1:18:11
So that's where I wanted to bring it up that it's racing
1:18:14
photoarchives.com And when you go there and you go to race
1:18:18
tracks, you can see Australia, Canada or the United States.
1:18:23
And, and if you go to like United States.
1:18:25
So I'll Scroll down and I'll go down here to Michigan.
1:18:27
Since we were just talking about Michigan.
1:18:29
You can see the list for Michigan.
1:18:31
Oh, well, it clicked. So, you know, BNL Speedway,
1:18:35
Berlin Raceway, Cassopolis Fairgrounds, which was 1/2 mile
1:18:39
dirt. Oh, I always wondered if they
1:18:40
raced there 'cause when you go there, you're like, this had to
1:18:44
be a racetrack at some point and I didn't.
1:18:46
And I don't know enough history about the Cassopolis
1:18:47
Fairgrounds, but there you go. I just answered my own.
1:18:50
I've always had this thought and now I just see, David, I just
1:18:52
had to go to that spot on your website to see.
1:18:54
But Cherry Speedway, Corgan Oil, which you know, also has
1:18:59
Spartan, Spartan Motor Speedway Lansing and I think it was
1:19:03
capital at one time too. I think they did have one more
1:19:05
name in there. But but you know, you can see,
1:19:09
you know, you can sit here and go and then like, let's let's go
1:19:11
down here to I'll go to M40 Speedway, which then you click
1:19:15
on M40, right and it's going to pull up the archives here.
1:19:21
So where you could see, you know, the information on its
1:19:24
past, the photo that it that it is.
1:19:27
And so and that, well, that's a really good aerial folder that's
1:19:31
from 2024. All right.
1:19:32
So again, if you want to learn about David, you can get here
1:19:36
and click on his website and and see all about his past and what
1:19:39
he's done. But again, it's racing
1:19:42
photoarchives.com. In fact, I'm going to type that
1:19:45
into the thing here before I forget.
1:19:47
Racing photos archive spell archive right Lewis So I spelled
1:19:54
it right. I was getting a little worried
1:19:56
David. I'm like, man, I don't know if I
1:19:59
but I got it right. It's archive threw me off for a
1:20:01
moment. I'm like that didn't look right,
1:20:02
but it's right. But but again, you can go there
1:20:05
and you can see, you know, just this again, I mean all these
1:20:09
race tracks, if you just any track like you feel like I
1:20:13
wonder what racing looks like in Alaska.
1:20:15
You can go to Alaska and see, you know, the tracks that are in
1:20:18
Alaska, right and or on schedule right now, but.
1:20:21
But there's, I thought there was one that maybe I saw it on a
1:20:24
different site, but I thought I saw that you were going to one
1:20:27
in Alaska. Alaska's on the bucket list, as
1:20:31
they say. OK.
1:20:32
I've got I've got 7 tracks in Alaska that felon in California
1:20:38
has helped me arrange so that we can get it done in about a week.
1:20:43
OK. I talked to people at each of
1:20:46
the tracks along the way, but there's one track up there in
1:20:49
Palmer, AK that runs on the longest day of the year.
1:20:55
During that week, they have speed weeks in Alaska and they
1:21:00
will run their 3/8 short track, paved short track and it sits
1:21:05
right beside 1/4 mile NHRA drag strip.
1:21:09
And so they will run the NASCAR short track and then as soon as
1:21:13
they're through with that, then they go run drag racing.
1:21:17
And then everybody takes a break for a few hours and then they
1:21:19
come back and do it again for seven days.
1:21:22
So that's definitely on the bucket list.
1:21:25
But I also invite people to go down where they see, subscribe,
1:21:30
drop their e-mail in and they will get a new photograph every
1:21:34
day. And there the list doesn't go
1:21:38
anywhere except for the website here.
1:21:41
And you'll see photographs of everything from motorcycle
1:21:45
racing to stock cars to dragsters.
1:21:49
And I, I just, it gives you a, a small glimpse into the different
1:21:56
types of racing that I've seen. And I've been very fortunate to
1:22:01
be able to do what I've done. When I did that track at when I
1:22:05
did that photograph at Bristol, I had no concept that I could
1:22:10
ever get to 1000 race tracks. But I was reading the racing
1:22:14
papers and racing magazines and everything else.
1:22:17
And that's when I first heard of Santa Fe Speedway, for example,
1:22:22
thanks to Jim Carson and his Late Model Digest, I was able to
1:22:28
find out about Kalamazoo and, and we worked out a deal where I
1:22:31
could schedule the Kalamazoo Clash.
1:22:34
So those and anyone that's not familiar with Jim Carson's
1:22:38
publication, and they lack asphalt racing, asphalt short
1:22:43
track racing, they need to go to Late Model Digest and get on
1:22:47
that list as well. Jim does a fabulous job and I
1:22:52
was surprised when he went online with adapter printing for
1:22:55
so many years, but he's putting out about four days a week, he's
1:22:59
putting out news about four days a week and each day is dedicated
1:23:02
to different aspects of the sport.
1:23:08
And I know, and I see Late model digest quite a bit pop up in our
1:23:12
area too because you know, Chelsea Landis contributes a lot
1:23:16
to that and a couple others. And so we see a lot of that.
1:23:18
And so certainly, you know, subscribe, you can see the
1:23:22
subscribe button again, I put the link in the in the chat.
1:23:26
It came across on all three pages.
1:23:28
So on YouTube, Facebook and on national compact touring series,
1:23:31
we're also live on, but you can get event archives for all the
1:23:35
different decades. Again, I showed you the race
1:23:38
track list, but you can subscribe right here.
1:23:40
And that way you can get all the, you know, all the
1:23:44
information from David. That's where when your press
1:23:47
release came about your 1000 track, I'd also seen it posted
1:23:50
somewhere. So it's definitely coming across
1:23:52
and that's where that's why I wanted to reach out to you right
1:23:54
away because I just remember your story from last year just a
1:23:57
little bit that we got to talk and, and we didn't have a
1:24:00
podcast then. You know, the podcast is, you
1:24:03
know, just a few weeks old now. I well, I guess a couple months,
1:24:06
I guess I can't say weeks anymore, but we're in our 35th
1:24:09
week of doing the Monday night rewind and you know, definitely,
1:24:13
you know, when I first started this dent, they could be 35 and
1:24:16
didn't know where it was going is very unknown.
1:24:18
But, but I know I've definitely followed your work and what you
1:24:21
do and, and continue to follow your story.
1:24:23
So that's why I'm like, I need to message you right away and
1:24:26
hopefully you do podcasts and hopefully you're interested so
1:24:29
we can get you on. And, and I feel like Boujou is
1:24:33
almost kind of like when we had Ron Brasher almost need like a
1:24:35
Part 2. Like we, you know, 30 minutes
1:24:37
just wasn't enough to cover everything.
1:24:39
And I even with running behind, it's like, you know, it's just
1:24:42
feels like there's so much more to tell.
1:24:44
So I'll probably be emailing you sometime tomorrow, David, and be
1:24:47
like, so what's your schedule for another time?
1:24:50
And rather than scheduling anyone before or after you,
1:24:53
it'll be like what we did with Ron, where we're just going to
1:24:56
give you all the time you want, and then Buju and I can fill in
1:24:59
any unused time from there. Yeah, we, we seem like 2 of the
1:25:02
same kind of guy, David. So I definitely want to pick
1:25:04
your brain a little more. Yeah.
1:25:07
So it's like I should have, you know, it's one of those things
1:25:10
that it's like, yeah, as we're going, it's like, yeah, we we
1:25:14
need a Part 2 just to tell way more because you have so much
1:25:17
more to share. And so I'll be I'll probably
1:25:19
e-mail you like I know I got to talk with Steve after the
1:25:22
podcast, so I'm going to be calling him.
1:25:23
So it may not be tonight, but definitely tomorrow.
1:25:26
Check your inbox and which you'd get a thank you anyways for
1:25:29
joining us. But it'll probably be what's the
1:25:32
next Monday that you have available to start right at
1:25:35
seven O 5 if you can. If not, we'll be flexible and
1:25:39
it'll be like no one will be before you or after you, so
1:25:41
you'll literally have the whole time.
1:25:45
That's a wonderful invitation, Louis.
1:25:47
I I'm just at this point because of the thousandth race, I'm
1:25:53
happy that I was able to get you in on a Monday because this is
1:25:57
like I'm surprised my voice is held up.
1:26:00
I've got I've got one more schedule tomorrow night and then
1:26:04
I've kind of called a halt to it for a little while.
1:26:07
But but I find find the time middle of the winter when
1:26:11
everybody's bored and inside and I'll be happy to happy to talk
1:26:16
with you a while. Yeah, well, we'll get you.
1:26:19
We'll spread out beyond Michigan a little bit and Illinois and
1:26:23
Wisconsin, get into some of these other geographical areas
1:26:26
and some of the stories there. Oh, absolutely.
1:26:29
Well, that's it's the stories, right, And that's what a lot of
1:26:31
people, even when we've had Ron Vrash, that's it's the stories,
1:26:35
right. When you go to 1000 tracks, you
1:26:37
know, you have stories and so and and drivers, right.
1:26:41
We haven't even gotten to talk about drivers that you've seen
1:26:44
and all that. And so that's where we'll
1:26:46
definitely pencil you in for because even Parker knows, I saw
1:26:49
Parker that during the season, race season is kind of like a,
1:26:53
you know, shoot first, aim second or no, yeah, aim 2nd and,
1:26:58
you know, scheduling people. But I'm very much like, I liked
1:27:01
it when I had a month ahead of time where I knew 5 weeks ahead
1:27:05
of time who our next guests were.
1:27:06
Like I had everyone lined up. So I like to get back to that
1:27:10
because racing's not going to impact the schedule as much.
1:27:13
So it's like we'll pencil in whatever day you're thinking,
1:27:16
whether it's sometime in November, December or January,
1:27:19
whatever it is, that'll be your Monday and, and we'll go from
1:27:23
there and get you on. So because I'm going to start
1:27:26
filling in my schedule here about two weeks from now, I'm
1:27:29
going to start getting ahead. Like I liked it.
1:27:31
I'm like getting ahead was helpful, but I was also like,
1:27:35
oh, well, we just had a big win and I don't have space for you.
1:27:38
And so it's like then it's like, you know, I kind of screwed
1:27:41
myself by planning ahead. So I had to tell myself, be
1:27:45
flexible. It's OK if you don't know who
1:27:47
your guest is next week, you'll figure it out.
