I have had people ask me over the years, exactly how I became interested in racing?  I didn’t know anyone who raced and in fact, I don’t think I knew anyone who had ever been to a race either. My parents had, what I like to say, less than zero interest in the sport, so it was something I had developed from within myself.  That being said, I knew exactly how it all started.

     I was always a big car lover since I can remember. My mother says that when I was around 4 yrs old, that I would shout out the makes of cars that I saw driving on the road. My parents divorced when I was just a couple years old, and I would spend a month every summer visiting my dad in Columbus Ohio. I was an avid reader, so I would always look forward to stopping at a Truck stop in Findlay, Ohio where my dad would let me select a magazine to read in the car. When I was 11, I picked out a racing magazine called Circle Track & Highway, and little did I know what an impact that decision would have on my life. I devoured every single word, and after reading a feature article about Indy 500 veteran Lloyd Ruby, decided right then & there, he would become my favorite driver. Racing appealed to me, I guess, as the epitome of what cars were supposed to do.

     Now keep in mind I really had no other exposure to the sport. The only races that were televised was the Indy 500 and short snippets on ABC Wide World of Sports. (usually months after the races were run) All I knew about were the major racing series like Indy, NASCAR, Formula 1 and NHRA. During my visits to Columbus every summer, my dad was always trying to find fun activities for us to do. I was a big baseball fan and loved the Cincinnati Reds, so we went to a couple games every year, but in the summer of 72, I must have worn him down, as he announced we would be making a trip to see the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. I was so excited to see all those cars and take a lap around the track in a van seeing the names of the drivers still lettered on the pit wall, that on the way back to Ohio, he told me that we would get tickets for the Indy 500 the following year!  

     While my parents had been divorced as long as I could remember, I had a great relationship with both of them. My dad, Marc, owned his own wallpaper hanging business and was a jazz drummer for all his life. As a child, I went through all kinds of phases; collecting coins, stamps, fishing, slot cars, model kits, gas powered model airplanes, you name it. I never did anything halfway however, I went all in, and would be obsessed, but after a couple years, would move to the next great thing. I’m sure both my parents were convinced this would just be another passing phase like the rest.

    I waited all year for May to come when we would be going to the race  and as the day got closer, got more and more excited. Finally, we packed up his 1962 Econoline Van and headed to Indianapolis. Unfortunately, the 1973 Indy 500 was considered the worst in the history of the race, and it just rained and rained. There were no jet dryers, so the method of drying the track was tow trucks driving around lap after lap. Finally, the rain stopped, the track dried, and after driver introductions they got ready to start the race.  One of the cars, driven by Rick Muther, failed to start, and finally, urged on by the pleas of the massive crowd, it fired up, and sped up to catch up to the field. It came screaming around the 4^th turn where we were sitting and you could have convinced me it was going 200 mph!

     The field of 33 came around on the pace lap, all lined up in rows of three, and all I could think was; “This is the greatest thing I have ever seen!”  The field took the green for the start and out of our view, there was a major crash in Turn 1 with Salt Walther getting upside down and on fire with about 10 cars involved. Before they could clear the track, the rain resumed and that was it.  We came back the following day, which was also rained out, & due to work commitments, my dad had to head back, so that was all I ended up seeing. Well, maybe not entirely, as that night, when we were parked in the A&P parking lot camping, a young lady on top of a van took her top off. Keep in mind I was 14, so twice in the same day, I said “This is the greatest thing I have ever seen!”

I’m not sure if that was when I decided I could really learn to love this sport, but it certainly didn’t hurt. We were able to return the following year for the race which was a classic, and my dad & I looked forward to going for the next several years. I eventually did get to go to MIS in a couple years, and didn’t really know about short track racing for a while longer, but that will be another chapter.

I am waiting for the season to start in a couple months, and while I love posting pictures, I wanted to do something a little different, so I thought I would write a blog to let people know a little more about me.

For this first entry, I wanted to discuss how, after thirty plus years watching from the stands as a fan, I was able to figure out a way to be able to contribute more in the local racing community.  My passion since I was a teenager has always been racing, but since no one in my family had any interest it was something I had to cultivate entirely on my own.

     In many respects, 2009 was the most difficult year of my life. I was recently downsized from my job at an auto supplier after working there 18 years, and with all the economic turmoil, finding a new job in S. Michigan at the age of 52, was pretty daunting to say the least.  Out of nowhere, I had heard that someone had bought the rights to the MARC Times weekly racing paper and was planning to relaunch it.  As someone who had subscribed for years before it ceased publication, I was excited to hear it would be coming back. I contacted the new owner, Patrick McNamara, and after finding out he lived nearby in the Irish Hills (in my subdivision, no less!) he asked me if I was interested in writing. Well, at that point, I had not really done anything like that ever before, but was confident I could handle it.  The problem was that he mentioned Butler Speedway as a logical nearby choice, and even though it was the closest track, I had only gone there once in my life. My favorite track for years was Toledo, and I told Patrick that was the one I was really interested in. A couple weeks later, he said that Toledo had agreed to be involved and I had the position. Not only that, when the writer that had planned to cover Flat Rock moved away, he asked if I could do both.

