Women's Motorsports Network Podcast & Let's Talk Racing LIVE
Women's Motorsports Network Podcast shares the stories of women involved in motorsports from around the world. The first episode was in 2018 and new episodes are added each week. Feel free to suggest potential guests to Melinda at melinda@wmnnation.com.
Let's Talk Racing LIVE airs on Wednesdays at 7pm EASTERN TIME on the Women's Motorsports Network-A Media Company Facebook Page.
https://www.facebook.com/womensmotorsportsnetworkandpodcast
Melinda Russell
Women's Motorsports Network Podcast & Let's Talk Racing LIVE
Building relationships drives the National Compact Touring Series with Drew Jach
Behind every racing series lies a story of passion, perseverance, and the relentless pursuit of building something meaningful. Drew Jack's 12-year journey with the National Compact Touring Series reveals exactly that—a tale that began in the grandstands of Kalamazoo Speedway where his father would drop him off as a "cheap babysitter" and has evolved into creating opportunities for racers who might otherwise never experience iconic venues.
What started with "a chip on my shoulder" after another touring series canceled an event has blossomed into an organization that's made motorsports history. The NCTS holds the distinction of being the first touring series to race at Garrett and Cleetus McFarland's Freedom Factory during its rebirth and the first on track during North Wilkesboro's revitalization—an achievement that puts this grassroots series in the NASCAR history books.
Drew pulls back the curtain on the challenges of building a touring series, from weathering lean years to handling criticism, and even reveals he nearly sold the series entirely before a pivotal phone call changed everything. He shares candid stories about working a demanding corporate job while building NCTS, sometimes fielding crisis calls during air shows when he wasn't even at the track.
Perhaps most compelling is how the series has used its platform to give back, hosting Down Syndrome awareness events, mental health initiatives, and creating opportunities for children and families who might never otherwise experience live racing. "We use national compacts in our lease events to give back to the community," Drew explains, emphasizing the deeper purpose behind the competition.
Breaking news drops mid-conversation as Drew announces the debut of the NCTS Figure 8 Series at Galesburg Speedway on August 24th and the return of the touring series to the track after a long absence. He outlines their ambitious summer schedule, including events at Berlin Raceway, M40 Speedway, and their World Series of Compacts at Owosso Speedway in September.
Want to experience affordable, competitive racing that's attracted NASCAR talents like Haley Deegan, Ryan Preece, and Ben Rhodes? Check out an NCTS event this summer and discover why these "crap boxes" (as Drew playfully disputes) deliver some of the most entertaining racing in the Midwest.
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Hey, hello everybody. This is Melinda Russell with let's Talk Racing Live. This is the weekly live show where I'm trying to keep some Southwest Michigan tracks front and center so that you don't forget about them when of tracks that had rain outs, and so you know it's easy to find other things to do, and I don't want you to forget that these tracks are here and providing really good entertainment for your family, and so that's the reason for this show. But it's also another way for me to tell some stories. I've had Bryce Bozell on. He was really cool to interview Nice kid. Tony Eldridge was on and Tyler Rourke was on, and so tonight I got a good friend on. Drew Jack and I have been friends for probably at least 10 years, if not longer, Probably closer to 15, I'd say.
Speaker 2:It's probably been close to 15. We've been doing the traveling series stuff for 12 and I think we've known each other longer than that yeah, so probably 15 or more than for sure.
Speaker 1:And uh, we we've done some fun things together. Uh, tony and I were reminiscing about the announcer's choice races that we did and those were pretty fun. I can remember one time I had to wear my winter coat. It was so cold. And then there was another time we did one and it was blazing hot, and so you just never know, but we did have some fun doing those for sure, and I think Seltzer said never again. So I think those are over and done with for sure.
Speaker 1:So, drew, I know that a lot of people know who you are. You run it. You run the National Compact Touring Series and you have for, like you just said, 12 years. Wow, doesn't seem possible. But just like when I talked to Tony, do people really know your story? Do they know how did you get involved with racing? And that's what I want to hear about tonight. I want you to tell me and the people that listen and I'll be honest with you, there's a lot of people that listen later, not at 7 o'clock on Wednesday night, so don't be discouraged if you don't see any listeners, but I've been having a good amount of people listen later. So tell me back to the beginning how. How did you get started loving motorsports? Who got you interested?
Speaker 2:I was just my family. My dad took me to Kalamazoo Speedway as a kid and you know, got older you know 11 or 12.
Speaker 2:It was a cheap babysitter. They just dropped me off there and, um, I would hang out with a lot of people don't know who. Uh, big Show Mark Flerman is and Brad Schellenbarger. I would sit up and turn to top corner of the bleachers with them. Um, wouldn't even know it until later that we actually sat next to each other because we didn't know who each other was. There was an old guy I think his name was jim deavers or something.
Speaker 2:He was a roofer out of whalen and I would just sit up there with him there was an older couple that was, uh, mike zordan's I want to say aunt and uncle or grandpa and grandma, that sat up there with me too, and it was just like the same four people that sat up there from like 1993 to you know, until I crossed over to the other side. So, you know, never ventured much over past Kalamazoo Speedway, galesburg Speedway. Once I got my license and we started to travel a little bit more, we found Merle's place down at Southwest Michigan Speedway back when he was still running late models, before it truly became Merle World.
Speaker 2:But, no, it's just, you know, growing up there and you know, unfortunately, all those people have probably passed since then because that was, you know, over 30 years ago sitting in the grandstands and got an opportunity to be a race car driver for a few years.
Speaker 2:And then, you know I won't trade it for anything it worked out. I raced. You know they didn't have a front wheel drive class back when I started racing. It was either street stocks and, uh, late models or super late models, and you know street stocks, or what they call factory stocks back in the day, uh, that wasn't a beginner class because you had mike zordon and jimmy burrows and the leonard family and um, so started racing limited late models, like kalamazoo Speedway, for two or three years and just wasn't for me. So I became a car owner and Matt Schick raced with me for a year and then I just decided that I'd have more fun on the other side and, you know, got an opportunity, probably 2001, to become a pit steward at Kalamazoo Speedway and that's kind of how we grew from there, went from being a pit steward to, you know, kind of wanted to be an announcer at the time, but I had to go elsewhere to figure that out got an opportunity for a brief time to be the announcer at Hartford Speedway.
Speaker 2:You know really really green didn't work out and then got a job at Angola Motor Speedway with Craig Everidge as a track announcer there and I spent three I think he had the track for three seasons down there and that's truly where I developed, becoming an announcer. When Craig gave it up we came back to Kalamazoo to be a co-announcer with Jason and still kind of wanted to be on the promoter side because I had a lot of fun doing with it at Angola. Craig taught me a lot down there at Angola Motor Speedway. Let me develop the schedule. You know I give him crap to this day.