1:27:49
I don't operate that way very much like knowing and so that's
1:27:54
where Si who's on after you? He I know he just got back in
1:27:57
the staging area. It's like I messaged him almost
1:28:00
right away. We didn't even he probably left
1:28:02
the new parish property. I was still on the new parish
1:28:05
property when I messaged him and then I forgot to go back to the
1:28:08
messages and see. But then I'd seen in like the
1:28:10
face or the preview on the phone, but I'll check my
1:28:13
schedule, you know, in the morning, like he's going to
1:28:15
contact me back anyway. So I'm like, I won't message him
1:28:18
back tonight because now I see, but it's like I almost forgot to
1:28:21
message him back until I saw that.
1:28:23
I'm like, OK, he'll text me in the morning.
1:28:25
But it's like, you know, I'm like, I got to get him because
1:28:28
if I wait till Sunday, someone else is going to, you know, nab
1:28:31
him and I'll be like, damn it, I had an opportunity and I messed
1:28:35
that up. But but again, David, that's
1:28:37
where hopefully everyone goes to your website and subscribes.
1:28:41
I appreciate you so much for making time in your schedule to
1:28:44
bring us on or bring us on you come on to our show.
1:28:47
But I know Buju probably had like 400 questions that he
1:28:50
didn't even get to ask. So we will get you rescheduled
1:28:53
for or not rescheduled, but scheduled again for another
1:28:56
time. And it'll just be your episode.
1:28:58
So you'll get to kind of just tell your stories and, and
1:29:01
things that stand out, maybe even talk about the state of
1:29:03
racing photography and what people can do.
1:29:05
And again, you're someone who obviously has the resume to back
1:29:09
that up where, you know, you've had all these opportunities go
1:29:11
places. So it's like what works for you
1:29:13
doesn't mean it'll work for someone else.
1:29:15
But like, like your tips and tricks like don't just fly
1:29:18
drones because you can. There's actually a process, you
1:29:20
know, like so again, David, I just awesome, you know, start to
1:29:26
an interview. But like I said, there will
1:29:28
definitely there's going to be a Part 2.
1:29:30
We have to do a Part 2. So we will, I'll message you
1:29:33
tomorrow and you can just pick a random Monday and if we need to
1:29:36
reschedule it by the time we get close to that Monday, we can do
1:29:39
that. But I want to make it happen
1:29:41
because again, yours, you're, you just have so much more to
1:29:44
tell. Well, again, thank you so much
1:29:48
for sharing your airtime with me.
1:29:49
I'm, I'm very pleased to talk with knowledgeable people in the
1:29:53
sport. And that's as you can tell I you
1:29:57
never stick a microphone in front of the photographer.
1:29:59
And this is mine because I never know when to shut up.
1:30:03
Well, you've also been in 1000 tracks.
1:30:05
I think you have a right to also talk and tell your story.
1:30:08
But that's where photographers are the storytellers.
1:30:10
And so that's where it's like, yeah, we need a, we are
1:30:13
definitely gonna need a Part 2 with you because, I mean, we
1:30:17
haven't even scratched the surface and you covered a lot
1:30:19
already. I mean, so definitely get this
1:30:21
website again. It's www.racingphoto photos,
1:30:26
archives.com and you know, get on over there.
1:30:29
I'll copy it one more time. I'll go back to your homepage
1:30:32
and copy the link one more time to get it in there.
1:30:36
This will be the direct link. It sent it back in the comments
1:30:40
again if just in case you missed it.
1:30:42
And again, thank you so much, David, for joining us tonight,
1:30:45
and I'll be messaging you very soon.
1:30:48
Very good. And in that message, be sure to
1:30:50
include the link to tonight's broadcast because I want to go
1:30:53
back and listen again. Oh, absolutely.
1:30:56
And so, so again, we will, we'll talk soon.
1:31:00
And if you miss any of our conversation with David, of
1:31:03
course, once we're done live, you can always go back on
1:31:06
Facebook. I'm very purposeful, but not
1:31:08
posting things until noon the next day.
1:31:10
But it'll be on Spotify as well. And from Spotify, it disperses
1:31:13
out into the wilderness of Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, and
1:31:19
iHeartRadio. And it's also on YouTube.
1:31:21
So you can definitely find it at a couple different spots
1:31:23
wherever your listing preference is.
1:31:25
And I know like Dalton Irish will download it and listen to
1:31:29
the audio version. So you can also listen to the
1:31:31
audio version too on those different spots.
1:31:34
So again, we've been talking with David Leo, right?
1:31:37
A Leo. We want to make sure we said it
1:31:38
right. Yes, that's yeah, that's what we
1:31:41
thought. But then you never know.
1:31:42
Sometimes there's different ways to, but it's like with Parker
1:31:45
Tatro, I heard an announcer say a different way than it made me
1:31:48
second guess myself. So I'm like we confirmed with
1:31:50
him too. I'm like, there's Tatrose in
1:31:52
Stevensville. I've seen the spelling for 10
1:31:54
deck or for 10 years now, but an announcer said it differently.
1:31:57
So I'm going to make sure I said it right.
1:31:58
But but that's where again with David Alia, we've been talking.
1:32:02
So again, thank you so much, David, for joining us tonight.
1:32:05
And then we now have as we head on over, let's talk about new
1:32:12
Paris Speedway. I know Sia is in the chat or
1:32:14
chat area in the staging area and and he's been wet ready.
1:32:20
He's in the dark too. I I don't I don't get to join
1:32:22
him tonight. Buju, my lights are working
1:32:24
again. We haven't had rain but but he's
1:32:27
in the dark. So I've been in the dark.
1:32:29
So we know what it looks like, but we can see you.
1:32:31
So that's all that matters. My mom always said I look better
1:32:33
in the dark anyways, so I didn't know how to take that, but I'm
1:32:38
like, I don't know about that. But again, side welcome.
1:32:42
First, the Monday night rewind. I know for everyone, we're
1:32:44
running a little bit behind. Now we're a little bit more be
1:32:47
behind, but that's where I appreciate you having
1:32:48
flexibility tonight and getting on.
1:32:52
I know you're a dedicated listener to the show too, so you
1:32:54
already know the shindig and how this all goes, so I don't have
1:32:56
to tell you. But before we talk about your
1:33:00
first win, which for anybody watching you the last month and
1:33:03
1/2 or so, it was not surprising the run that you've had.
1:33:06
I mean, even at Kalamazoo, you know, as you know, we did a
1:33:10
driver spotlight a few weeks ago where you were one of our driver
1:33:13
of the weeks and it was like, you know, you earned it.
1:33:15
You've been showing what you can do behind the wheel.
1:33:18
And then to watch you win, I was on the roof neutral.
1:33:21
I gotta be neutral. But inside I'm like, oh, no
1:33:23
caution, no caution, no caution. Then there's the caution, like
1:33:26
there's a caution and then but that restart, I mean, to get
1:33:30
around Gage hairs, he's not an easy guy to get around.
1:33:33
And you got around him and then Austin's catching up and Jeff is
1:33:37
catching up. I'm like, oh boy, just, you
1:33:39
know, keep going, keep going, keep doing run your line.
1:33:43
And, and I don't know that they had anything for you.
1:33:46
I think even if that went a few more laps, I still think the
1:33:48
result would have been the same. But you just never know.
1:33:51
So let's start at the beginning of who you are, because you, for
1:33:56
those who don't know, you're also alumni of the MCR Dwarf
1:34:00
series. So we started the night with MCR
1:34:02
Dwarfs and we're ending the night with someone who also used
1:34:05
to race an MCR Dwarf car. So tell everyone, everybody a
1:34:08
little bit about Siboing. Yeah, So I've been around racing
1:34:13
my entire life, whether it was RC cars or like I used to help
1:34:19
my mom tech for CRA, the Super series in the Pro Series.
1:34:24
So kind of always grown up around racing.
1:34:27
My grandpa, my uncle raced, my mom actually raced A Hornet for
1:34:31
a little bit. So I've grown up around it.
1:34:35
Couldn't afford to do it in my early ages.
1:34:38
So kind of just threw up around it.
1:34:40
And then finally actually we got the opportunity to hop in a
1:34:46
dwarf car and went practiced, ran decent.
1:34:52
It was JJ, his team of cars. So he had like four or five cars
1:34:58
all to himself that he was kind of loaning out to different
1:35:01
people. So hopped in one of his at a
1:35:03
test session at South Bend. Ran comparable times to his
1:35:08
weekly drivers. So he gave us the opportunity to
1:35:11
hop in one for South Bend for our first race.
1:35:14
That's a scary place to kind of hop in your first ever race.
1:35:19
Didn't do too bad in practice, was in the slow heat.
1:35:23
Ended up winning the slow heat and then I think we we are up to
1:35:27
third in the future and then got put in the wall and broke a
1:35:31
right front and so we had to pull in.
1:35:33
Then we went brand M40. That was OK.
1:35:40
Kind of started out there, ran 1/2 season.
1:35:42
There was a falling out between US and JJ in the middle of our
1:35:46
first year, so then we didn't get the race till the last three
1:35:49
races that year. We hopped in one of Eric's
1:35:52
loaner cars and ran. Then it was second, second first
1:35:59
to finish out the year. Then we went bought a dwarf car
1:36:04
for our second year and had a good show in there.
1:36:08
We went undefeated at Owosso, which was fun to see.
1:36:11
Randy sent kind of everywhere we went and then kind of stepped
1:36:16
away from that and took about a year and a half to build a
1:36:19
street stock. And finally, last year was our
1:36:21
first year in street stock. Well, and that's where I
1:36:24
remember coming, coming across you in the street stock and I'm
1:36:28
like, and I remember asking you, what do you think about the
1:36:31
street stock because I don't known you just from the dwarf
1:36:35
group. But that's where again, just to
1:36:37
watch your journey in the street stock.
1:36:38
I know you're not a we're not always at the same races, but
1:36:41
anytime I've had a chance to watch you race to see where you
1:36:45
first started, when I watching the street stock to again this
1:36:47
past Saturday, even this last month and a half, it's like I
1:36:52
don't know what all came together.
1:36:54
It was like a perfect storm for you.
1:36:55
But it's like, you know, you ran second at Kalamazoo and it's
1:36:59
like, OK, you know, he's up there and you've had good runs
1:37:02
there too. It's not like you haven't had
1:37:03
good runs, but like second place at Kalamazoo.
1:37:05
There's a lot of drivers who struggle at Kalamazoo.
1:37:09
And then you did it at Super Shoe where you're right there
1:37:12
second place. Obviously the leader, excuse me,
1:37:16
the leader in that race kind of got out there.
1:37:18
And so, you know, I, I, you needed a caution to maybe get up
1:37:22
there to catch up. But I, because Jeff won that
1:37:25
one, if I remember right. And he was, he was already back
1:37:28
home and popped open a cold one by the time everyone was going
1:37:30
to catch up to him. He just got out there kind of
1:37:33
like this past Saturday in the late models.
