In January of 2004 with the help of Guy Stockbridge and eventually Chris Luck in 2006, I set out to build a World of Outlaw sprint car team capable of winning the World of Outlaws Championship. Over the past eight years, seven seasons of Outlaw competition, the team we created through hard work and sleepless nights has finished in the top-five seven times with three runner up finishes and recently two championships in succession.
Along the way, we had the opportunity to work with some of the finest individuals in motorsports and have made friends for life that we will cherish forever. Many of these folks worked daily within Elite Racing and many were sponsors and supporters that made our dreams reachable through their belief in our marketing and performance capabilities.
This offseason has been like all the rest, filled with obstacles and challenges that force you to analyze your current position and also your short and long term goals. As many of you may know, my wife and I started a family on the road almost five years ago and we have been blessed with two beautiful little girls who not only love their mom and dad, but they love the races. When we decided to have a family, we promised ourselves that when it was time for our children to start school the road would no longer be our home. In just eight short months, our oldest will be starting school and life as we know it will once again change.
Events that occurred over the winter months have given me the opportunity to take a good hard look at where we are in life and where we want to be. In this process, I have learned that it is time for me to be at home and although sprint car racing has given me so much, it can never give me what attending my daughter’s sporting events and taking them camping will. It is for this reason that I have decided to depart from my professional career on the road and embark on a new challenge as Dad and Husband. It is time for me to build a career outside of racing that will allow me to fulfill my commitments to my children and wife both financially and in person.
It is my passion for this sport, our team, our sponsors, and the fans that has made this decision very difficult and at times unimaginable. However when I imagine my daughter winning her first game and not being there to tell her good job, I see the reality of what life is all about. The sport of sprint car racing is a wonderful thing and has taken my family all over the world. I look forward to continuing my involvement when time allows whether I am driving, tuning, coaching, or whatever I can do to give back to the sport that has given so much to me. Companies often restructure in order to make it to the next level and that is exactly what I am doing, restructuring my priorities so that we as a family can reach the next level.
I cannot say thank you enough to all of those that have been a part of Elite Racing, my teammates, our owners, our sponsors, our fans, and the World of Outlaws. It has been a great adventure and I look forward to putting on a helmet in three months, six months, or even a year, and participating in a sprint car event somewhere in the world just for fun! Because at the end of the day, that is what sprint car racing is and that is why we all love it!
With that being said, we still have business left to do. To show our appreciation to our sponsors and fans we will be running the “Allstar Appreciation Tour,” presented by Allstar Performance. We will be racing the first 14 races of the 2012 World of Outlaw season beginning in Volusia County on February 15th and ending at the famed half-mile in Napa Valley Calistoga Speedway.
Allstar Appreciation Tour 2012
1. Feb 15th Volusia Speedway Allstars
2. Feb 16th Volusia Speedway Allstars
3. Feb 17th Volusia Speedway WoO Opener
4. Feb 18th Volusia Speedway WoO
5. Feb 19th Volusia Speedway WoO
6. Mar 3rd USA Raceway Park WoO
7. Mar 8th Las Vegas Motor Speedway WoO
8. Mar 10th Perris Auto Speedway WoO
9. Mar 16th Tulare Thunderbowl WoO
10. Mar 17th Tulare Thunderbowl WoO
11. Mar 23rd Silver Dollar Speedway WoO
12. Mar 24th Silver Dollar Speedway WoO
13. Mar 30th Merced Speedway WoO
14. Mar 31st Calistoga Speedway WoO
One of the most exciting parts about the Allstar Appreciation Tour will be the new car design with many new sponsors as well as the reintroduction of many of our partners of the past that have rejoined Elite Racing for this final tour. We will be announcing these sponsors and introducing the new car design in the coming days so stay tuned to the Elite Racing website, facebook, and twitter feeds for exciting news and announcements.