Speaker 2:We've been friends for probably 20 years now but he was a cheap old guy or cheap young guy back then and he's still a cheap old guy now. You know, the last year I was announcing running the storing system and race directing, so there technically was two of us in the tower and I was an intern from the local college there and you know I wouldn't trade that for the world because I had a lot of fun with Craig. That's probably the funnest time in racing at Angola Motor Speedway. Um, one of my favorite tracks of all time. So many friends down there, uh, that I still have today and uh, um, really do miss the place, um, angola was, you know, a great opportunity.
Speaker 2:And probably about the times that we started to cross paths is when I came over to M40 Speedway and worked with Kevin Kosher and promoted it for two years. You know, wouldn't trade that for the world. In between that decided I was going to move to Las Vegas and you know we had some good times out there with Send Out Cards. And when you and Ben and ben came out there again wouldn't trade those experience for the world. It was just too dang hot out there. And came back here and uh, kind of stayed out of racing for a year or two, um, but ended up in chicago working downtown for almost eight years. And that's kind of when we picked up the racing thing again. You know, kind of helped out at M40 Speedway and then had a compact touring series cancel an event on us.
Speaker 2:So the bitterness and the grumpiness of me say, you know I kind of joke about it today and that was Vores. For whatever reason, they didn't want to come to M40 Speedway. And I remember talking to Dan on the phone Dan Redman, he's a really good promoter, I've done a lot of great things at winchester this year and uh, vores, over the last, I think they got me by 13 or 14 years. They've been around. They just did not want to come to m40.
Speaker 2:Speedway car counts, whatever, innuendo, rumors, whatever made my job harder. I said, dude, I had 20 cars ready to come race locally and they just wouldn't. So chip on my shoulder. That was probably that second announcer's choice. We actually ran that first event that was supposed to be bored under my banner of a compact series, and then we ran a test event at south bend, um, and for a full circle back the reason why we started it. We ended up going back to work with those guys for the first two years dan and steve, they certainly helped me get this started. And, um, you know we already had a great base around here. Patrick mclemera again a name you probably haven't heard for a long time.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:He. You know a lot of people can say a lot of things about Patrick, but the one thing Patrick was really good and where I got a lot of my promoting and social media skills is through Patrick, because he built the first ever Vores Cup and I think there were 70 cars our first ever event together that came down to Lucas Oil Speedway. And you know Patrick, you know being Patrick kind of didn't get along with the guys in orange, so it left me with the NCTS or North at the time for probably a year or two. But again, patrick was very instrumental. If it wasn't for Patrick McLemara there would be no national compact touring series.
Speaker 2:I want to give him all the credit. It was a team effort for me and him and, like I said, he kind of dropped off the radar for 10 years. I think the last time I saw him is when we shared a booth at PRI, you know, two or three years ago. You know Patrick has always been good to me, always three years ago, uh, you know Patrick has always been good to me. I always been good to the compacts. I always went to NCTS and from there I mean it's just grown, it's uh, I never intended to be as big as we are or what we do, but we've accomplished a lot of firsts at our group. Um, you know, vores was the first to go to Bristol, but we were the first to go to the Freedom Factory.
Speaker 2:We were the very first race at a rebirth at a racetrack that had been closed. Because of that and because of the opportunity that Josh and Garrett Cletus uh gave us there, uh, that got us seen and we got a phone call the following season to be the first touring series on the track um for the first north wilkesboro race. So the rebirth of nascar. So you'd never think a little compact touring series um would have such a big part of two iconic tracks that are known worldwide, um to have a rebirth. And that's something we take a lot of privilege or a lot of pride in. And and take it as a privilege because, you know, not everybody's given that opportunity and you know we've had some good years. We've had some really tough, lean years.
Speaker 2:We're in a really good year this year with the support that we got for both NCTS. We have the national compacts and the Midwest dirt. You know we just were talking about, you know we were the first touring series to break in for compacts at Slinger. That's another thing on our back. You know there were some bumps in the roads but you know we got through it, scott and myself. We got through it. Put two when you put two entities together. We were talking about it Like when we do the North Carolina stuff, the Florida stuff or even in Wisconsin. You have so many drivers. Compacts are taken, as you know.
Speaker 2:They call them crap boxes and I will dispute that and argue with them all the time and I kind of got it, you'll laugh and argue with them all the time because and I kind of got it you'll laugh.
Speaker 1:I was at a lawnmower race and got it in a disagreement with a lawnmower racer calling her crap boxes, and I said um you know, we've out qualified, uh, street stocks at most tracks that we go to and even some smaller quarter miles.
Speaker 2:Um, my guys have been, wouldn't even been the slowest late model, super late model up a racetrack. Um, they probably would have been third or fourth slow at Flat Rock a couple years ago. So we take a lot of pride, our drivers take a lot of pride in their cars. Obviously we know we're not outlaw super late model racing. We're not sprint car racing, but we give a home for guys that don't have a budget for a super late model team that can travel with CRA or JEGS or the Cars Tour, the veterans that just want to drop down and travel to different race tracks, and that's kind of what we're about.
Speaker 2:You know I've completely started this series trying to give it a, you know, young racers a place to start. It's kind of a complete opposite where we get the car enthusiasts or guys that just love front-wheel drive racing or compacts or rear-wheel drive four-cylinders. You know that's kind of the story of how we're at and where we're at. And again, we wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. We've had a lot of help along the way. You know, woody, you know we talk about Patrick McIntyre, woody's probably employee number two, and then you got Denise and Bubba. That are employee three and four. And we've had a lot of great people like Dan Rigoni, you know, mike Richardson or Kenny Richardson, you know we can't forget JR Long.
Speaker 2:He was with us for a year. Yeah, talk about a guy like Patrick. That's just disappeared off the planet. I know his name mentioned with roars once in a while but, um, you know, brock sweeter, another one, uh, you know one name people won't recognize and the reason I think has helped with a lot of the growth at the beginning.
Speaker 2:So when you're a traveling series, you know I had a lot of the growth at the beginning.
Speaker 2:So when you're a traveling series, you know I had a lot of relationships with M40, kalamazoo, berlin at the time. But you know, on the other side of the east side of the state we didn't have a lot of relationships and you know we would have to buy our way into the racetrack or get some sponsors or just get a hard no. And a guy that really helped with that and why we're so loyal to the MCR dwarf cars Steve, the former owner who has passed away of the MCR dwarf cars. In fact, you know, sponsored our first world series, introduced me to Jim leisure at Corrigan oil, got us there. You know Owasso Speedway and stuff like that. So you know, without steve martin from mcr dwarf cars and eric hoffman who runs it now, if we ever do a lease event or we have an opportunity to help that brand, and it's just about not forgetting who you came from, where you came from. Um, you know, before the the mini cup series that went away.