1:37:34
He just he was gone And but you got second there again with a
1:37:39
stout field of cars and I like that was a small group then this
1:37:44
past Saturday. So what do you for you feel like
1:37:48
came together? What like what does that look
1:37:50
like for you? You know, to do this, to have
1:37:54
these solid runs just back-to-back to back-to-back
1:37:57
because that's not easy to do, you know, for a lot of people.
1:38:00
So like, what do you feel like happened?
1:38:04
So it's a lot of work in the shop.
1:38:07
We our results may have not shown it before the last month
1:38:13
and a half, but like we went to the flagger boy, we're running
1:38:16
third and got moved on the last corner last lap to finish 5th.
1:38:21
We had a car that was faster than at least the leader at the
1:38:24
time. We just couldn't find a way
1:38:26
around because it was single groove.
1:38:29
Then at the Clash or the Rumble, whatever you want to call it,
1:38:32
the combined race, I think we still had a top three car, but
1:38:36
me and Jeff got together on the front stretch and we got put to
1:38:40
the back and just couldn't make up ground in the last like 15
1:38:44
laps. So we've had the car to do
1:38:47
really decent. Even that Plymouth, the double
1:38:50
play show, we are running down trying to pass Brock Danis and
1:38:56
he ended up winning that race, but we are going to pass him and
1:38:58
we got together, spun out in the infield.
1:39:01
Just unlucky events happened throughout the year to where we
1:39:05
couldn't get anything done or get consistent good finishes.
1:39:09
So the last month and a half, like, yeah, we went to
1:39:13
championship night, ran second to Jeff, then we went up to
1:39:17
Owosso, ran second to Bobby. We were bumper to bumper
1:39:22
basically crossing the finish line and then finished the
1:39:25
second to Jeff again at Super Shoe.
1:39:29
So I think it's just finally getting a lot more comfortable
1:39:33
in the car. And then obviously Tori, that
1:39:36
does all the work. Crew chief step down that he we
1:39:41
have learned a lot. We started we have a notebook of
1:39:45
things and it's just been taken away at it.
1:39:48
Every time we go to a racetrack, we're faster than we were
1:39:50
before. Literally at Kalamazoo, every
1:39:54
single time we went this year we were faster.
1:39:56
New Paris, every single time we were faster.
1:39:59
So finally we were able to kind of check all of our boxes.
1:40:03
New Paris, we got lucky, there was a little bit of a Bob on the
1:40:07
on the start and able to make up a lot of ground and actually
1:40:10
followed Jeff Dennis basically through all of that until a
1:40:14
restart. We were able to start side by
1:40:15
side and I know that we have the car fast enough to give Jeff a
1:40:22
like trouble leading if we can beat him to the front.
1:40:26
Every other time he's beat us to the front and then he checks
1:40:29
out. This time we were able to kind
1:40:31
of do the do the thing that he's been doing to us all year.
1:40:36
Role reversal, right? But that's where for those who
1:40:38
miss it, again, it may or may may or may not make sound when
1:40:43
this comes on because it's muted.
1:40:45
But every now and then when I add it to the to the thing,
1:40:49
it'll make sound. So if you hear really loud
1:40:50
sound, just be ready for it. But it says it's muted.
1:40:54
But again, you know, you have Austin right behind you.
1:40:57
In this case, you're coming to the white flag, you know, giving
1:41:00
you a little bit of, hey, I'm here.
1:41:03
He's won at Bristol Motor Speedway in the CRA St.
1:41:07
Tech race, beating a talented field.
1:41:09
What is it like for you in this moment where, you know, OK, took
1:41:13
the white flag? I have Austin Maynard, a
1:41:16
champion behind me. I have Jeff Gannis, a champion
1:41:19
behind me. Who I don't think Jeff had
1:41:21
anything for you this day, this moment.
1:41:24
I think, you know, he was close, but I I still think you had an
1:41:28
edge on him. But even for Austin, I mean,
1:41:30
Austin could have done a couple different things there.
1:41:32
So in your head, what's like take us into the driver's seat
1:41:36
over this last couple laps here where you're literally taking
1:41:41
the white flag, but you have two championship drivers right
1:41:43
behind you? The scariest part was on the
1:41:46
restart having I looked at the store board knew Austin was
1:41:50
going to start right next to me and Jeff right behind me.
1:41:53
That was the scariest part running side by side with
1:41:57
Austin. We've never had any sort of
1:41:59
issue with Austin. I know he's going to run me hard
1:42:02
and clean. I'm going to run him hard and
1:42:03
clean. So I have a lot of trust there.
1:42:06
So I mean just being once we are able to get clear of Austin, I
1:42:11
kind of settled, I got took a deep breath, kind of just
1:42:15
settled in and I think looking back at lap times and seeing how
1:42:20
the race was kind of going, I'm running on that restart.
1:42:25
I don't think I ever went back to the correct line.
1:42:28
I ran a whole group down making them have to go to the outside.
1:42:33
If we would have ran our actual normal line that we were running
1:42:36
the entire race, we may have been able to pull away from
1:42:39
them. But it's nerves.
1:42:41
First time leading in the street stock.
1:42:43
Like it's, it's hard to wrap all that stuff around your brain
1:42:48
when out there actually driving. So it was super nervous on that
1:42:52
restart. But other than that, once I knew
1:42:54
that we cleared Austin, that they were going to have a pain,
1:42:57
I wasn't going to make it easy to pass me, that's for sure.
1:43:00
Well, and now take us in the moment too, as we're watching
1:43:03
it. You got the checkered flag.
1:43:05
You overcame all that, right? You, you did it.
1:43:08
You crossed I, I thought it was your first.
1:43:11
I was telling Andy Lynch, she was on the roof with me, the
1:43:13
daughter of Tracy and, and Chris at New Paris, the owners.
1:43:20
You know, I was telling her that's that's his first win.
1:43:22
And she's like, well, I've seen this name before.
1:43:23
I'm like, I'm pretty sure this is his first win.
1:43:26
So now you're carrying the checkered flag.
1:43:28
What's going through your mind after you know, you accomplished
1:43:31
a goal like you won and you beat people who you've raced against,
1:43:36
people who you know are tough, you've held them off.
1:43:39
Take us in that moment again. Put us in the driver's seat with
1:43:42
you as you're flashing, you know, through this victory.
1:43:47
It's a big sigh of relief. My in car camera.
1:43:51
You can see I parked it on the front stretch before I grabbed
1:43:53
the flag and you see me just lay my head back like it's a It's a
1:43:57
big sigh of relief because we're beating people that we beat
1:44:00
people that beat us all year long.
1:44:03
The biggest thing I wanted to turn the car around and be able
1:44:07
to see all the fans, see their reaction.
1:44:10
I got to see my mom, my girlfriend, my stepdad, and then
1:44:16
all on turn three and four got to see them.
1:44:20
My grandpa is down in one and two up against the fence.
1:44:24
I had people on the back strips that were cheering for us like
1:44:27
it's just a big sigh of relief and trying to take it all in.
1:44:31
Literally what went through my mind it, it's a little corny, I
1:44:36
guess, but when Carson, host of R1, he said that he wanted to
1:44:40
take the time and kind of soaked it all in, have the like
1:44:45
realization that, hey, you just accomplished this.
1:44:48
Look at all the fans, look at kind of what all happened.
1:44:51
So that's exactly went through my mind.
1:44:53
As soon as I grabbed the checkered flag, I just wanted to
1:44:55
soak it all in. Well, and again, you you've
1:44:59
deserved that checkered flag, right?
1:45:01
Like Boozoo and I've even talked about that and just again,
1:45:04
incredible runs that you've had where it's like, you know, you
1:45:08
were due. It's kind of one of those
1:45:10
things, right? Like when you, when you're doing
1:45:13
that and you're getting 2nd and you're getting 2nd and you're
1:45:15
competing, right? It's not like it's on accident.
1:45:18
Like some of these races, you didn't have an advantage and
1:45:21
you're starting position, right? Like you've had to earn your way
1:45:25
to be where you were. And so to have that, it's like,
1:45:28
again, that was just pretty awesome to see.
1:45:31
I know I was on the roof excited for you and I even shouted, I
1:45:36
know you couldn't hear me because I'm on the roof.
1:45:38
I'm kind of like in my own world.
1:45:39
But you know, it was one of those like for me, that was
1:45:42
exciting to watch you do that. And so that's where I'm like
1:45:48
also, Dang it, I was kind of kicking myself because I didn't
1:45:51
bring any onboard cameras with me and you've had one pretty
1:45:53
consistently. I'm like, well, shit, I didn't
1:45:56
get that. And then Donnie Ritter's there
1:45:59
and I'm like, well, he might have had one, I don't know.
1:46:01
There's a couple names there that I'm like, I should have
1:46:02
brought him, but I didn't. And but it's one of those that
1:46:06
again, they have that moment and see that now you use onboard
1:46:10
cameras. You said you have your own.
1:46:13
Does that help you at all? Like some people have talked
1:46:15
about how I racing helps them and they get to I race at some
1:46:18
race tracks like Slinger and others before they go.
1:46:21
Do you guys use on boards for any of your program and and
1:46:25
watching and viewing or is it one of those like it's there but
1:46:29
you don't use it like some people have go Pros are like I
1:46:31
just use it just in case the car blows up.
1:46:33
We can look back at what happened.
1:46:34
I'm like, well, that's a wise investment for something that
1:46:37
hopefully doesn't happen, right. But but for you guys like what
1:46:41
is what does that technology do for you?
1:46:45
So we made the investment back when we had the dwarf cars
1:46:49
trying to figure out, I mean, at first it was hey, I get to post
1:46:54
my in car video, like pretty cool.
1:46:56
Now I can go and look back at it like our last time at Kalamazoo,
1:47:01
I went and got out of the car and complained about something.
1:47:04
Well, I go watch it back and it's like, Oh well, it was tight
1:47:08
because of this or it was loose because of this.
1:47:12
So it's a learning thing now, especially this year, being able
1:47:16
to give accurate feedback. Last year I could say one thing
1:47:20
and it was completely wrong. Now I can go and look back at
1:47:25
that and actually see what is going on.
1:47:26
And they're cheap enough that like, you can buy one on
1:47:29
Facebook marketplace for 100 bucks.
1:47:31
And I use it as a learning tool. And then like you said, like I
1:47:34
racing, I I race a ton. So that also helps a ton.
1:47:40
And I feel like I've left Buju out again.
1:47:42
He's been quiet for like an hour now, so that's unusual.
