I've been in racing pretty much my whole life. I've done almost every job there is to do in racing. I started at the bottom as a "Gofer" ("You, go for this"...."You, go for that"...Gofer). I managed to make my way up to crew member, then to crew chief.
Me and my old race car. This is the car in which I won the 2000 MAORA Class 11 championship.
After a tour-of-duty in the US Navy, in which I was a participant of both Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm, I got my own car (an off-road buggy, pictured left) and became a driver, as well as a team owner. A major influence in my choice of racing careers was fellow Taylorville, Illinois resident, Randy Eller. After watching Randy on an ESPN 2TelevisionBroadcast of a SODA Series race, I decided Off Road Racing was for me. I joined an off road racing sanctioning body (MAORA), and after a relatively short time (4 years) assumed the duties of the Vice President of the same sanctioning body. While working with the sanctioning body, I also held the jobs of class representative, corner worker, race official, tech inspector, and chief flagman. Before retiring as a driver, I won 1 championship, and many, many races (including 6 event wins in-a-row, and 9 heat race wins in-a-row).
In 2000 I had the opportunity to work with a game company, Ratbag Games, beta testing a new off road racing game called Leadfoot. I got to work with some of the best programmers in Motorsports gaming, Saxon Druce, David Hewitt, and Greg Siegele. I also got to work with some great race drivers. Matt Gerald, and Chris Hord from the WSORR, and NHRA's Ron Capps are those who really stand out in my memories.
Even though I'm retired from driving, I am still involved in racing through my vinyl graphics business, which specializes in race cars, and through working on my dad's UMPLate Model (pictured left) that he regularly races at Macon Speedway.
Mike Thomas' dragster for 1984 On Thursday, July 17, 2008, I lost a good friend, and fellow former racer, Mike Thomas. The above is a picture of Mike's dragster taken at a racecar show at the Hickory Point Mall in Forsyth, IL in 1984. RIP Mike!! Mike Thomas 1960 - 2008
Wikipedia:WikiProject Motorsport
(The user formerly known as JG Race 1194 is now JLG2701.)