Speaker 2:Another name that you know kyle trinkline he had his you know, own mini cup series and we would support that anytime, anywhere we could. I think one of the events that you were at was galesburg speedway and yeah mini cup series there, even though those aren't super late.
Speaker 2:Model sprint car organizations. Those are the groups and the people that have helped us become what we are. And you know we're never going to put 5,000 people in the stands, but we have created a lot of cool opportunities. I mean because of the Freedom Factory. Even before the Freedom Factory we had Kenny Wallace and Kenny Schrader racing with us. You know. Then we got the opportunity. I to this date have not seen Haley Deegan race anything other than her own car or outside of NASCAR or the Indy NEX. You know she came to Sandusky Speedway two years ago and raced with National Compacts. Last year we had Ben Rhodes. We had Ryan Priest a part of our event at Kalamazoo. You know he ran a modified. He was slated to run a compact this year. That kind of fell through at the end because of some approval processes, but Ryan's a great person. You know Cletus McFarlane. You know probably one of the bigger car YouTubers out there more popular than any NASCAR guys you know has raced with us.
Speaker 2:So there's a lot of cool things. You know. We were just at Kalamazoo Speedway a month ago for Travis Pastrana was supposed to race when our dirt series was supposed to race in the national compact touring series. We got rained out. That same day we went to Kalamazoo and ran lawnmowers. You know. Go look at Channel 199. You see their video.
Speaker 2:I mean it's just, you know, a while. I never thought this is what I would be doing for a living, or, you know, at least taking a break from working at CDW in Chicago and living that grind. A lot of people didn't realize I worked 50, 60 hours at CDW and then I'd have another 30, 40 hours. I would get off the train or actually I'd be sitting at my desk at CDW working until 10 o'clock, then get on the 11 o'clock train and head back into Hammond, indiana, or take the red line back over to Wrigleyville when I lived in the city and it just got too much and the way we grew. A big part of our business has become the Lee shows. The July 4th show at Kalamazoo has been steeple on their schedule.
Speaker 2:I'll talk about something we're going to announce tonight on your podcast that actually might already be released on social media, so I just scheduled it before I came on here. But you know we just had a lot of fun. Melinda Met a lot of cool people like you both, ben's.
Speaker 2:You know we got rained out at Hartford Speedway two weeks ago and it actually worked out because one of our friends from Virginia that races with us when we're down in Florida, jesse Yopp, was up here. They went up there. Both me and Denise went up there and watched his kids play hockey and it's about building friendships, relationships and partnerships. You know, jim York, you know, has been a very key, instrumental guy in putting a lot of the stuff cool stuff that we get to do with Channel 199 together and we just wouldn't trade it for the world.
Speaker 1:So I don't know if you can see the comments, but Tina Lewis is listening, so she said hi. And then Top Row Racing Media said that you guys are the fastest compacts around. Media media said that you guys are the fastest compacts around. Um, so I'm gonna go back to down memory lane a little bit. So, yeah, we did the announcer's choice, but, um, you're, I give you and woody all the credit or the blame I'm not sure which it is from doing a podcast, because back when you had your show and it was a live show similar to this that we did Through a different platform, but it ended up being live and you would interview and talk about Racing or whatever and then you asked me one night If I would be willing to interview a woman On your show. Sure, you know.
Speaker 1:So I did and interviewed several different women, haley Deegan or not Haley Deegan, natalie Decker being one of them. That we did and, uh, developed a friendship with her. Because of that, I've interviewed her several times and met her whole family and and the whole. You know, when you meet those people, you hear the name and you have in your mind what you think they're like, and then when you meet them, it's just like they're just like. They're just like you and I. They just love racing.
Speaker 1:Um, so you know you, you kind of kicked me off your show and told me I needed to. I should probably do my own, have my own show, which I know you didn't really kick me off, but started my own show in 2018. And I I would never have dreamed that I'm doing what I'm doing either, because I was always a writer and did the magazine and stuff, but I love, love, interviewing and doing the podcast. Then I remember going to drive into PRI with you on a in December and you're and you're telling me, asking me if I've heard of this guy, cletus McFarlane and I'm like, yeah, you know that name's familiar, but I don't really know who he is. So you're telling me who he is.
Speaker 1:Then, pretty soon, here, somebody calls and we're driving towards Indy and you're putting the deal together to take the compacts to the Freedom Factory and that that was a huge, huge deal, I know for you that weekend and just the different things that you've done and and to watch what you've done.
Speaker 1:And I know you worked hours and hours and hours and and spent I don't know how many hours on the road going from Chicago to Kalamazoo, to wherever, and there's a time that you know people say it's, it's enough, I can't do, I can't do it all. That's why I gave up the magazine. I couldn't do it all and I liked the podcast and so, um, I love seeing where you are now because you're, you were just a slinger, which is a track I really enjoyed going to a few years ago. Um, which is a track I really enjoyed going to a few years ago, and so it's important to me to have you on here and share kind of your story about how you got started. So, tanner Johnson I hope you know who that is, maybe or maybe not, he says thoughts on having the MCR dwarf cars around more often.
Speaker 2:So every lease show that we do, they always have an opportunity to come, with this Galesburg show being put together that we'll talk about here in a little bit. It just wasn't in the works for 2025. But you know, corrigan Oil, kalamazoo uh, even I forgot to tell you I actually took on m40 speedway for a full season under my own leadership and my own money, um, for a year and we brought the mcr dwarf cars in a couple times during that, um, but anything we can do, you know, we I think we helped introduce them to berlin raceway, um, you, it's not just racing with me. Any series that works with me and is respectful and you know, is just a partner. That's all we ask is a partner. We're going to help promote them and help them, because that's what Steve Martin did for me, that's what other racetrack promoters did for me.
Speaker 2:You know Jeff Striegel will stand up at we're lucky enough in Michigan to have a promoters association not many states, the only other one that I'm aware of is Wisconsin and we get to meet at MIS every October and a hotel in Lansing every, you know, twice a year and Jeff Striegel will get up and you know many times, as mentioned, you know the hard work of ncts, not just national compacts or myself, but other other entities that come in there, and that goes a long way. So when you know I do the same, I talk mcr dwarf cars. Um, you know we we did have a relationship with the ohio wheel, but unfortunately things have worked out where they've needed to stay in Ohio to get their brand going again and they're doing very well down there.
Speaker 2:So it's just all about relationship building, not burning those bridges. The dwarf cars I don't think they can take on any more races. They have more races than anybody else I know. I think Eric has 18 or 19 races a year, almost every other weekend, every weekend. Sometimes doubleheaders. I see them at Plymouth and all these racetracks. They just do a great job. They keep a constant car count. They go from Whittemore to Plymouth, which is probably an eight-hour difference between that and in between. I know I got a little long winded on there, but another thing I need to bring up is Tina Lewis is very instrumental in what we do as well too. She's the very first season of NCTS. Her and Glenda Metz actually did over, took over my points because I didn't know what the hell I was doing with it, and they did a great job with it.