1:47:45
That doesn't happen too often, but but I know Buju, obviously
1:47:49
he loves St. Sock Racing and I know he's been
1:47:51
a big fan of watching What You Do too and gave you a shout out
1:47:53
on his bleachers and features. See, I did the cheap plug for
1:47:57
you. There you go.
1:47:58
I'll charge you later. I'll bill it, I'll put it in
1:48:00
your I'll put it on your tab. But but I'm going to hand it
1:48:03
over to Buju so he can learn about you too, because I know
1:48:05
obviously hearing him talk about the bleachers and features and
1:48:08
and giving you a shout out on that and the fact that the other
1:48:11
street stock racing too. And he's been quiet for an hour.
1:48:14
That's a long time. So I'm going to hand it over to
1:48:16
him a little bit so he can help tell the story of SIBO and as
1:48:18
well. I'm just curious.
1:48:20
I say it all the time and I say that I say it all the time, all
1:48:24
the time. But I really think the street
1:48:26
stock racing around here is the toughest racing pretty much
1:48:28
anywhere in the country right now.
1:48:29
And the names that you have to race against on a weekly basis,
1:48:32
especially in these big races like this last weekend, it's
1:48:35
insane the depth of talent in the races.
1:48:37
So what is it like jumping into? Like you had a little dwarf car
1:48:40
experience, but I mean, you're jumping feet first into the
1:48:42
street stock thing against the best names in the area.
1:48:45
So how hard was that adjustment to race against these top names?
1:48:48
Like immediately? So it's tough, but also like
1:48:54
it's a, it's a different world. The dwarf cars, you the way that
1:48:58
you have to drive the dwarf cars, you drive them on the edge
1:49:01
the entire race. You're making qualifying laps
1:49:03
every single lap. They're on a slick tire and it's
1:49:07
they're slow enough and also fast enough and light enough
1:49:11
that you're literally just making qualifying laps.
1:49:13
This was a whole different ball game.
1:49:15
We've from the beginning for I'm very fortunate to be able to
1:49:19
qualify and we have not ever basically not made a show off of
1:49:24
qualifying. So I can our first year was
1:49:28
great. We qualified for the rumble out
1:49:30
of 55 cars or whatever it was. What we've struggled with the
1:49:35
most is long run speed being there at the end.
1:49:39
That is the hardest thing. I think we around here, we race
1:49:44
against literally the best of the best around us.
1:49:47
So I still have imposter syndrome.
1:49:50
I see names on the entry list or see cars get unloaded and I
1:49:54
might well like, we'll be lucky to get a top ten.
1:49:58
We pulled in the new Paris and I was like, I still have the
1:50:02
imposter syndrome of being like, well, I'll be very happy with
1:50:06
the top five. So seeing the names, it's tough.
1:50:11
Racing against them is tough, but like you kind of get used to
1:50:13
who who you can race against, who will tell you a break, who
1:50:17
will not. So the jump wasn't easy other
1:50:22
than kind of having speed right away.
1:50:23
Right away everything's a little bit slower, so and you can feel
1:50:28
it a lot more in your butt basically.
1:50:31
Growing around racing as much as you did, I mean, with your
1:50:34
family being so involved and like you said, you've been
1:50:36
around for so long. Have you had that moment where
1:50:38
you're like, I can't believe I'm racing this guy right now, like
1:50:41
me and this guy are side by? Side yeah, I had that a lot with
1:50:44
Jeff. Yeah, that's fair.
1:50:47
Although now I can go up and just talk with them at first
1:50:51
it's like, OK, like when I first first time we ever raced against
1:50:55
him in a Street Stock, I was like, well, maybe he won't be as
1:50:58
good as he is in like an outlaw and he ended up stop.
1:51:03
So it's so that is one of them Nick Pressler.
1:51:08
I've watched my entire time around here.
1:51:11
The Pressler's themselves. I mean, they are hard racers.
1:51:15
They will not cut you an inch. But Nick has run me extremely
1:51:20
clean every single time we've ran around him.
1:51:22
So them Sean a more That's another name that like still
1:51:27
it's it's cool to be able to pick up the phone and call them
1:51:32
where it's also fun to race side by side with them, right.
1:51:38
Oh, sorry, go ahead. I was going to say, you gave
1:51:41
Nick Pressler a comment and the Internet did not blow up so.
1:51:44
Yeah. Usually Facebook if anything
1:51:48
positive about a pressler said the face, like it literally
1:51:51
loses its head and melts. It's almost like the South Park
1:51:53
episode when the Internet goes out and they have to go unplug
1:51:56
it and like plug it back in. Like you're not allowed to give
1:51:59
compliments about the pressler's, but you gave a
1:52:01
compliment and the Internet is still working.
1:52:03
I just wanted to point that out. Nothing against the pressler's.
1:52:07
It's either 100% good or 100% bad.
1:52:10
There is absolutely zero in between.
1:52:12
Oh no, there's no in between. And and but that's where, you
1:52:16
know, I always tell people and then I'm going to give it back
1:52:18
to Buju. But while we're on the press
1:52:20
first, like I've always told people, like when I was a fan in
1:52:22
the stands and that's all I did was just a fan in the stands.
1:52:25
Like I couldn't stand when any of their cars came on the track.
1:52:28
Like I was booing with the rest of them.
1:52:30
And I would hope, you know, no bodily injury or anything, but
1:52:33
like if they crashed the wall or whatever, it definitely did not
1:52:36
break my heart. Or if they got spun out or
1:52:37
whatever, like where they got caught spending someone out,
1:52:40
like I didn't care, like whatever, go back.
1:52:43
That's fine. Someone else can actually win
1:52:44
this thing and all that. But on this side of things, I
1:52:49
always tell people, and This is why last year we started this
1:52:52
tradition. So any race rat, I go up to them
1:52:55
and I tell them, you suck. And then we have like a 10
1:52:57
minute conversation. So you know, but I'm like, I get
1:53:00
the first bingo spot. That's like the free spot, you
1:53:02
suck. And I'm like that way when
1:53:04
someone else tells them they suck, they could say, hey,
1:53:06
someone else already told us that you're not, not new.
1:53:08
And but it's been fun to go back and forth and even Gage Harris
1:53:11
this past week and he's like, don't worry, I'll suck.
1:53:14
And I'm like it's, it's fun to have that.
1:53:16
Oh, absolutely. And like I always say, like I
1:53:21
love watching them race, love watching it them race.
1:53:24
I hate racing against them. Yeah, absolutely despise that
1:53:27
so. Yeah, I yeah.
1:53:29
And it's like, you know, I get it.
1:53:31
But they'll tell you, you know, you get to know them, though.
1:53:33
They're like nice people. Like they're nice people.
1:53:35
Like you just got to go in the pits and like actually talk with
1:53:39
them and have a conversation with them.
1:53:41
But but you're absolutely right. Like I'm sure on the track I
1:53:44
would probably think you suck. You know, if I racing like I
1:53:47
like, I don't want to be in anywhere near any of your
1:53:49
quarter panels. If I'm, you know, if I'm
1:53:51
leading, I you know, I don't want to, I don't want to see any
1:53:54
of you anywhere. But but again, they're fun
1:53:57
racers. So I just thought I wanted to be
1:53:59
like, not serious, but serious at the moment, be like, hey, the
1:54:02
Internet did not have a meltdown and the press just got a
1:54:05
positive comment. Just wanted to point that out.
1:54:07
So Babuju, I know I cut your time and also want to say shout
1:54:11
out to JJ Fester with JJ construction.
1:54:14
You know, Abuju, I haven't talked to him about this, but
1:54:17
you know, a JJJJ construction logo somewhere around here would
1:54:20
be really cool. I told him I'll hold up his mugs
1:54:24
like Kenny Wallace and it'll have J&J construction.
1:54:27
So I'm like cheap plugs, you know.
1:54:29
But JJ has done a lot for the mini wedges if you've not been
1:54:32
to the mini wedges and he helps other cars too, but he's doing
1:54:38
an awesome job for the mini wedges.
1:54:39
So Quicksilver, a lot of things would not exist with what they
1:54:43
have if JJ wasn't helping with that.
1:54:45
So we need people like him and short track racing.
1:54:47
But anyways, back to side back-to-back to Buju.
1:54:51
Favorite track side? I know you're very small handful
1:54:54
so far. What's your favorite so far?
1:54:56
Favorite, favorite place to go just facility wise is Owosso.
1:55:02
They're light years ahead of everybody else to actually race.
1:55:06
It's going to be Kalamazoo. I like being able to run 3 and 4
1:55:11
wide and not touch anybody and be able to pass anywhere on the
1:55:15
racetrack. We've had the most success on my
1:55:19
My Mouth is Dry at New at New Paris over the past two years,
1:55:26
but Kalamazoo is the most fun. Fair enough.
1:55:29
What is there one that you feel like you haven't figured out
1:55:31
just yet? Oh yeah, absolutely M40 yeah.
1:55:35
So the dwarf dwarf car we I struggled there.
1:55:39
I self spun and in the dwarf car that three and four bump is
1:55:46
extreme. Like you go into it and you'd go
1:55:50
up to three droves. It's outrageous.
1:55:53
The big car, it's not as bad, but like you have 0 grip there
1:55:58
and not to start the tire war, but the American race is there.
1:56:02
We bought used ones, went we are way off on speed and put we
1:56:10
bought just right sides, put it on the car and we picked up half
1:56:14
a second. I thought there they're kind of
1:56:17
weird. We didn't change anything else
1:56:19
in the car, just changed tires and gained half a second and it
1:56:22
was just not too big of a fan of those American racers.
1:56:25
Maybe different ones, but. Interesting.
1:56:28
You can tell he's listening to our show.
1:56:32
Yeah, we had the we didn't get too deep into the tire
1:56:35
discussion, but but it is a conversation, right?
1:56:38
Because it's one of those like, you know, if Hoosier keeps
1:56:42
getting higher in price, at some point something has to give,
1:56:46
right? Like it's either do we keep
1:56:48
forking over for Hoosiers or do we have to find a competitor?
1:56:51
Or do you open it up and like whatever you can afford, you
1:56:53
race on whether that's American racer, it's this tire.
1:56:56
If it's Hoosier, it's this tire. Like don't soak, soak.
1:56:59
We won't say we don't, you know, we won't say we won't allow
1:57:02
soaking, but you can soak away. Cook those things like you want
1:57:05
like a rotisserie chicken, whatever, like what?
1:57:07
Whatever the rule is. But but yeah, no, no tire war.
1:57:11
It's, you know, some people like the American race or some don't
1:57:14
like. Yeah, and the soaking.
