Tradition, Legacy, and Passion: Our Racing Family

A big reason our blog is called "Our Fast Track Family" is because our family lives and breathes  the fast lane. We are a racing family with deep roots into the sport.

I have had messages from some of my viewers wanting to know how our family is involved in the dirt track racing scene and some of the family history behind it.

I also have a request to follow up on how the hobby effects our family, how it effects me as a wife or a racer and what I think about my husband racing and bringing Baby J up in a racing environment and starting him in racing. That is a HUGE topic in itself so I wanted to give you the family history first before tackling that subject next week. So, stay tuned for that!

This is more of a topic for my husband considering his family is the backbone to our racing life. A big portion of the story will revolve around his grandfather, and I wasn't lucky enough to meet him(he passed away 3 years before Chris and I got together) so I feel I shouldn't be sharing his story.

So, I now introduce you to my husband, Chris!

My wife didn't feel comfortable writing about this topic, since this mostly deals with my side of the family tree (although her mother is currently the track photographer at our local dirt track). So now here I sit trying to think of the words to keep you interested in a family tradition that is second nature to myself and the rest of my family. The picture above is of my grandfather, Bud. Although, growing up, I was never allowed to call him "grandpa", my cousins and I called him "Uncle Bud" because "Grandpa" made him feel old, and he wasn't old enough to be a grandpa, according to him. My grandpa started racing in 1964 and ran his last race in 2006 so the tradition of dirt track racing in my family has stretched many years, states, and family members. As far back as I can remember, grandma and grandpa had always owned a salvage yard and race parts business and grandpa raced at least once every week during the summer months. I spent most of my summers during my grade school years wrenching on engines and changing tires, I was "Wrenchman Chubbs" because I was chunky, and my little brother Jay was "Jackman Jay". We loved going to the local dirt tracks in Coffeyville, Ks and Caney, Ks every weekend during those summers.

Grandpa raced many types of cars over the years including super modifieds, sportsmans, limited lates, super lates, stock cars and late models. I personally think the late models are the coolest of them all. He was very good at driving anything with wheels. His shop is stock full of more trophies than I have ever seen in one place in my life.

One of my favorite cars that Grandpa built

 

Naturally, his racing "addiction" rubbed off on his son, my uncle Al. Uncle Al drove his first stock car when he was 14 years old. It was a Camaro that matched my grandpas. But it only matched grandpas until he drove into the first corner of his first race and drove it off the end of the race track and rolled it a couple times. I wish I could find the picture that was in the paper of the ordeal. You can see the tree line in the distance and the tops of the trees are lower than my uncle Al's car while it was upside down. He was ok of course and had another car built before the next weeks race.

My father, Mike, now had two racecars and drivers to deal with on a weekly basis. My dad did most of the pit crew work on both cars and never got into actually racing them. But he sure does know just about everything there is to know about building, maintaining, and setting up dirt track racecars. He instead did demolition derby's which are a whole new kind of fun! Smashing cars into other cars on purpose, I mean what's not to love? He was even featured on a TNN TV Special about demo derby's because he was a corporate businessman by day and demo derby driver by night.

Uncle Al took winning to a whole new level for the family racing business. He's the only 7 time O'reilly NCRA Late Model Points Champion, a 6 time MLRA Late Model Points Champion and has also won a few MARS Late Model Points Championship. Grandpa, and Al's racing careers have taken them all across the country to do what they love. I don't know all the places they've been but the places include Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas, Nebraska, Colorado, Iowa, Arizona, and Nevada to name a few.

My uncle Al's championship late model



When my grandpa stopped racing as much, he decided to open his own racetrack on the land that his salvage sat on. Thus was the start of Stateline Speedway, the fastest 1/4 mile track in the tri-state area. This operation was truly a family run business. Grandma and my Aunt VJ made all the food for the concessions, my mom, brother and I worked in the concession stand and pit gate. My dad worked in the pit area with grandpa to keep everything running smoothly. Uncle Al and Uncle Russ (My Aunt VJ's husband, who also raced) had the easiest jobs, they just raced at the track. We ran the track for about 10 years until grandpa got cancer and could no longer run the operation smoothly.

By the time the track closed down, my brother and I had strayed away from the racing scene because we were in high school and had other things on our mind. My brother actually got back into racing before I did, and it was literally by accident! I'll explain..someone backed into my brother's truck in a gas station parking lot and naturally he took the truck  to my grandpa to buy new parts and fix it. He left Wichita on Friday evening to drive to Coffeyville where our salvage is located, with a wrecked truck and returned Sunday afternoon with a still wrecked truck but had a Camaro race car on a trailer in tow. Grandpa had actually convinced my brother to use the money he would have spent fixing the truck to instead buy a racecar and leave the truck wrecked!

Then began my part of the family tradition. My dad and I went to work immediately helping my brother build his racecar. We raced every weekend in Hutchinson and Wichita. My brother raced that car for one year and I was back to being hooked. I agreed to buy the car from Jay and help him build a new one. We didn't get the new one finished in time for the next race season so we shared my car. I raced it in Hutch on Friday night and he drove it in Wichita on Saturday night. I finished 3rd in points, and he finished 6th. I always felt bad because we had all week to make the car right for me and had very minimal hours on Saturdays to fix all the damage I caused and set it up for him. He did however win the points championship the next year and moved up to modifieds and I bought his car and we spent every weekend together at the track. Currently, we both race modifieds. He races on a more regional circuit, going to tracks in Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas while I stay home and race our local track in Park City, 81 Speedway.



My brother (35) and I (36) at 81 Speedway

It was at 81 Speedway that I met my  loving wife. It takes a special kind of crazy to love a dirt track racer. She was all for it though! Long nights in the garage, and countless hours and dollars spent to keep the car maintained in top notch shape. She is there by my side through all of it. While we currently do not own a racecar (sold it to spend all the time we could with Baby J), We are still very active in the racing scene. We will have another car soon and start to bring Baby J up in a racing family so that he can continue the family tradition of dirt track racing.

I hope this gives you an idea of the lifelong tradition that we enjoy. Its definitely an addiction that can't be shaken. I look forward to seeing my son win his first race in a car we build together.

-Chris

There you have it guys! An inside look as to why this sport is an important tradition to us. It is a legacy to our family and nothing could ever fill the space that racing has in our hearts.
We will see you next time!
-Danielle