Speaker 2:And ever since then, her and, uh, you know, the Mets have been, you know, very long time friends we know, we've had some bumps in the road, but they certainly have been there for us yeah, so tell me what this big news is.
Speaker 1:Are you ready to share it?
Speaker 2:I am. So you know I always do too much. I don't ever listen to anybody. I've had a lot of Ohio talk to me and tell me we need to do a certain kind of compact racing. So we were going to run a test event at Corrigan Oil. It got rained out. So after our rain out at Flat Rock we're struggling because we have a Hoosier Challenge Series. That's only got one race in and all four races have been completed. The other three have been rained out already. Flat Rock should have been the last race.
Speaker 2:So my longtime friend Woody has been putting pressure on me to bring NCTS over to Galesburg Speedway. So on August 24th we're going to bring the first part of this announcement, the NCTS Figure 8 Series. It does have its own Facebook page. I'm going to caution you guys. We don't know how much of a need or want this is for this. This is a test race If you want to see four or five races next year. Galesburg Corrigan Oil Lewis brought up talking to New Parish. Owasso's got a figure eight track and we have a great relationship with Flat Rock. But we can't be bringing three or four cars and we can't be having cars running both. It's got to be a separate entity. So we'll pay $500 to win, $75 to start. And again, I just word the urge of caution. If you want to see this take off and be a part of next year's schedule for four or five races, probably mainly on our lease shows, the NCTS Figure Eight series. It has its own Facebook page. You can find it at NCTS Figure Eight series is the name of the page. There is a press release that probably just went out on National Compacts about 10 minutes ago. So some people know that I just switched over our mini wedge series. Yes, we did mini wedges too for four or five years. We've kind of outgrown that. So I've been trying to give this page away. So I figured I'd just flip it over to the NCTX Figure 8 series.
Speaker 2:So two announcements. Tonight, galesburg Speedway, the National Compacts will be returning after about a four-year absence five-year absence. We look forward to working with Jeff Sayles and his mom, tammy. You know this will be a non-points race, but it will be a Hoosier Challenge Series points race. So the main NCTS points won't be there, but all the same guys are running the Hoosier points series.
Speaker 2:There is some rumblings in rule that we might toss the rule book out on this one where they can run wings and sideboards and any tires they want. We just got to judge the interest on it. So you know we haven't. You know honestly, galesburg being one of our, we got Galesburg, m40 and Kalamazoo that are probably within 45 minutes, kalamazoo and Galesburg probably only 20 minutes away from each other, and we have not been to Galesburg many times. So if you want to see us back, there's going to be some conditions on this. Support the show and be professional while you're there, because we feel that Sales and his family and Tom McGee have done a good job of keeping things in check there and have not heard any negativity over the last three years out of Galesburg Speedway For the most part you know.
Speaker 2:So we're excited to be coming back.
Speaker 2:You know every track, from Kalamazoo to Galesburg to Berlin we all have issues that people don't agree with, and you know, getting on social media, that's another podcast. It's just not the answer. But the condition is is everybody gets on there, we get supportive of this, we make it a successful event that it's worth the sales family and the McGee family at NCTS we're also running an enduro that night. We're going to bring in the power wheels for the kids, a coin toss, spectator drags and we're going to start at six o'clock. We're not going to start at 645 on a Sunday. Technically we have two classes that really need hot laps and practice.
Speaker 2:We can pull that off in two hours hour and a half and we want to be out of there by 9 o'clock, 9.15 at the latest, and we want to have everybody paid by 9.30 so that they can go to work, they can go home, go to sleep, go to school, because a lot of kids will probably be in school by then.
Speaker 2:Yeah so when we put our events together. So when we put our events together, we want to make sure that we're not again compacts and this is no disrespect to this class, but we all know that we're not going to put. There's been one occasion that we've done that, two occasions actually. Hartford Speedway, for some reason we had 2,500 people on the stands and that was one of our first or second seasons and none of the first season of Tim and Leah's ownership Couldn't explain that we were the headliner. There were 2,500 people there. The other one was the Freedom Factory. But those are the two places that we can get away with it. So we've got to do the Endurals, we've got to do the Come Figure 8 racing we the figure eight racing. We got to do the family oriented events.
Speaker 2:We're not looking for a sold out crowd. That would be great, but if we can get 500, 800, 900 people there, that event will be a huge success and you'll see it on the schedule next year.
Speaker 1:And that's the thing you know. People have to remember that you've got to support racing Continuously. I guess I would say you can't go one week and then not go for months, because the cost for those tracks and those promoters and all those guys that are trying to race, they don't stop and people get lazy about or take for granted that. Granted that, oh, kalamazoo Speedway, it'll always be there for me to go watch whenever I feel like it, or Galesburg or or any of them, and you know you see racetracks closing left and right and so we know that we have to support them. So, um, some more comments here, drew. So, uh, bill Russell no relation from m40 checked in. He said it's hard to hear because they're practicing there. And then, um, top row racing says we're looking forward to being there on august 24th, excited for galesburg to have a big showcase. Tina lewis wants to run in the power wheels class. She said she misses those days. And then Tanner Johnson said MCR is ready to storm Russell's M40 Speedway on August 23rd. Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Another strong partner and we've become good friends. I've known Johnny and Bill forever. They actually came to the first announcer's choice and we can talk about that in a minute because that's probably one of the coolest experiences I've ever had and it'll never be duplicated again, even because Montville is gone now. But you know they took a chance on our Winter Enduro Series that we've done there in the past and last year was the first year that we did it with them and they went really well. Actually it went into the second year. I don't know, I'm losing my mind. I think this is the second year we worked with them, but Patty and John have become really good friends. Bill, you know they work hard as anybody else there and you know that racetrack they deal with. Nobody knows it's there and it's not their fault. It's been like that for the 20 years it's been there.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm sitting at a sold out demolition derby last year, 10 miles from that place in cass county, talking to these really nice people. I'm like, hey, if you really enjoy this stuff, we got a racetrack. Right down the road there's a racetrack. Yeah, you drove right by it to get here almost. But, um, and that's what they deal with and, uh, they, they do a really good job. Megan has done a really good job on social media, you know, making people aware of the racetrack. So, um, we hopefully will be doing some enduro stuff with them through the winter and, um, you know, we do a lot of stuff, more than I can't even remember all the stuff that we do I don't know how you had time to work.