1:57:17
I hate soaking. Like I say that we we do it for
1:57:21
the big races that allow it. Everybody does.
1:57:24
But it's not saving a tire. It's you're soaking a sticker.
1:57:28
So instead of $780, you're $880 or whatever your soap cost.
1:57:34
Like you're you're not saving anything, you're just making it
1:57:37
cost more. Yeah, you're doing it because
1:57:38
you have to and. Yeah, and Owosso is on a flick
1:57:43
that makes no sense but for a Street stock, but.
1:57:47
Yeah, Hasn't someone else brought that up?
1:57:49
I feel like someone else, maybe not, maybe I saw it somewhere,
1:57:52
but I have heard that too, where a lot of like a lot of people
1:57:56
are not a fan of that. So, and, and not to be stupid,
1:58:00
but let's say that there's people who are watching because
1:58:03
they did this at Springport where they explained something.
1:58:05
So you're like, well, most people probably know that, but
1:58:07
you'd be surprised what people know and don't know for you in a
1:58:10
street stock. For those who maybe don't know,
1:58:13
do you want to educate a little bit on maybe the difference of
1:58:15
that tire, what it means to be like slick and what it does to
1:58:19
car versus a tire that does like what Like the 790?
1:58:24
I think it's what a lot of people run, you know, so. 800
1:58:27
and 890. 89890 So it's like, do you want to explain a little bit
1:58:32
for those who may not like understand the tire difference?
1:58:35
Yes so like Owosso runs an F70 it's a Hoosier slick and that in
1:58:42
turn, especially with that track combo, it will take whatever
1:58:46
motor you can throw at it do it because there's people up there
1:58:51
with four O 6 like giant motors and it takes all of it that you
1:58:56
have unlimited grip it's a motor track and if you have a small
1:58:59
motor you're going to struggle. We went there and blew up our
1:59:02
small motor this year. So like that it just doesn't
1:59:07
make sense on a street stock. It makes sense up there because
1:59:09
every single class but the front wheel drives are on that F70 so
1:59:14
it makes sense to as a track, but for a street stock it
1:59:17
doesn't make a ton. Kalamazoo is on the 890 which is
1:59:21
just how I understand it. It's a different groove in the
1:59:25
tire, but also just slightly harder than the 8 hundreds
1:59:29
American racer supposedly is like the equal to the 800
1:59:33
Hoosiers that they M40 runs. That American racer, which we
1:59:40
went and weighed American racer weighs way more than a Hoosier
1:59:45
and it just seems harder. But I lacked grip in them and
1:59:49
they seem to fall off like off the face of the earth after 15
1:59:53
laps. So it's just they're all small
1:59:56
differences except for the slit that's in its own world.
2:00:00
But I would be all for just running everywhere non so to 8
2:00:03
nineties. It's the most consistent tire
2:00:06
that I've come across. Well, you've been on the
2:00:10
YouTube, you put a comment for like the tire thing too when we
2:00:14
were talking last week specifically about like front
2:00:15
wheel drives, like you had a suggestion for that too.
2:00:17
So, you know, that's one of those things that I know this is
2:00:20
the time of year. So the rules are going to start
2:00:21
coming out for a lot of our tracks that people are like, oh,
2:00:25
you know, of course every track has to have a different tire and
2:00:27
every track has to have this and that and everything else.
2:00:29
But I've heard so many people talk about I, I don't know why I
2:00:32
thought 790. I feel like I've heard 790, but
2:00:35
890, you know? There are classes that run them,
2:00:37
but. Yeah, yeah.
2:00:38
OK. Compacts with 7. 90s, yeah.
2:00:40
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you know, like 8 nineties,
2:00:44
like a lot of people have talked about the Kalamazoo tire and
2:00:46
running like the same as Kalamazoo because what new pairs
2:00:51
they're on what the aren't they on the F2F70?
2:00:55
No, they're on 8. Hundreds, 8 hundreds, yeah.
2:00:58
I, I mean, I don't have to buy tires, so I don't memorize any
2:01:00
of this, but, you know, it doesn't mean anything to me.
2:01:03
I just know that they do this when they're racing, like that's
2:01:06
all I need to know. And that if they come off the
2:01:08
car, it's not a good thing. So yeah, you know, but but
2:01:12
that's where a lot of people, 8 hundreds, a lot of people talk
2:01:15
about too, but everyone's like, can we just like pick one, you
2:01:20
know, like everybody just in this 100 mile radius, pick one,
2:01:23
but shouldn't be. So if you so sorry, if you had
2:01:26
like your number one pick, if there's a tire that you could
2:01:29
convince everybody to run, what would it be?
2:01:31
It'd be the 890. 890 Yep. Yeah, cuz even Kalamazoo, they
2:01:36
ran their weird but smart one tire a weak rule or whatever it
2:01:41
was. Yeah, and there's they're not
2:01:44
super far off what you would have a brand new set on.
2:01:47
You let them cool back down and you go run again like you're
2:01:50
gonna run pretty close to what you were running before.
2:01:53
They don't fall off like all the other tires.
2:01:56
And maybe, maybe 8 hundreds fall off a ton because everybody's
2:01:59
soaking them down here. I I don't know.
2:02:02
Yeah. Well, we had track records go
2:02:04
down. I mean, we had fast like fast
2:02:07
times even with the one or what was it, 2 tires a week at
2:02:11
Kalamazoo Rotator, whatever, but one or two, whatever it was that
2:02:15
and people seem to like have luck with it.
2:02:17
It's not like again, fans in the stands, I don't think sits or
2:02:21
go, Oh well, these cars just look a tenth slower than what
2:02:23
they were last week when I was here.
2:02:25
I want my $15 back. Like fans don't really like.
2:02:29
I bet if you went to an average fan and said tell me what the
2:02:33
time they ran last week without using my race pass, no one's
2:02:36
gonna remember, right? Like they just know who won.
2:02:39
They know who crashed, they know who they booed, they know who
2:02:41
they cheered, right? Like fans don't notice the
2:02:44
difference between man these cars just look 210 slower than
2:02:47
they were last week and I paid 15 bucks for this and I want
2:02:49
them to go faster like fans to. Compare about that super shoe
2:02:54
you. I think the top qualifying front
2:02:56
wheel drive was within a tenth of the street.
2:02:58
Stuff, yes, yeah, yeah. You're not going to know a
2:03:02
difference. It's the reason that matters.
2:03:04
Yep. Well, that South Bend sometimes
2:03:06
when Paul Biddle was racing, he was faster than Andrew Coats,
2:03:11
who was the fast time in the Street Stock.
2:03:13
Yeah, like it was some of those outlaw front wheel drives are
2:03:16
just they're putting lap times down where I mean, Matthew LC
2:03:19
Junior I think would have been what like fourth or something
2:03:21
like that in the street Stocks, that super shoe like, Oh my
2:03:24
gosh, we might as well just do a class of where it's outlaw front
2:03:27
wheel drives and St. Stocks and one and who wins?
2:03:30
Although those front wheel drives, they won't, you know,
2:03:32
they can take a hit, but they I don't think they'd be able to
2:03:34
stand up too much against those St. stacks.
2:03:36
Those St. stacks. I always I tell Anthony, yeah, I
2:03:41
tell Aunt Anthony dual cuz he'll talk about like it's crumpled
2:03:43
and all that. It looks like a street stock.
2:03:45
It's not supposed to look pretty.
2:03:46
If you want something to look pretty, go buy a super late
2:03:48
model like. Just don't look close at our car
2:03:50
cuz it's got tire marks up and down on both sides.
2:03:54
It's a straight stock. It's supposed to look speed up
2:03:58
like it's not supposed to look pretty and I try to convince
2:04:01
drivers it's not supposed to look pretty.
2:04:03
Pretty as a super late model cuz it sits in the garage most of
2:04:06
the season except for like 10 races.
2:04:08
Like it doesn't do anything. That's why it's the same paint
2:04:10
scheme every year cuz they don't pull it out of the garage to,
2:04:13
you know, buy enough, you know, buy a new wrap for it.
2:04:15
Like, but St. stocks you got to get that repaired every year
2:04:18
because it definitely doesn't look like it did in May.
2:04:20
So you know, and but it looks like a street stock.
2:04:24
Like if it looks pretty, that means it's sat in the garage all
2:04:26
year and that does it. It means it's not racing, that's
2:04:29
what. Make sure your your sponsor
2:04:31
logos are legible and you're good.
2:04:33
Yeah, that's all right. Like if it doesn't look beat up,
2:04:36
it's not straight stock. If I went pretty, I'll go watch
2:04:38
a limited, a model race or late model race.
2:04:40
Like if I went pretty, that's what I'll go watch.
2:04:42
Straight stocks are not winning USA Miss USA anytime soon, but
2:04:47
they're the class everyone looks forward to.
2:04:49
So maybe that everyone else should take a note.
2:04:51
You know, maybe your car should look a little beat up and
2:04:53
they're not pretty. But but other than that,
2:04:55
obviously you talked about sponsors and I know we're late.
2:04:58
We kept you longer than what you know.
2:05:00
Oh. It's fine.
2:05:01
But that's where, you know, we were 4 minutes late and then we
2:05:04
got we just got a little bit behind.
2:05:06
But you know, David was telling incredible stories.
2:05:08
I'm like, man, I hate to say bye, but like I got psy coming
2:05:10
on. And so with your marketing
2:05:12
partners who helps with with your program?
2:05:15
And then also where can people find you on social media?
2:05:17
Cuz I do know you have the Bowen Lutz Motorsports page but where
2:05:22
else can they find you? Yeah, so Bowen.
2:05:25
Lutz Motorsports. Oh, Lutz.
2:05:26
Sorry I said it wrong. I know I was gonna say it wrong.
2:05:29
I even. Practiced it on Facebook, they
2:05:32
can find us there. That's where I post all the
2:05:34
updates on what we're doing, recaps, all that.
2:05:37
And then YouTube. I think it's just sigh Bowen on
2:05:41
YouTube. You just search that.
2:05:42
All my in car is on there. The dwarf car in car is on
2:05:45
there. The street stock in car is on
2:05:47
there. And then the sponsors 1 sponsor
2:05:50
did. I did tell them that we were
2:05:52
coming on here and anybody in base to the South Bend region,
2:05:58
the surrounding area like I think they go up the Niles
2:06:01
Elkhart tend to all around Kerman's carpet service.
2:06:06
They've been with us for several years.
2:06:08
Our first year in dwarf car up until now they are doing because
2:06:15
we were coming on here. I can actually announce that
2:06:17
they're doing basically if you call in schedule appointment or
2:06:20
what not for the next 17 days. They're doing basically a
2:06:24
special discount for everybody that kind of calls and schedules
2:06:29
with them. That's.
