Special RPW Column: My Bucket List; Getting Out On The Super DIRTcar Series Trail

Special RPW Column By: ALEX THOMSON / 42 RACING – SHERMAN, CT – I saw the movie The Bucket List years ago but never thought much about it until this year.

My wife will be turning 50 in July and has decided to start checking things off her bucket list to celebrate. We have already gone on a hot air balloon ride and she tried ax throwing…no, not at me. She’s now planning a 50-mile bicycle ride in August and will try jumping out of a perfectly good airplane to skydive on her birthday.

As she’s been working on her list, she’s asked me numerous times what is on mine. I turn 50 next year, and it did not take long at all to answer the one thing that stands at the top…build a car to run the entire Super DIRTcar Series.

I have been interested in racing most of my life. My love for the sport started as a little kid in the late 70’s. It just so happens that my neighbor was New York State Stock Car Association (NYSSCA) Hall of Fame driver / car owner Bob Devine. When he started racing his number 42 at Lebanon Valley Speedway with his son, Steve, they would park the car at the end of my driveway when they got home on Saturday nights.

Each Sunday morning, I would check out the car as it sat on the open trailer covered in dirt. I watched what they were doing with it from a distance and finally got the nerve to wander down the driveway and hang around the garage.

I went to my first race in 1984…the season-ending 200-lapper at the Valley and I was hooked. Some 35 years later, I still call the ‘Valley of Speed’ my home every Saturday evening.

Bob is gone now, and lucky for me, I have owned the car now and have kept his famed #42 going for years. Veteran Guy Sheldon drove for me for a number of years and we accumulated several checkered flags at the tough half-mile track.

Now, with his son Kyle at the controls, I continue to build and maintain a competitive car with my two sons and our dedicated crew. We also build all of our own engines to compete with out of our shop in Sherman, CT.

We’ve had good success at the Valley through the years. Our car has been in the top ten in points every year since 2004. However, early on, I knew I wanted to do more traveling with the car and try other race tracks.

When I was younger, I continually heard story after story from Bob about his racing career, traveling up and down the East Coast, sometimes racing five nights a week in the 50’s and 60’s. Even tougher was the fact that sometimes, he towed right to his job so he could make it to work in the morning.

His big regret in his career was that he never had the money to go to run Daytona and some of the other NASCAR tracks. To me, running the Super DIRTcar Series is probably a twenty-first century version of what Bob experienced. That’s what I want to do.

Right now, that’s the only thing on my bucket list. So how do I do it? That’s been the hardest question to answer since I got this idea years ago. I think seeing more rookies run as platinum drivers, such as Ryan Godown, have made me think. He had a good year in 2019, and it sounds like he enjoyed it. However, he won’t run this year due to the financial component but still has all the memories that went along with it.

One option for me is to park the 42 on Saturday nights, scrape together a little more money and run the tour. We could do that, but without better funding it would be a challenge just qualifying for events. I would prefer to be able to go to tracks and compete with well-prepared race cars and equipment, and better resources. I can definitely build better race cars.

In order to achieve my goal, I needed to first figure out what it is I’m looking to accomplish and what I enjoy. I love building race cars and engines. My powerplants have proven to be just as strong and reliable as many of the name-brand builders. To be honest, I pride myself on the fact that I can build everything on the race car myself in my garage. There’s nothing better than having a win or really good run with a bunch of pieces you built with your own two hands.

Now I have to admit that I have the same issue a lot of other guys have with money. I don’t do a good enough job of asking for funding from sponsors or promoting my team on social media. I prefer to work on the car and come up with new ways to make it faster rather than brag about it. I am truly happiest just being a crew chief instead of a car owner.

I know what I like to do and I know I’m good at it. I think the best chance to accomplish my goal of running the Series is to join a group of people who seriously share the same love for racing and the same goals as myself. It would be great to start with a clean sheet of paper and to build a competitive team to compete on the series in 2021.

So what’s next? I’m writing this article to find out who’s out there. Who would like to build the next platinum team for the Super DIRTcar Series? Is there someone who wants to start a team? Maybe a group of investors or some race fans…someone good with marketing / social media that wants to join?

Is there an existing team needing mechanical help, crew or even a driver? Is there a driver with resources but no mechanical ability? Is there a team out there that wants to form a two-car operation to share the expenses of traveling?

I’m 100% confident in my ability to build fast race cars and engines. With the right group and better resources, anything is possible.

So, as you can see, my bucket list is really very simple. However, it will take a lot of hard work. I may not be able to fulfill this goal and understand from years of racing that the results aren’t always what you want, but you will never win if you don’t at least try.

For now, the 42 car will continue to run on Saturday nights as it has for the past 40 seasons. If that’s all I ever do, it’s still quite an accomplishment. We’ll just wait and see, but understand, I’m open to any ideas.

I’m ready to step out of my comfort zone and try something new, but there’s still no way I’m jumping out of a perfectly good airplane with my wife this July!