Speaker 1:I know that. I know there were days I think you spent more time doing this than you did working for CDW, because I don't know how, otherwise how would you've gotten it all done, it's I?
Speaker 2:I've watched you run yourself ragged for a long time, so I made enough phone calls and talk time on conference calls to make it look like I was doing what I was doing and it's all I'm gonna tell you. Life is all about relationship building.
Speaker 2:I mean it's the same for your job, for your hobby, for your friendships. It's about relationship building. I didn't have to make 200 calls at CDW, like they wanted you to, to be a successful salesperson. You just had to build those connections and trust. And that's the same thing with the racing business. And I'll tell you that's the same thing with the racing business, and I'll tell you. I've met some characters in the racing business and it's uh, sometimes it's hard to swallow, but there's a lot more good than what there is bad, though yeah, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:So not to not to put you in, uh, get you in trouble with anybody, but do you have a favorite track that you like to go to?
Speaker 2:Um, you know, I, the. The honest answer is I really don't. You know I, I we've been to Bristol, we've been to the Freedom Factory, I. I guess I would say the coolest experience I've ever been a part of is North Lipscrow. Yeah, and it has more to do with the experience, because it was a rundown racetrack, yeah, and it still showed shades of being a rundown. It did not have the repairs it had, it had just enough to get it open and the community you could see was affected by nascar.
Speaker 2:Leaving there, you know, here in calamas, you see these new holiday ends being built all the time. We're on the highways of battle creek or, you know, we're spoiled there, we're, we're trying to find a hotel there and you're staying at like a howard johnson. That's, uh, the 1980s, 1970s, even though it's got eight, nine stars on it or five stars on it. You know just that experience and it's the people we met. We have made lifelong friends with the Carolina Mini Stock Tour from Shane Knipe and we ended up in a, you know, after one practice night they invited us to their pool hall.
Speaker 2:We were driving around, I think it's over by Hickory Speedway somewhere. It's about 45 minutes from where Fort Sville couldn't find the place and I kept saying it's here While it's down in a basement. It literally felt like it was like a mob story. You get down there and it's just a pool hall. Really good pizza, really good wings. Unfortunately, it's closed now, just because that's how things have changed in the last four or five years. But just that experience. North volksboro, the community, the people, the racetrack. You know dale j Jr watching a compact race. Yeah, a lot of people don't know of some of the famous people that follow the MCTS page, not that we follow them, they follow us.
Speaker 1:Dale Jr is one of them right.
Speaker 2:Cletus McFarland, you know stuff like that and people. That's why I say be very careful with what you do, because you never know how it will affect you if we did bad things.
Speaker 2:Do you think you know Jim York would entrust us to bring Travis Vistrana in? Or Haley Egan would race with us? Or you know the defending truck champion last year, kyle Rhodes two years ago? Those are just the experiences we get to create with our racers. That's why mannerism on social media and just in life and being a good person I understand life can be Nobody takes more heat than a racetrack promoter or a series owner or a track owner.
Speaker 1:It's just Especially when the weather. That's the thing that I think you know. It's out of your hands and if you cancel too soon or you wait, no matter what you do, somebody's mad and bashing you on social media and it's like come on, people, put yourself in those shoes. You know, if you do and if you don't, you're gonna, you're gonna get crucified, and I've always said that. Somebody said to me well, in fact, when they said something about it russ, it's russell's m40 speedway, they, they. This person thought it was me. I'm like, oh hell, no, I will never own a racetr. I said it was bad enough being part owner of a race car Never, because, no matter what you do, you know people are going to be mad. They don't like your rules and they don't like the calls you make and all those things.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, no way, I used to take it so personal and I used to let it beat me up, and I'll share the story publicly. Um 2021 I I think it was 2021 we had a double header weekend at galesburg speedway. It's when I lived in chicago. It was the air show. I just had enough for racing and I felt my team could run the race. That was there. Um there, there was some disagreements between the management team and me, or hard feelings that I think, that were put in place by certain people that weren't really there, so I just elected to stay away from the racetrack and I kid you, not the first night, really nothing. I don't remember. Actually, I think I don't know for the first night or second night.
Speaker 2:My phone started blowing up Not at the racetrack, I'm just trying to watch the Blue Angels fly by. I've never had a pit in my stomach of so much anger at me. I'm not even at a racetrack. There was a incident where I think it might have been a Sunday night Two cars got into it. I got a phone call from a staff member what he's done in the infield taking pictures, and so is Bubba. We got a disagreement up here in the pits and I'm like are you kidding me? And so we got through it and we had to make some decisions afterwards and some drivers didn't agree with those decisions. We're friends today still, but it's just how racing works out.
Speaker 2:I'm getting Woody's getting just tarnished on social media and I made it a point. It's just not worth it for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I made an agreement to sell the series and it was that close. The series was sold, a verbal agreement was put in place and then, I believe that year you and I were driving to pri and we got that phone call and that's what changed everything of at least trying to keep me into the game a little bit longer, um, and we've stayed in contact with those people that were gonna purchase the series and I don't ever say never, um, I, I will be back a 13th season. I want to dispose of those rumors. But you know that's that that's not the main reason why we weren't at galesburg for those years. But honestly, it just was not a good experience for us.
Speaker 2:For my, I had nothing to really do with the racetrack, I had to do with drivers and it had nothing to do with what happened in our series. It carried over from another racetrack. Yeah, and to this day I think those guys do get along and they do race together and they're very competitive. But you know it just that's why we haven't been to galesburg and I I do owe somebody a phone call here because this just got put together in the last 24 hours.
Speaker 1:OK.
Speaker 2:And so it's not not everybody on my team knew about it yet. But, like I said, I feel comfortable with what Tammy and Jeff have done there. You know Top Row Racing Media. I want to thank Lewis. He gives our group a lot of coverage. He's going to be there. I think this is going to be a fun family event and you know, some people would think you're crazy at certain tracks mentioning that but Galesburg is a family track.
Speaker 1:It's always been a family track.
Speaker 2:Like any track, they're going to have disagreements in their family. Certain tracks mentioning that, but Galesburg is a family track. It's always been a family track. Like any track, they're going to have disagreements in their family, but at the end of the day, people, because it's Galesburg Speedway, they blow it up more than what it should be, and Galesburg has always been a staple of the community and I really feel this will be a good event.
Speaker 2:um, I, I really feel this will be a good event, but so not many people knew that story and, uh, how we almost became owned by somebody else. Yeah, I'm not saying I'm not getting any younger, I'm getting. I'm missing my saturday now be careful.
Speaker 2:I'm way older than you and there is a lot of stress, and I I do I mean from labor or memorial day to the slinger race. It was non-stop rainouts, leases, uh, meetings and distress, and yeah it almost took me under. I mean it just. There's a lot of people that saw, hey, are you all right? I'm like, yeah, I'm fine, I'll get through it, but but now we're through it and a lot of other things that people don't know that I've been helping other racetracks with different things and yeah you know social media.