2:06:30
Cool. All right.
2:06:31
And then of course, Justin Bowen Real Estate, that's my mom.
2:06:35
She's obviously supported US financially and behind the
2:06:37
scenes. They're all of our racing.
2:06:41
And then Tim's Towing helped us out this year a little bit.
2:06:44
Bush Hog Racing, they came on. That's kind of a cool thing, but
2:06:49
it's grubby. And Jude Lancaster, they're
2:06:52
helping us this year. Han Motorsports, somebody that
2:06:56
we bounce some set up stuff on and stuff like that.
2:07:01
MSR Chassis, which is Sean Amor's company, He's helped us
2:07:04
out this year. I believe that's everybody other
2:07:08
than basically family. They all come support us.
2:07:12
My Uncle Jesse comes to the racetrack hands on.
2:07:14
Every time that we asked him to do something, he's there.
2:07:18
And then actually how we are working out, working on the race
2:07:23
car this year is Rodger and Jen. They are letting us use their
2:07:28
shop because my house does not have a shop.
2:07:31
So this past two years we've been working out of their shop.
2:07:36
And that's currently why I'm not.
2:07:38
I'm in my truck doing this. They're loading up their
2:07:41
motorcycles to go down to Florida this fall.
2:07:44
So yeah, they've helped us out a ton.
2:07:47
And then Heidi, of course, for helping us behind the scenes.
2:07:51
The other thing I wanted to add, the fun thing you had Parker on
2:07:55
earlier, he's the one that bought my dwarf car.
2:07:58
Oh, I remember that. Why didn't I remember that?
2:08:02
I because he didn't, he erase it one time where it was still like
2:08:07
your stuff on it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
2:08:10
He had the our sponsors off of there, but it's still the same
2:08:13
rap. Yeah, same rap and I even think
2:08:15
on the I think on the front it still had the bonus.
2:08:19
Yeah, yeah, I shit, I remembered that and I did it.
2:08:23
Now that you said it, I'm like I remembered.
2:08:25
And now that you said, I'm like, I remember that because I at
2:08:29
first, I think even on Facebook, I had posted you're racing.
2:08:34
But then someone said, no, that's Parker.
2:08:35
And I went, OK, I know some of these cars have different names
2:08:40
than the names in the car. But I'm like my race pass wasn't
2:08:44
working at that time because I, I feel like it was a Kalamazoo
2:08:47
for Drew Jack's show. I remember posting and then I
2:08:51
felt like someone in the comments section said no, that's
2:08:53
Parker Tatro. And then my first thought was
2:08:55
who's Parker Tatro? And then cuz I didn't know
2:08:58
right? Like I don't get to see the
2:08:59
drive cars all the time. So like I don't know all the
2:09:02
drivers. But that's where then I switched
2:09:04
it cuz it was an easy mistake. My race pass wasn't working, but
2:09:08
but then it's like, but it still had the bow in on the front.
2:09:12
So yeah, So now that you said that completely forgot I which
2:09:15
is also yeah, that's cool. Well, and I if I would have no
2:09:18
if I would have remember that I could open with that, that
2:09:21
driving, you know, our last guest former car.
2:09:25
But yeah, I, I remember, I remember that now.
2:09:28
So yeah, I know that's absolutely cool.
2:09:30
And and and so you're cheap. We call it cheap Pluck Monday,
2:09:34
Mankind Monday moment, right. So you did your mankind moment
2:09:37
with that carpet service. So that's what that's how you
2:09:39
say. And for my mankind moment, my
2:09:42
cheap pop. But but hopefully people take
2:09:44
care, you know, definitely call in because this is part of the
2:09:47
time of year because it's what like carpet cleaning and all
2:09:50
that kind of deal. Get ready for.
2:09:51
Yeah. So carpet, hardwood, they
2:09:55
install, take out, do all that fun stuff.
2:09:58
But yeah, it's basically carpet and floor cleaning is what they
2:10:01
specialize in. So if you want to give them one
2:10:04
more shout out that way people can maybe contact them,
2:10:08
especially in the South Bend Niles area.
2:10:10
Yeah, yeah. So Truman's carpet service, you
2:10:12
can look them up on Facebook, Google, they'll they'll come up.
2:10:15
They're located mainly in South Bend, but they go to they go to
2:10:18
Plymouth, Valpo, Elkar, Niles, like just all the surrounding
2:10:24
area around South Bend and then the other shout out if anybody
2:10:29
has a you guys kept asking. I was waiting for the question
2:10:32
to come up on what we want to hop in like What Car.
2:10:37
The one thing and my parents have bothered.
2:10:40
I bothered them about it and keep looking all around.
2:10:45
Prolate model, that's what I want.
2:10:47
OK, we won't be getting rid of the Street stocks.
2:10:49
We'll have A2 car, but at some point we wanna hop in a Prolate
2:10:53
model and go do some of that stuff.
2:10:55
So see, Boozer, you let him down.
2:10:57
That's always a good question. Here's the reason I didn't
2:10:59
answer that question cuz in my mind, I think the Street stocks,
2:11:02
they might as well be the cup series cuz I enjoy it so much.
2:11:04
Yeah, yeah. So to me, that's the top.
2:11:06
So I don't even consider it, but that's awesome.
2:11:08
No, I'd be looking forward to seeing that.
2:11:10
And I also just wanted to add congratulations again.
2:11:12
It's it's hard to win a race. It's really hard to win in the
2:11:14
Street stocks and it's really, really hard to win a big St.
2:11:16
stock race around here. So you mentioned that you're
2:11:18
soaking it in and make sure you do that because it is an
2:11:21
accomplishment. So congratulations once.
2:11:23
Thank you. I appreciate it.
2:11:25
Yeah. And thank you guys for
2:11:26
supporting Local Track Racing because we want to have this
2:11:29
platform without you guys. Well, and again, that's where I
2:11:32
knew I wanted to message you almost right away.
2:11:35
So once, once Jeff got his Victory Lane stuff, that's where
2:11:38
I wanted to message you and say, are you interested?
2:11:42
Because I know that you've said like you listen to us at work.
2:11:44
So I'm like, well, you know, what's your schedule?
2:11:46
Like everyone has a different work schedule.
2:11:48
And but that's why I'm like, I'm a message.
2:11:51
And you can also be like, no, I don't want to go on your show.
2:11:53
Why would I go on your show? Jokingly, of course, I know you
2:11:56
listen to us. You've told me that many times.
2:11:58
So I'm like, OK, I hope I can get you on.
2:12:00
Or if it doesn't work this week, you know, what's a day that
2:12:03
works? Because I, as you know, we've
2:12:05
definitely, you know, celebrated what you've done throughout the
2:12:08
season, especially this last month and 1/2.
2:12:10
So I'm like, I, I got to get you on to, you know, with your first
2:12:13
time win and it's like, you know, we've already sang your
2:12:16
praise because you've earned it, right?
2:12:18
You've you've shown it on the track and you've competed again
2:12:21
in the all of us agree that this is the best division in this
2:12:25
area. I'm really excited.
2:12:27
You know, St. Stock racing looks a little
2:12:29
different in Grundy than it does here.
2:12:31
So I'm excited to see what our invaders who are going to Grundy
2:12:35
will do like Austin Maynard's going, Anthony Dual's going next
2:12:39
Tremie is going right. So I'm I'm excited to see, you
2:12:42
know, what they can do down there, you know, with that, with
2:12:46
that group down there and how they all kind of mesh together.
2:12:50
So I that's one of my things I'm looking forward to just because
2:12:53
we've advertised like Michiana area, you're not, you know,
2:12:57
Kalamazoo, Galesburg, M40, New Paris.
2:13:01
I'm sure Angola. I've never been to Angola.
2:13:02
So I don't, I don't, I can't speak to Angola, but you know,
2:13:05
Plymouth South Bend. Am I missing a track?
2:13:11
No, I think I got them all asphalt tracks.
2:13:13
I think I like like like Springport on a normal weekly
2:13:17
night. Their St.
2:13:18
Stock racing isn't like what it is here, right?
2:13:24
They have great drivers, but it's not.
2:13:26
I've always told our drivers, if you go to Spring Port on a
2:13:29
normal weekly race, you're going to do really well.
2:13:31
In fact, you might even win. But when you go to like Michigan
2:13:34
Cup, that looks like everybody else's street stock race.
2:13:36
And Corgan oil can't get St. Stocks.
2:13:38
They struggle to get St. Stocks, so they actually cut the
2:13:40
class. But that's modified country.
2:13:43
Like if you want racing and modify, it's like go there.
2:13:45
Like that's modified country, but when it comes to St.
2:13:48
Stock, it's like this region right here just does an awesome
2:13:51
job. So again, you get to put your
2:13:53
name as a feature winner with a lot of people who've had success
2:13:56
too in this area and some people who really struggle at New
2:13:59
Paris, who are champions, but they get to New Paris and they
2:14:02
they struggle, right. So that's just huge kudos to you
2:14:05
and your team and everything that you guys have done.
2:14:07
So you're also getting the whole late model?
2:14:11
Yeah, Yeah. But that would be pretty awesome
2:14:17
to see you in the pro Late Model.
2:14:18
Although to just have that opportunity, even if you got in
2:14:20
there, you're like, OK, I tried it.
2:14:21
I didn't like it. I'm actually over it by now, you
2:14:24
know, but at least you had the opportunity.
2:14:25
So hopefully someone listening maybe has a connection and can
2:14:29
at least get you hot laps or test session or whatever just to
2:14:32
go get that or you hit up Matt Kemp and be like, hey, Matt, who
2:14:37
are all your people? Help me with your people.
2:14:38
But. It makes sense growing up around
2:14:41
the CRA. Yeah, yeah, that.
2:14:43
Should make sense. I'd pay really close attention
2:14:46
to like the CARS Tour and the CRA or the ASA, whatever you had
2:14:50
you call it now. Whatever they are now.
2:14:52
Yeah, Yeah. So.
2:14:54
Stick around, the name will change again.
2:14:56
Yeah, exactly. Cuz they just combines, right?
2:14:59
They just put everyone together like.
2:15:01
Yeah, they're yeah. And like the CRA, St. stocks got
2:15:04
bought out by HRA. Yep, they they're all changing.
2:15:08
Yep it. Well then AI mean HRA is going
2:15:11
under right? No, that's IH.
2:15:13
That's IH. Yeah.
2:15:17
I can't keep up anymore. Like, I see the next Facebook
2:15:20
post. I'm like, oh, what's going on
2:15:21
now? But But again, Sai, thank you so
2:15:23
much for joining us tonight. And hopefully people give that
2:15:26
carpet place a, you know, shout out, especially this time of
2:15:30
year. It's probably nice to get some
2:15:31
fall cleaning done, you know, after, especially with all the
2:15:33
dust that's in the area, all the rain that we've had, you know.