     I never expected that there would be any money involved, but as someone who bought hundreds of dollars of race tickets every year, the idea of getting in free was pretty damn appealing as you might imagine. (especially when on unemployment!)  The only real issue was that even though I had been going there for years, I hardly knew anyone at the two tracks, other than Toledo friend, Charlie Krall. Lori used to enjoy going, and while she loves racing, she had lost interest in attending in recent years, so for most of the previous 10 years, I went by myself, and if I talked to the guy next to me in the stands I did & if I didn’t, I didn’t. I knew none of the drivers, other than a friendship with my hero Joy Fair, who had retired in 1999, and hadn’t hardly spent any time in the pits.

     I had previously spoken in passing with track owner Ron Drager and GM Scott Schultz; they were very accommodating and I was really looking forward to the beginning of the season.  A few drivers were very helpful granting interviews, including Dennis Whisman, Jim Froling, and Tim & Rob Moore, and I was getting to know a few more people in the pits every week.  I wrote the best article of my life, with the story of Joy Fair’s last race car as told by the car, and Joy loved it, so I was having a blast. While I was still looking for employment as a Quality Engineer, at least I was having some fun, and things were seemingly going well at the race track. There were dark clouds forming on the horizon however………

     While Patrick was very passionate and the content was good, he struggled getting the paper mailed out in time, and the tracks were getting frustrated that their advertising was late. I got a call one day from Scott Schultz asking me what was going on. It went something like this; “Rand, what is going on with the paper? If you can’t tell me I’ll understand” My reply was “Scott, I’ve been writing for the paper just a few months, I have been coming to your track for over twenty years; my loyalty is 100% with you and ARCA”   Scott really liked that.

Well, in mid August, Patrick pulled the plug and that was the end of the “new” MARC Times; just when I was having the time of my life. I thank him for giving me my start, but at the time I thought my role at the track was in real jeopardy after just four months. As as you all know now, that didn’t end up being the case.  

(to be continued)

I was having the time of my life in 2009 writing weekly feature articles about Toledo & Flat Rock Speedway, while finally having access to Victory Lane festivities, and getting to know some of the drivers, crew, and officials. I had been going to the Toledo big shows for many years, but now was also enjoying the Sportsman, Factory Stock and 4 cylinder racers for the first time. Really liked getting to know guys like Jim Froling, Ron Allen, Landon Schuster and Brad Turner among others.

     As far as Flat Rock goes, Lori & I had attended pretty frequently to watch when local hero Joy Fair was racing, but after he retired in 1999, the place just didn’t seem the same and I went infrequently. I had always been a Late Model fan because of Joy, but was now finding out how much I loved the Street Stock division, and how great the racing truly was. The nice thing about doing what I was doing, is that everyone likes to see their name in the paper, so the racers (at least the ones I knew) were always nice to me and the officials also treated me well.  The Moore family in particular went out of their way to make me feel like I belonged. Seeing my articles and pictures show up in the paper every week always made me feel good.

     Once the MARC Times ceased publication, I was very disappointed, to say the least, as it appeared that all the fun was over. Joy sure knew how to make me laugh, as he would introduce me to people that stopped by when I was visiting him at work. “Hey, do you know Rand? He was a writer for a racing paper, but he was so bad, it went out of business! “ and then give me that classic gotcha look of his. While I was still attending the races at both tracks, I was convinced that any week, I would show up at the pit gate and be told I was cut off; as in no paper, no free entry. For reasons that I honestly never understood, that never happened, and I was still welcomed every week when I signed in. Perhaps my statement earlier in the year to Scott played a role, or maybe they just liked me, I don’t know, but I was very grateful to say the least.

    I found I really enjoyed doing media stuff and tried to find another outlet in 2010 to keep it going. Found a website called Midwest Racing News that accepted my volunteer proposal to be a feature columnist.  The website primarily covered N. Indiana racing, and while I submitted material regularly, it didn’t seem like anyone I knew ever read it. The big personal development was that I finally found a new job as a Quality Engineer at a manufacturer in Holt near Lansing that made parts for hip and knee replacement joints. This made it way more challenging to make it down to Toledo on Friday nights, so most of the season was spent at Flat Rock.

     One other big development in 2010. I had spent the previous nine years as a volunteer at MIS giving pre race Pit Road tours for the guests of suite holders and other hospitality areas. Really loved taking people down on pit road as it was a lot of fun to share in their excitement.  I am very passionate about MIS and the area (I live just 5 miles from the track) and was both surprised & thrilled to be asked by the track to take over the management of the Pit Tour program. (I will talk more about my job at MIS in a future blog)

     So, at least for a couple years, things were actually looking pretty good and my role in racing was becoming a bit more solidified in 2010 & 2011.

(to be continued)