Speaker 2:You know we do have another company that manages social media for other racetracks and you know it's, it's just another under. It's a job that's supposed to be fun, that sometimes it isn't fun, but we try to make it fun all the time.
Speaker 1:Well, and I don't think there is a perfect job. That's never going to give you any heartache or stress, but there's nothing I'd rather be involved in than motorsports, because the bottom line is there's no better people out there. You might disagree with them here and there, but, just like Tina wrote, relationships in our racing community is amazing. I've gotten through a lot of rough times because of the support from the racing family. I can say the same thing. I was at and I had.
Speaker 1:Woody came to my car window. He saw me when I pulled into park and he said we lost Ben. I thought he was talking about my Ben and he was talking about Ben Raber and I was at MIS that weekend and what a hard thing to go through. And then when I lost my Ben, the racing people are the ones that reached out and really cared the most, even though you know he probably had people that didn't like him when he was racing and stuff too. But when things happen that are hard, the race family is there for you, sonny Swartz. Do you know, sonny Swartz?
Speaker 2:I've heard the name. He said.
Speaker 1:I enjoyed racing with y'all a couple years ago, so he needs to come back and race with you again.
Speaker 2:You know, the NCTS stuff last year was kind of scarce. Sometimes we had some good car counts through the season but it was a struggle to get cars. This year we have not struggled to get cars. We had 20 on opening night, 17 at Bert's Run and then everybody started getting their stuff together. We had 34 at Kalamazoo and 33 at Slinger. I suspect we'll be in the low 20s at Berlin. I suspect that we'll be 30 cars strong at Galesburg and M40. And we'll probably be close to 100 cars at.
Speaker 2:Owasso to run on the schedule.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, july 4th was a good show. Tina said yeah, it was Tina.
Speaker 2:It was a lot of fun and you know this is no disrespect to Sprint Cars. They're just hard, Not the organization. Sprint Cars are just hard to fit into a show, with them being push started and taking a lot more time. But they were. They were fun to have around.
Speaker 2:I enjoyed them, but you know the MCR dwarf cars, I think, stole the show, as they do every year. Ncts wasn't a bad race. Actually, Matt Elsey Jr got beat by an out-of-town. That doesn't happen there, Even if he wasn't even in his regular car. He was in his dad's car. But his dad's car is still a good car. So it just shows the competitiveness in our series yeah, and you know what that series is important?
Speaker 1:because everybody doesn't have big sponsors or thousands and thousands of dollars to spend on a car and to travel and to have have the you know opportunity for somebody to have a less expensive car. It's all expensive Come on, let's be honest here but a less expensive car and be able to go to North Wilkesboro and all these different places, you're giving guys and gals an opportunity to do some things that they would never else get to do. How many people can say I race at North Wilkesboro? That's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Not very many short trackers?
Speaker 1:no for sure. So drew what's the rest of your schedule. Look like I know we're going. We're going to m40, you're going to galesburg. What else have you got going on?
Speaker 2:so we have two series. We have the midwest dirt uh. We have a doubleer weekend August 8th and 9th at Crystal. On the 9th, Mount Pleasant on the 8th and then September 20th we have our season championship. It's hard to believe it's our sixth annual nightmare.
Speaker 2:On Bowie Street at Hartford, Tim and Leah have been my strongest friends, supporters and allies on the dirt side in short, track racing. Tim and Leah have become very good friends of mine. Every year they give me a sash saying I bought the racetrack. And that rumor is false. I had no ambition Five years ago, when I was working at CDW and making a very good living, I had ambitions to own a racetrack. And then I saw I'm not meant to own a racetrack. And then I I saw it. I'm not meant to own a racetrack, I'm meant to own a traveling series that's my fit in life and lease racetracks. Um. But tim and leah are great people. We want to thank hartford speedway, um. So that's the dirt side. And then we we got August 2nd at Berlin Raceway. That'll be a good race. Berlin, Jeff Striegel their staff always puts class. And then August 16th at M40 Speedway. That is our favoritest event of the year. That's our Asphalt Down Syndrome race.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Denise Williams puts so much work into that and her friends that she's met. She's met people from the Down Syndrome organizations that now help put this together.
Speaker 2:Really good friends of hers. So the Russells open their doors and allow those families to come in. We put them on the party deck. They become honorary crew chiefs. You know a lot.
Speaker 2:You know the one thing when you asked me well, what you know we can't believe we didn't touch about it is the Race for Kids Sakes. I started the Race for Kids Sakes probably 2001, 2002. And I always try to use vehicles that we have to help with charity. Race for Kids Sakes probably raised a quarter of a million dollars, half million dollars in the 15 years that it was around. And katie bozell was the co-founder of that. Um, you know todd foot and kevin england, the shannon family all there's so many people there. Jason seltzer, ben raver helped out with it, you know. So that's why we use national compacts in our lease events to give back to the community. Fourth of July we did a kid again program. The screenshots that we got from the person that runs the program that showed all the families enjoyed it and their appreciation. We had 150 plus people there that don't get these opportunities. The same thing with the Down syndrome. We did a dirt Down syndrome race. This year Kenny Wright does the autism race at Kalamazoo Speedway.
Speaker 2:And I wish more tracks would use their, their foundation and their community to do more community-ordered events. And not only does it help your program, it just helps people in general.
Speaker 1:So we're super excited about that.
Speaker 2:The Russells have been great. Kalamazoo Speedway was great with the Kid Again program. We're going to try to put something for August 24th. I thought about reaching out to the big brothers, big sisters, and inviting them of Kalamazoo. A very good friend of mine that was non-racing related was a member and a big brother and I think it'd be a good tribute to you know maybe a organization that you know can bring local people to Gillsford Speedway that might not be there.
Speaker 2:We'll donate the tickets to that. Then, of course, we got the world series of compacts on, uh, september 6th, elasto speedway wrecks and, um, his entire crew. You know, we were kind of looking. The world series was almost dead last year and elasto speedway took it on and we had 73 cars and we've made it a personal ambition to have 100 cars there for that event. Yeah, actually we just did a suicide awareness race. That's how many community oriented races we do, tina.
Speaker 2:You know, unfortunately our staff is just so small that if we can get some more people to step up and help, like if we could get a champion of each of like event we wanted to do I can't ask denise to to do events. She would probably go to an insane asylum. She's probably close to being there because of me. But, um, you know we have a mental health awareness. Uh, we lost. It was probably the toughest thing and I, I, I, almost again, almost was done this year. It had nothing to do with the race car drivers or attendants or cars or anything like that. Uh, we lost chris, mice, you know chris from sandusky speedway and I, when you don't see it coming. Mental health awareness and suicide awareness is going to be a big part of our organization moving forward.
