RPW Exclusive: A Labor Of Love For The Emerick’s; Company Business To Sponsor Brett Hearn At SDW, Eastern States

Column By: DYLAN FRIEBEL / RPW – COHOES, NY – Championship driver Brett Hearn and Emerick Associates have agreed to a deal that will see the Cohoes, NY business become the primary sponsor on Hearn’s Small Block 358-Modified for two events this season, Super Dirt Week at Oswego and Eastern States Weekend at Orange County Fair Speedway.

You’ve probably heard of Emerick Associates with their past in racing. I recently had the opportunity to sit down company president, Tim Emerick, to hear the story of how his family became involved in racing.

“My grandfather sponsored a guy by name of Johnny Neet at Albany-Saratoga in the late 60’s,” Emerick said. “There used to be an old speed shop up by the track and that’s where my grandfather met a guy by the name of Denny Giroux who worked there. He (Denny) was a pretty popular driver back in the day so they did a lot of asphalt and NASCAR stuff. Unfortunately, he got hurt in the car at Stafford.”

After the injury to Denny, the Emerick family stepped back from racing for a few years but that didn’t keep the younger generations from going and enjoying the excitement.

“I grew up going as a kid,” he said. “I went with my mom, dad and grandparents so I’m third generation. We went to Fonda for a long time and at some point we started to help out Jack Johnson a little. We sponsored John Flach for a little while as well and we had a guy build race cars out of our shop, Dexter Dorr. When John won the championship at Lebanon, it was on of Dexter’s cars.”

This just shows that, yet gain, this family couldn’t stray away from being in the middle of it all.

“It started to become hot and heavy again when we sponsored Jack Cottrell,” Tim said. “We sponsored him for 10 years or so while he ran at Fonda and then moved over to Lebanon. After Jack, we went on to sponsor Kenny Tremont.”

With the sponsorship of Tremont, this is where the youngster got his true start in auto racing.

“I got started with the 115.” Emerick said. “Kenny was one that took you under his wing and showed you the in and outs. Before that, I was young and the guys didn’t want you around the car, but Kenny was cool and showed me the whole deal. Traveling to all the series races and everything with them was amazing. It was probably a good 13 years I did that. We even sponsored his 1999 Syracuse-winning car.”

Even with the success, the grind of racing started to take it’s toll, and Emerick stepped back.

“We got out, once again, in the early 2000’s with my daughter being born and the schedule,” he said. “Going to the shop four nights a week, racing three nights a week and with everything else, it just wasn’t in the cards anymore. I never wanted to do it and be part-time. if I’m going to to do it I’m all in, and that’s where the relationship with Mark Flach started.”

The two had some great success together, even winning the Lebanon Valley King Of The Track back in 2012. But after a horrific accident at Canandaigua (now Land of Legends Raceway) that severely injured Mark, the Emerick’s stop sponsoring racecars. It’s been a while since they’ve done it, but once you get into the sport, you’re stuck for life.

“After Mark got hurt, I got out of racing once again,” he said “We backed away and didn’t have anyone to help and only went every once in awhile. My daughter was three and we were doing more with her. Mark and I remained good friends though.”

Then came the opportunity of a lifetime.

“Mark got hooked up with Brett (Hearn) and (co-car owner) Brian Madsen last year at Oswego,” he said. “For Brett, it was a lot to run both cars and his performance started to show it. Brian approached Mark about taking over the car for Malta this season and Mark called me and asked if i was willing to help. I’ve got my family, business and everything else so there isn’t much free time. It was a hard decision, but it wasn’t at the same time.”

Emerick missed it very much, and this persented a unique opportunity.

“I missed it and wanted to get back in, so figuring out what to do with a lack of free time was hard,” he said. “Also, seeing as how many in my family are huge Kenny Tremont fans, being part of the 20 team was a shock to a lot of people at first. With that being said, we’ve had a lot of fun, and my whole family is involved. It’s been fun to do this year as a family effort.”

The best part for Tim is having his family around at the track with him.

“Everyone looks forward to the races each weekend.” he said. “Being able to sharethis with them is the best part. Everyone knows working on a race car takes a lot of time. There’s moments where I’m not home a lot and that’s tough, but being able to bring my kids, especially in the pits, at a lot of these tracks, they get a full experience. I couldn’t be more pleased with that, and we are all excited to partner with Brett for Oswego and Eastern States.”

You see it every weekend at the race track, From Jack to Ronnie Johnson, Hector to Neil Stratton, the McGrew’s or several others in the pit area, racing is a family affair, built up over generations. The Emerick’s are a perfect example of that…now three generations strong.

If you’re a parent. bring your kid and let them experience racing for all it’s worth. The sounds. The smells. The excitement. It’s all amazing, so let them get the bug so they’ll pass it down for generations to come.