I love racing. Ask my family, they’ll tell you. My mother has the most unique perspective on it from the very beginning. In order to go to the races, she told me that I needed to be potty trained. That was the switch that got it done after many failed attempts. She taught me how to read because she was sick of reading every line of the Hard Clay program and Area Auto Racing News to me. The racing bug bit me early, and hard. Since I was three years old, I’ve lived for Saturday night. The drivers at the Orange County Fair Speedway were heroes to me. I knew them all, from their car numbers to their hometowns, from your Brett Hearns to your Vinny Yannones, I could (and still can) name any of them.
Growing up, I never had the opportunity to race go karts. My parents told me they were too dangerous. While they certainly are dangerous, it has since occurred to me that the real reason was that they were too expensive. Instead, I settled for racing RC cars and collecting trophies across the Northeast. I always dreamed of the day that I could race dirt modifieds myself though, and not from standing on a platform guiding them with a transmitter in my hand. I told everyone that I wanted to do that some day. Everyone brushed it off that it would never actually happen. I would’ve given anything to be a Sportsman driver.
In 2005, I had enough, and used the money I had saved up and bought a 2001 Teo roller. Had I known then what I know now, I wouldn’t have even looked at that car let alone bought it. I ran it half a dozen times that summer and never qualified for a Sportsman feature, but, I finally was able to live my dream and race on the hallowed grounds in Middletown, New York.
We upgraded our equipment for 2006 and got a whole lot better as the year went on. We made huge strides in 2007, running the entire season and finishing 9th in the point standings out of 76 drivers. In 2008 we were thirty points out of the lead and charging when I got driven hard into the fourth turn wall and destroyed my car in July suffering a concussion in the process. We came back for a couple races at the end of the year with another car, then had enough after getting taken out and called it a season.
At that point, I was talked into moving up to the Big Block division in 2009. We bought a used engine from Chris Shultz, and I was on top of the world. I didn’t qualify for the first couple of weeks, then made it in through the consi in week three. My racing idol Chuck McKee greeted me at the scales, and looked like he had just won Eastern States he was so excited for me. We struggled in the beginning of the season, then started running better and better. At that point, people started offering help in the form of suggestions and parts to try. Wanting to keep improving, I listened to a few people, and did what they said. Our performance started to regress as a result, but we still won Rookie of the Year honors in 2009. That was the high point. Sponsorship deals that we thought we had never bore fruit, and we started racing less and less. Suddenly, my supporters dwindled, and so did our cash flow, but I was too stubborn to quit. We ran a few races here, a few races there in the years that followed, but we were just making laps and the fun and camaraderie were gone.
We stopped racing in 2016, and I was ok for the rest of the season. It was a relief not to be racing at that point. By 2017 and especially 2018, I was depressed. I went to the track occasionally, but it was really hard watching the guys that I raced with still out there competing. I didn’t want to go to the track, but I didn’t want to stay home either. I still had that fire in my belly, and longed for a second chance to fix the mistakes that I made the first time around.
In June 2018, it didn’t take a lot of convincing to go back and chase that elusive checkered flag again. My father bought a chassis, and we slowly started to put the pieces together to build a new race team. I always said that if I went back I’d buy an open trailer and go Sportsman racing. The rules are the same everywhere (basically), and we could go anywhere we wanted. No points, no stress, just load up and go racing. So, that’s what we’re going to do. While I’m “Just a Sportsman Driver” again, that’s ok. The Sportsman class has some great drivers in it, and many who are in the same position we are – guys who would love to be racing Modifieds but can’t afford to do it. I hope I get another shot at a Big Block some day, but if not, at least I got to do it. At this point, I’d give anything to be a Sportsman driver, and there’s no shame in that.