2:15:36
And holidays coming up. And holidays coming up, so we
2:15:40
are not against mankind moments. So, so hopefully people take
2:15:43
advantage of that discount that they could excuse me that they
2:15:47
can get. And then if you miss any part of
2:15:50
the interview, of course with Psy, I know while we're live,
2:15:52
you can't go back, but once we're done, like you're welcome
2:15:54
to go back. I purposely don't post until
2:15:57
about noon the following day. That way it's fresh at the page.
2:16:00
But I probably want to get off tonight and I'm done talking
2:16:05
with Steve. I'll probably load it to
2:16:06
Spotify. I'm really, I'm awful about
2:16:08
getting it to Spotify, but I will be purposeful about it and
2:16:11
get it on Spotify. I selfishly sometimes I wait
2:16:14
because I want people to watch it on Facebook and YouTube.
2:16:17
But I'm like, I know there's a lot of people who listen to it
2:16:20
on Spotify though. And actually boozoo, I just
2:16:22
found out. I don't know how, but I got an
2:16:25
alert. We ranked on the one of the top
2:16:28
36 best Monday podcasts to listen to.
2:16:32
I forget what the list was, but it's like.
2:16:35
I've always wanted to be a Top 36 Monday podcast man.
2:16:39
And we're we're #15 we're #15 yeah, we're not even at the
2:16:43
we're not and we're the only one, but they're.
2:16:46
So we were beating some Christian shows.
2:16:47
So it's like a general list. So like they were so Jesus was
2:16:51
behind us on some of those shows.
2:16:52
But there's like a Minneapolis sports show that was ahead of
2:16:56
us. They were number one that's been
2:16:58
on like for 20 years or whatever.
2:17:00
And but I got an alert and I looked.
2:17:02
So I googled it and and I said, has the Monday night Rewind by
2:17:06
Topper Racing Media appeared on any list?
2:17:08
And we're not on a national list yet.
2:17:10
But if you go to Spotify or not Spotify, if you go to like Apple
2:17:14
podcasts and rate US or you rate US on Amazon Music or you rate
2:17:18
US on, I even think Spotify, like if you rate US and give us
2:17:21
a review, that's actually what helps get us into these
2:17:24
rankings. So, you know, when it comes to
2:17:26
Facebook, like our numbers were better than anyone we're going
2:17:30
against on a Monday night most weeks, but Spotify is where we
2:17:34
kind of get our butts kicked a little bit.
2:17:35
So I got to think like we got to get, I got to promote Spotify,
2:17:40
but selfishly, like Facebook is the mother ship.
2:17:42
So it's like I kind of like selfishly want them to watch on
2:17:45
Facebook, but our Facebook numbers are really, really good.
2:17:48
So it's like, OK, now that we're showing up on some rankings,
2:17:50
it's like, OK, we got to get that.
2:17:52
We got to get rankings and stars and all the things that way we
2:17:56
can get on these lists, you know, so that we can boast about
2:17:59
that too. So Cuz again, it's you know, 35
2:18:02
shows and we've, you know, over 100,000 views side that we've
2:18:06
had, you know, within the 35 shows.
2:18:08
So it's like the next like this. This helps drivers like for us
2:18:13
like I need sponsorship for next year.
2:18:16
This gets my face out there, gets our are out there and are
2:18:21
already sponsors out there. So I mean it helps racers, so
2:18:24
they. Might not.
2:18:24
Yeah, yeah, we're all in it together, right?
2:18:27
And that's what I always say. Take that from Jay Freed.
2:18:30
I've changed it to we're all in it together, right, Doing our
2:18:33
own individual parts. And so, you know, that's what
2:18:36
the Monday Night Rewind, you know, the next closest podcast
2:18:39
Facebook perfect, like specifically Facebook was was
2:18:42
about 30,000 views behind that we go against on Mondays.
2:18:46
There's a couple of us live on Mondays, but even Bubba's broke
2:18:49
podcast. But it's like, you know, to go
2:18:51
against some of the competition we're going against, they think
2:18:54
we're competition. I don't.
2:18:55
But to think about that, it's like, hey, we're all just doing
2:18:58
our part individually. And I'm pretty, I know Boozoo
2:19:01
too. We're pretty proud of what we
2:19:02
built. But it's for the racers.
2:19:04
It's for, you know, we gave a whole show to Grundy County
2:19:06
Speedway to help promote their, their brackets and people got to
2:19:10
like, I wouldn't have known Sean, but we got to learn about
2:19:13
Sean. We got to learn about all these
2:19:14
drivers. So that's where I'm excited that
2:19:16
hopefully now, because I, I don't know if you saw some of
2:19:19
the comments side, but there are people like, Oh, this is the
2:19:21
street stock driver I need to watch for now.
2:19:23
Like you could tell they haven't seen you at Kalamazoo or they
2:19:25
may not remember you because it's like, well, if you go to
2:19:28
Kalamazoo, you definitely would know that the 17's a car you
2:19:31
need to watch for. But but now that you won and you
2:19:35
put it in Victory Lane, now you're going to stand out.
2:19:37
And I think you I had like 12,000 views.
2:19:39
I don't, I don't remember the exact views, but I want to say
2:19:42
it was like lots of views on your victory.
2:19:45
And it's like just think of how many different states it's
2:19:48
there's Facebook is a top 10, but it's more than that.
2:19:51
It's just it gives a top ten. But you know, from Ontario,
2:19:55
Canada to Florida, somebody saw your win and that I call it the,
2:20:00
the, the vacation belts because everyone from the Snowbird,
2:20:05
everyone from Michigan's going to be going to Florida here
2:20:07
soon. So it's like literally the belt
2:20:09
like Ontario, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky,
2:20:14
Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, like Alabama.
2:20:20
There's one more I forget there's one more, but that's the
2:20:23
top 10. So literally in that top ten,
2:20:26
you know, those thousands of views now, Indiana, Michigan,
2:20:29
Ohio, the top three. Illinois was 6th.
2:20:32
But like, Florida was like #5 so like a lot of people in Florida
2:20:36
saw you win at new pairs. Like, yeah, just think about how
2:20:39
crazy that is that people literally across the United
2:20:42
States got to watch you win your first race at new pairs.
2:20:46
So we're all in it together. That's what I keep saying.
2:20:49
But I definitely appreciate your support too, because you've
2:20:52
definitely, you know, been supportive anytime there's an
2:20:54
onboard sign up and you're at that race, you know, you're
2:20:57
willing to do that and put a camera in your car.
2:20:59
So I definitely appreciate that, too.
2:21:00
And again, I know Justin put in the comments section the
2:21:06
Crimmins carpet services, so the number two in the promo code
2:21:11
that you guys can use size 17. So see Mankind Monday.
2:21:17
There we go. But again, thank you so much, Sy
2:21:19
for joining us. Again, congratulations on your
2:21:22
victory. Thank you.
2:21:23
Thank you guys. Oh, no, you're welcome.
2:21:26
So again, if you've missed any part of the interview, Sy has
2:21:28
been on for about an hour and and talking with us for about 30
2:21:33
a little over 30 minutes now. So again, I appreciate his time
2:21:36
and support and listen to us again.
2:21:39
You can check the comments section if you're looking for
2:21:41
any carpet specials or anything. But I know it said 810.
2:21:45
So Boozer, this is the first time in a few weeks that I put
2:21:47
the time stamps back on. Like I'm not doing it again.
2:21:51
They're gone. Yeah, they're gone.
2:21:53
We're just going to say they're going to be on.
2:21:54
Just stay tuned. They will come on at some point.
2:21:57
But because this is like, you know, when I wasn't doing it, we
2:22:00
were pretty on time. And so then I always feel bad.
2:22:03
But. But again, I do want to show the
2:22:05
Grundy list one more time. And I did fix the spelling while
2:22:08
Sai was talking because I I just hate, I hate when I see typos
2:22:12
and I saw another typo and I fixed that really quick too
2:22:14
because it annoys me. It's like This is why I needed
2:22:18
check three times. I usually check twice.
2:22:20
But it all, you know, when you're doing it, it all looks
2:22:22
the same until you like watching it and like that's so
2:22:26
frustrating. But but anyways, so again, I'm
2:22:31
excited for this list. This is Sabrina BB Photography
2:22:34
will be with me. We're leaving we're leaving
2:22:37
Michigan at about 12:30 on Friday and we're going to head
2:22:40
down, check into the hotel, make sure both rooms exist because
2:22:43
you just never know. I've heard some Notre Dame
2:22:46
stories where people go to hotels after the Notre Dame game
2:22:48
and they're not there. So I'm like, Nope, we're not
2:22:50
doing that. So.
2:22:52
Martinsville, VA. One time.
2:22:54
Yeah, Oh yeah. I so I always make sure the
2:22:56
hotel exists and so we're going to check in and then we'll be
2:23:00
get the track for the rest of the night on Friday.
2:23:02
We'll obviously be there all day Saturday and then we'll be there
2:23:05
bright and early Sunday. I appreciate Steve again, he's
2:23:08
giving us a master list where everyone's parked so we know
2:23:11
exactly where to find the drivers to put these cameras on,
2:23:14
which I'm like, I don't like spoiled because any I was
2:23:18
telling him like we have to hunt people down usually.
2:23:21
And for big shows like at at Rumble in Fort Wayne, I will
2:23:25
literally put on 2 miles in the Allen County War Memorial
2:23:28
Coliseum, just searching where everyone's parks.
2:23:30
Like I know like where a lot of drivers park, but when you go
2:23:32
downstairs under the hockey rink and all the carts and the mini
2:23:36
wedges, like they're not in the same spot they were the year
2:23:39
before. So I'm like, OK, I just got to
2:23:41
find everybody. So I usually that Thursday is
2:23:44
when I'm scouting and and not everyone's always there.
2:23:47
So then Friday morning I go early because the same drivers
2:23:51
have the cameras all weekend long, but that part's helpful
2:23:55
because since the Saturday's easier because I know exactly
2:23:57
where they're parts. But again, I'm excited for the
2:24:00
list. So this includes the Grundy 10
2:24:02
and the Open 11 mixed in here. So I'll make an official graphic
2:24:07
and post that sometime tomorrow. The new Parish program will
2:24:11
publish sometime tomorrow morning, probably about 6:00 AM.
2:24:16
I didn't get a chance to load it onto YouTube yet and I need a
2:24:18
chapter and everything. So with it being later, I know
2:24:22
most people aren't going to be able to watch it right away.