Speaker 1:Maybe Tina and I are going to have to co-chair. That for you. We've both been affected. It's personal, I think I know it is to me. Not sure about Tina, it is for us.
Speaker 2:Honestly, I hate to say it, I'm kind of glad Flat Rock got rained out this week because that's the last race we ever worked with Chris. The first one without him was the World Series and that was the toughest one. That guy was a roughy old man but he was so well-connected in the racing business. And you know he's part of the reason why I stayed in it, because I don't deal well with criticism. I don't deal well. I own my mistakes. I know I'm going to make them in the future, but you don't need to belittle somebody for doing that. And you know Chris was my hammer. If we had an issue I'd just go right to him and I'd have a conference call and it'd be fixed within 10 minutes.
Speaker 2:He will be somebody that a lot of people didn't know he had such a big involvement in our organization the last three or four years. Again, that's connections. Sandusky Speedway he didn't know me. We've probably been going there seven, eight years now. He didn't know me. From Adam for me. He said you want to buy your way in? I said, sure, I want to get into Ohio to get some of those guys' races. And after five years I finally got them to pay my purse, goal purse.
Speaker 2:And then you know, that's how we got hayley deegan, that's how we got roach is because of their connections to rich lucius and they trusted us with us and we, we did a good job with it. So yeah, um, but back. One more question and I, I will let you.
Speaker 1:I don't want no we're this is good, this is why we do this. Tina said she'd love to, so you've got uh, you've got co-chairs for next year for that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. If it's Galesburg, kalamazoo, we'll make it happen. I'm going to try to start working on my schedule in September. October is usually when we have a good shape of it. By November it's usually done work through. You know, Jason, tony and I were. We're three different people but we have the same passion. We disagree with each other a lot and we might argue with each other a lot, and we'll never bash each other on social media or talk bad about each other on social media, but the funnest time I ever had with those three was the announcer's choice, the original one.
Speaker 2:It was originally my going away party. To go to vegas like this is what we were gonna do. Uh-huh, our goal, I think, was to get 80 cars to maybe 100 cars to motville and I think we had 140, some cars, the most cars that's been there under merle's regime ever. They were parked in the parking lot and I just remember Merle coming to M40.
Speaker 1:We hadn't heard from Merle.
Speaker 2:We were like that son of a gun. We made him so much money. I mean we were going to throw him from the announce tower when he got there, both me and Jason and Tony were working at M40 at that time. Here comes Merle showing up and we were so mad we haven't heard from him, haven't heard nothing. Comes up to the tower man we were just about ready to say something and he hands each of us a card and that card was a little check for our effort. We didn't ask for it, that wasn't part of the deal and that was a very nice note and I wish, out of all the times that I've moved from Las Vegas to Chicago, that I still had that. I think hopefully Jason or Tony still has it. But on that note, I said, hey, I just want to send Judith and I really appreciate everything that you did for us Just so you know the money that we made from this event. We gave you each a little check and we've taken all the money and put it back into Motville Speedway. They put new sidings, new buildings, new roofs on their buildings. There was the nicest letter Again, merle, everybody can have their opinion.
Speaker 2:At the end of the day he was like us. He loved his racetrack, he meant good and at the end of it he goes. You'll have to find a new home for your event. Oh yeah, because I'm going to have to do this again. It was just overwhelming for him. You've already outgrown Montville.
Speaker 2:So we were like so mad at him, then so gracious. And then we're like did we just get kicked out of here?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no kidding.
Speaker 2:All in one and uh, that that will probably be with north willis, willisville, my greatest racing memory I've ever had. Yeah, sitting in the tower with him at four in the morning, one at a time, tom pearson smoking a cigar, merle sitting there with his glasses, and one at a time from drivers. I mean, you know how many payouts jason and tony had to hand deliver because drivers didn't want to wait. Yeah, I can't even imagine it was literally at like four in the morning when we finished payout.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was just such an awesome and amazing experience. Yeah, no-transcript. So I'm just so grateful that when my kid was four years old, he sat in the front row at Quincy Illinois racetrack and couldn't get enough of racing. And then he spent his graduation money and bought us a car behind my back and he got me into racing and and it's changed, it changed our lives. It changed our family, my family's lives, my you know everybody that's raced and and um and so it's. It's just been a blessing for sure to be involved with not just motorsports, but I'm like you. It's the relationships I've built, it's the friendships. If I needed to call, if I needed something, and I called you and said, hey, drew, I need this, I know you're there. So that's the thing that matters the most to me, for sure.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. You know, I take one of the first times that we released sandusky speedway. I think we called it the all jacked up race. We're all excited about it. We're going to run an enduro and it was early april and the forecast just was not favorable for it and we had ron barash come down with the vintage group. We did so much promoting down there, the weather just killed us. I think we ended up with like 20 compacts and three pure stocks and we put it in a one-day show instead of two-day show and Chris Mize, to the day he passed away, was like I don't know why you did that.
Speaker 2:I said it was because everybody people don't understand the business side of racing, like you don't want to lose money and that's why a lot of times you can't, sometimes you just have to go through with it, and it was one of those events that you just had to. I felt so bad because we sat at the bob evans or denny's, we had this great planning meeting with you, jr. Even jr goes. I don't know why you're doing with this. Then Then at the end, when we're doing payout, he goes. I see why you did this, because the drivers appreciated it and it goes a long way, and that I mean we. Needless to say, we we didn't leave Sandusky Speedway again and it has nothing to do with them, but it's just we've learned doing things so far away from home other than the Freedom Factory is the only other one we've had success with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and you know that's you live and learn. If you don't try it, you don't know. And so Bill Russell said Mottville was where it all began for him. So a lot of people can probably say the same thing, bill, that Mottville was where they first started racing.
Speaker 2:That's the first time I ever saw him. He was there at the first race I ever went to. There might have been eight or nine late models, but that 711 car was the one there, the yellow, red and yeah yellow, red number 711 or 7 car of Tom Russell. I swear I met.
Speaker 1:Crazy.
Speaker 2:Joe, and actually they all came. They brought cars to come support our race. They were one of the last ones to pull in. I think they were close to parking in the parking lot so cool.
Speaker 1:Well, Drew, this has been great. I'm glad that you were able to be on the show tonight. You're welcome anytime. You know that. To be back on, that's kind of where it started for me was with you and Woody. We had some crazy nights trying to get technology to work and all the different things. And tonight I was. I was thinking, oh dear, what's going to happen? Because I have spectrum for TV, internet, phone, the whole bit. It's the only option I have where I live. And uh, they were down the road working and about till about 15 minutes before the show was going to go on. I didn't have any internet and so I was sitting here praying, please let the internet come back on. And luckily it did, so that was good.
Speaker 2:It's always a pleasure talking to you, melinda. I appreciate everything you've done for us as a sponsor, as a friend, as somebody volunteering to help at our shows. You know it's not easy doing what all of us do, and you know you can see a lot of negativity on social media most every day, but I started to take some of the positivity. If you're mad at somebody, just be mad at them.
Speaker 1:Be mad at them or talk to them personally. Don't air your dirty laundry on social media. It's it doesn't make you look good and you're trying to make other people look bad and really what it does is it makes you look bad. So that's that's kind of my opinion about it, but anyway. So I know you probably keep track of the Mini Wedge. You know Kalamazoo's got a big Mini Wedge program going on and they're going to be racing Let me see if I can. This Sunday they're racing Mini Wedge juniors and seniors and if I'm not mistaken, they just raced at Berlin, I think last weekend.
Speaker 1:I thought I saw Kenny Head driving the golf cart for the Mini Wedges and so that's pretty cool. There's some some great young drivers in the Mini Wedge series and you know that's that's like a hot series all over the country right now because if you, you know, are on Facebook or whatever, and I follow a lot of racetracks and Mini Wedges is a big deal. So Hartford, that's one of your favorite places. August 1st they're going to have Cyber Stocks, so I wanted to make sure that we brought that up for Tim and Leah. So August 1st, put that on your list if you're down in that area.
Speaker 2:It's the only appearance of the all-star sprints as well okay, see, you know things that I don't always know.
Speaker 1:Um. So now russell's m40. Um, maybe you know the answer this drew. Why do they call it the mottville stocks?
Speaker 2:so when mottville closed, where where the russells cut their teeth, bill started racing there, I guess that was their place. So it's kind of a homage to Motteville because they used to have a class called Motteville Speedway. If you walk into the main entryway they have the old Motteville Speedway sign. You look over in the turns one and two they have the old Motteville Speedway bleachers there. The new owners, the church pretty much let them take whatever or purchase whatever they wanted to bring over. They're having the Michigan Cup at the end of the year. So the Motville Stocks are a homage to Merle and Motville Speedway as being a stock, not a beginner class but a stock class.
Speaker 1:Okay, and they serve.
Speaker 2:worth that budget to race?
Speaker 1:Okay, curious, I was curious about that. So, uh, russell's m40 speedway. Tonight they had practice, um bill said. And so, um, hopefully they have a good weather weekend, although, good grief, it's not sounding so great. And then, um, kalamazoo this weekend. So last weekend we had rain and I know Kalamazoo canceled. I think Galesburg might have canceled and I'm not sure who else. I lost track. But this week we're going to pray for good weather. So Fast, friday's back 730.
Speaker 1:And here's what's going to be 2000 to win, street Stock Showdown. So get on Facebook, you can find all about it there. But there's going to be the steak and shake late models, honor credit union limited late models, the tech works trailer sets. Easy for me to say tech works trailer sales, street stocks. Try to say that fast. That's hard. 2000 to win, which is a big deal for them. And then the front wheel drives, o'reilly auto parts. The gates open at 3 30, adults are 15, kids 12 and under free, and racing begins at 7 30 sharp. There's only four regular seasons regular season weeks left. I can't believe it. It seems like we just started, drew, and now it's almost going to be over.
Speaker 2:We thought last year was terrible on weather. This year's been even worse, which is when your seasonal business stinks it does.
Speaker 1:My dad was a farmer and so I get when your income depends on weather and yeah, so I get that part. But and it's not just here I listened to a podcast from some guys out east and they have the same. They're having the same problems we're having. So you know it's it's all over the country. But yeah, so hopefully you know, we can get these races in this weekend. Then I can share who the winners are, because that's what I like to do I want to give a shout out to the guys that are the winners. So, anyway, I want to thank you for being on. Is there anything we haven't talked about that we should before we hang up.
Speaker 2:I think you got. Galesburg Speedway has the Adam Van Avery Memorial Race. I think on August 2nd a big street stock race.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Tim and Leah this Saturday have the Night of Destruction. They do a very good job at that New Paris Speedway. I'm not sure if they have a race.
Speaker 1:Oh the Sizzler Go ahead.
Speaker 2:Is that August 1st or 2nd?
Speaker 1:Let me look that I have something right here about it. I forgot about this.
Speaker 2:Well, you're looking that up, I'll plug Carter Oil Speedway.
Speaker 1:Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2:They have a Sunday show this Sunday. I think Figure 8's compact. It's a big compact race. I don't know if it's the modified to the late model sportsman's this week, but they also run street stocks. Give Jim and them a try.
Speaker 1:The Sunday shows are usually pretty good. Yeah, it's Friday, august 1st. Modifieds, limited late models and the outlaw late models. $6,500 is the purse. It's the 24th annual Summer Sizzler. The first time I ever went to um new paris, I was like not, I mean, I I had never been to a racetrack where they backed their pickup trucks to the fence and why.
Speaker 1:And I was like that is so way cool. You know, that sounds like right up my alley. I mean, I grew up on a farm, you know, so that was pretty cool. But yeah, actually, next, speaking of the Adams, the race for Adam at Galesburg next Wednesday. Jesse and little Jesse is what we call him, I don't know that. He's probably loves being little Jesse.
Speaker 1:It's Jesse and Jesse Jr are going to be on the show and we're going to talk about Adam and we're going to talk about the race that's coming up and all of that. And they all switched their numbers to two this year, and so Top Row says New Paris is off this week, but Sizzler is August 1st and Flagger Boy Twin 50 is August 9th, the night after the clash. So yeah, the clash is coming up. We'll be talking about that here in another couple of weeks and, um, yeah, so next week it'll be Jesse and Jesse jr Van Avery. We're going to talk about that race at Galesburg and and um, that's everything I have for tonight, unless you can help me out with something else.
Speaker 2:I'm sure we're missing something. Probably Support your racetracks. I know that's an important thing. And again, just be positive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree. I agree. Well, Drew, you've been a good friend for a long time. Hopefully we've got a lot of years left to be friends and see each other at the racetrack and hopefully you got a good rest of the season. I know you're busy, but at least it sounds like it's going to taper off a little bit. Maybe you can catch a breath.
Speaker 2:Yep, then we start working next year in August. September, it never ends. What is it? They call that the off season? Oh, september, it never ends.
Speaker 1:What is it? They call that the off season. Oh yeah, there is no off season.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the silly season.
Speaker 1:The silly season. Yeah Well, thanks again for being on, thanks to everybody for your comments and for listening, and share this with anybody else that you think might be interested in listening to the show, and we'll see you next Wednesday.
Speaker 2:Thanks, Melinda.
Speaker 1:All right, thank you.