2:24:24
So I'm just not going to publish it right away.
2:24:26
And the Kalamazoo Mini Wedge program will be done if it's not
2:24:30
ready to go tomorrow morning. Also, because I'm going to work
2:24:33
on that after I talk to Steve too, it will be sometime
2:24:36
tomorrow to be posted. It was features only, so it'll
2:24:38
go faster. So in case anyone's looking for
2:24:43
those full programs, don't forget I before we get off booze
2:24:46
you. I do want to show everyone one
2:24:47
more time. I got to type it almost.
2:24:52
I said I was going to do this last time, but I didn't.
2:24:55
And but before we get off, I do want to show for those watching
2:24:59
or those listening again, you can go to toprowracingmedia.com.
2:25:04
Oh, it would help Lewis if you showed the damn thing.
2:25:07
Top Row racing media.com if you go to full programs at the top
2:25:11
there and click program links, the 2026 season starts in
2:25:16
January and it goes all the way down.
2:25:18
The only one that's on on here yet is Michigan cup.
2:25:21
It I got to get that on there, but super shoes on there.
2:25:24
And if you click this, hold on, Oh boy, that's a quite the ad.
2:25:34
I'm not going to do it because ads are going to play and
2:25:35
they're going to be like stupid ads and and never mind.
2:25:39
But anyways, it it's talking about sitting on the toilet and
2:25:43
I know it's after 9:00, but that's not what I want.
2:25:45
Oh, I hate the ads, by the way. I know like it helps my page and
2:25:50
I promise you it does not make me a lot of money when you watch
2:25:53
the ads either. Did you know Buju, that content
2:25:56
creators, if you're monetized on YouTube, you get 55% of if
2:26:02
people watch the ad and it has to be a qualified view.
2:26:05
So you have to watch it long enough.
2:26:06
And I'm the first one that skips them as soon as I can.
2:26:08
And if you and if you skip them, you don't actually get much for
2:26:12
it. It's like you get like 10% of
2:26:14
that. And I'm like, I actually don't
2:26:16
care 'cause I hate ads, so I skip them too.
2:26:20
I don't judge anybody when they're like, yeah, I skipped
2:26:21
that. So I'm like, I know I should
2:26:22
tell you not to, but I do it too.
2:26:25
Like I hate. But if anyone wants to know,
2:26:28
even if I turned off monetization, guess what would
2:26:31
still play? Yeah.
2:26:33
Ads so. YouTube Premium will save your
2:26:36
life folks. That's all I'm going to say.
2:26:37
Free ads around here but. My God.
2:26:40
It's a life changer. And here's the thing too, just
2:26:42
get my soapbox for a moment. So I literally take the time to
2:26:46
type where the ads should go, which is after races.
2:26:50
Like I literally tell it where the ads should go, which makes
2:26:53
it easier to skip to, by the way, like just so you know, like
2:26:56
I hate them. Guess what?
2:26:58
So I did this one day. I had it on my TV, on my cell
2:27:02
phone, and on my laptop. I clicked play and all of them
2:27:06
close to the same time. I was late on the TV by second
2:27:10
or whatever because I only had two hands, but the ads played in
2:27:15
three different spots. The first ad played in three
2:27:18
different spots and it's not even the spot that I told it to
2:27:20
play. So I gave up.
2:27:22
I'm like whatever, it doesn't even actually matter.
2:27:24
I'm not even going to take the time and waste my time telling
2:27:28
it to play a 12/12 which is after the race finishes.
2:27:31
Nope, going to do it right when the green flag drops.
2:27:35
Stupid, stupid. And and so when YouTube, when
2:27:39
they send me the stupid surveys that takes 15 minutes to fill
2:27:42
out and it says fill this out for 15.
2:27:44
You know, it takes 15 minutes to do.
2:27:45
How can we improve? And I always say, and I always
2:27:48
say as someone who does short track racing content and tells
2:27:53
where the ads to play, it would be helpful if it played where
2:27:56
the ads where I'm telling you to so it doesn't interrupt on a
2:27:59
green flag. It is so stupid when it when
2:28:02
it's when it show. So what it's doing is it sees in
2:28:07
the video timeline, it sees that there's a break because to go
2:28:10
from the green flag like a Kalamazoo because I put in Tyler
2:28:14
Mcgahn. So it sees a break in the
2:28:17
picture. And so that's why it puts the ad
2:28:19
like after the green flag. And I'm like, well, I'm not
2:28:21
changing that because people like the green flag view.
2:28:24
So I literally like on the screen where it says like manage
2:28:28
add roles. I literally type it and you have
2:28:31
to like pick it on the timeline and make sure it goes and hooks
2:28:34
and everything. And then it doesn't even do it.
2:28:36
So stupid. So I do comment on that all the
2:28:38
time when I get those, do this survey for us and I'm like, but
2:28:43
you don't change it. And I and I know my content is
2:28:46
different from like a hey dude or not.
2:28:47
Hey, dude, that's shoes. What's that guy?
2:28:50
The dude guy? Yeah.
2:28:52
I know, dude perfect, dude, perfect.
2:28:53
Dude, perfect and all that, like whatever, like they make
2:28:56
hundreds of thousands of dollars with their stuff, so maybe they
2:28:59
matter more than someone like me who's a peon, but you know, like
2:29:02
still come on, like make it easy.
2:29:03
Like if you're going to make me type the stupid thing, do it
2:29:05
where I at least put it because I hate when the ads show up in
2:29:09
the middle of a race too. Like why, why it's stupid.
2:29:14
But anyway, sorry, I got out of my soapbox.
2:29:16
I just it's stupid. Like when people tell me I'm
2:29:19
like, I hate it too. Like I showed the one person I
2:29:22
said see, like play it. It's not going to play the ad
2:29:25
where it literally I'm showing you where I told it to play the
2:29:28
ad whatever. But anyways, full programs, you
2:29:31
can find them If you click them, it's going to play a toilet ad.
2:29:33
So I'm not going to click it now.
2:29:34
But but if you go and if you click the thumbnail now, which
2:29:38
it's labeled new pairs, Kalamazoo Corgan oil, whatever,
2:29:42
you can go and it takes you right to the YouTube link
2:29:44
Because I get a lot of people who say, man, it's so hard to
2:29:47
find things on YouTube. I know I make this and I make
2:29:50
all the things, but it's still I told people like I'm not going
2:29:53
to individually upload anymore because literally this at
2:29:56
Michigan Cup it would have been 85 uploads, but 8585 uploads
2:30:02
like my entire. Channel.
2:30:04
You know, just for one weekend. So, so anyways, Chris, I'm going
2:30:10
to be at Granite County all weekend.
2:30:12
So I'm going to be there Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
2:30:14
I will get to see Leah on Thursday though, but I will be
2:30:17
there October 24th. So do one more cheap plug.
2:30:19
And then I got to call Steve because he said he's available
2:30:21
literally like in a minute from now.
2:30:23
And so I'm going to get to him early.
2:30:25
So that way if he needs to go to bed or whatever, I don't keep
2:30:27
him up too late. But again, Bahama brackets
2:30:29
Morris IL October 16th, 17th and 18th.
2:30:32
October 16th is practice, practice, practice.
2:30:35
The 17th is more practice. Slash qualifying, slash happy
2:30:39
hours, slash heat races, slash last chance heat races that
2:30:42
they. Call bash races.
2:30:46
Bash races and and then the 18th are feature, feature feature.
2:30:50
All features A bracket, B bracket, but you have AA, AAA,
2:30:55
quadruple A and then you're gonna have B, double B, triple B
2:31:00
and 4B. And outside of drivers, I mean,
2:31:05
drivers would probably decide if they're going to Grundy at this
2:31:07
point. But if you're a race fan looking
2:31:09
for something to do this weekend, A put on some layers,
2:31:11
but B, yeah, there's gonna be a ton of race laps at Grundy
2:31:14
County this weekend, so. You're yeah, Yep.
2:31:16
And then at but if you want to stay local, Night of Destruction
2:31:19
at Hartford, October 17th, again, the race of doom.
2:31:22
So if you want to see a school bus with pyrotechnics and and
2:31:25
bubble bath soap and all the things coming out of the school
2:31:29
bus, which will, they'll probably do a haunted tour as
2:31:31
well. So it'll be set up for
2:31:32
Halloween. You can go and do that at
2:31:34
Hartford. And then of course, next
2:31:36
Saturday I will be there. Matthew Elsie Junior will be
2:31:40
making his debut on dirt. That's not why I'm there.
2:31:42
I'm actually already going to be there.
2:31:43
But we learned last Monday on the Monday night Rewind that
2:31:46
he'll be there, which you can also listen to on Spotify.
2:31:48
That episode is there. But the Nightmare on Bowie St.
2:31:52
I think it's Bowie. I always call it Bowie, but I
2:31:54
think it's Bowie. It's a yeah.
2:31:57
It's a, it's a straight behind the track anyways.
2:32:00
Hartford, MI, October 24th. So I will be there for that.
2:32:03
That's Midwest dirt compact. Some national compact touring
2:32:07
series will be over there. And there's other things going
2:32:09
on too. I think an enduro or demolition
2:32:12
Derby. I forget it all right now
2:32:15
because I'm just focused on Bahama brackets, so I'll know
2:32:18
next week when I look. Oh, Thursday night Throttle.
2:32:21
We're not doing it this week. I forgot to announce it earlier.
2:32:24
I'll tell you. I forgot to tell you because
2:32:25
I'm. I was gonna tell you.
2:32:26
I couldn't do it either, so it works out great.
2:32:29
Yeah, I'm literally gonna be on the way back from Michigan
2:32:32
International Speedway. But maybe maybe you know, I'll
2:32:35
make Leah get on out. One of us will be driving.
2:32:38
Maybe Drew Jack can do a live from the top row racing media
2:32:41
Federated auto parts LHD tailing Serena BB photography pace car
2:32:45
Tell about the Michigan promoters meeting.
2:32:47
Although what happens to the meeting is pretty secret, so
2:32:49
you're not allowed to talk about it but or you're not supposed to
2:32:53
talk about it. But anyways, Oh yeah, John boy.
2:32:57
I well, I've already been talked about the new pairs too, so
2:33:00
hopefully they'll be contacting you.
2:33:01
They know that they need to get back with you too.
2:33:03
So anyways, Buju, you get to be race car driver this weekend.
2:33:10
Sabrina gets to make her debut in Illinois.
2:33:11
I get to go back to Illinois. So let me get an adult on Irish
2:33:15
mode there. You go.
2:33:18
All right, Buju, it's almost time to turn left and go fast
2:33:21
because. We'll see you at the races.
2:33:23
See everyone?