What's crazy about racing is like it's been a part of my whole life like my dad
raced before I was born so like I was just kind of born into
this and you know I've had a lot of success over the years so I it's just
led me down this path where now I've got a like a full fledged career. I've
won one I've got second once and then I got upside down racing for the lead the
first night so shame on me but no we're going good the equipment's working well
the engine runs great the driver just has to show up and do his job.
That's the most non vocal human being you'll ever meet right there. Me? Yeah. I don't know about
that but I got something to say I usually say it it's not very often. It's not very
often. I'm the general manager of EMI. I run the day-to-day operation for
business and I manage six fabricators. Not a big group but we get a lot of work
done and there's a lot to keep track of.
Ready to go racing? Okay do you want to meet my friends? Do you like that color? Yeah. I couldn't
decide I was gonna get you another pink one and I thought you already got a pink
one so we did a blue one.
Where are we heading tonight? Kam Raceway in Hastings Nebraska it's what I
would call my home track. I've raced there since 1997. It's a small track so
it lends for close racing all the time. You know there's not a lot of time to
breathe you're always in traffic. It's a little more intense than you know racing
on a bigger track. The kid that preps the track does an amazing job preparing the
racing surface for us so we have multiple grooves of racing you know that
makes it exciting not only for us as drivers but for the fans to watch.
Alrighty thank you all for coming out, I see a couple new guys out here couple
people traveled a long ways. If you're new to the track we enter here exit on this
side. When you exit the track please go around and then down. There's a
slight chance from the forecast we might get some rain later we've just gonna have to keep
things rolling all night. Every class after the feature no matter what top-5
scale then we'll let you know from there if we're teching or what we're teching.
I saw this meme once it said are you the type of person that goes socks sock shoe shoe
or sock shoe sock shoe. And then it followed up it with what kind of psychopath goes sock shoe sock shoe.
Got the EMI on today. I was fortunate growing up because my dad raced before
me so I was you know I'm a second-generation racer where he had to
learn a lot the hard way too and so you know even my learning curve was a lot
shorter because you know he had done it long before I had ever come into
existence. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have this to do. I've been racing
with Frank since 97. This track is where I am bought my first car
from a guy up here by the name of Rob Libker.
And then I continue to race up here for quite a few years then obviously when
Frank was old enough we raced up here quite a bit so.
Motor sounded good you know I mean I think we're pretty good look good anyway.
He's looking at the fuel right now so he'll look at the O2 sensor see if we
need to make any adjustments. It just seemed like I had a hesitation on
takeoff but well this little doodad right there is where it closes this was
my best lap. My average is 84.7 I mean we're like 85 across the board. But my
lap times are really slow. So I don't know. Who is that? Do you remember him? What'd he bring you
last time? A koala.
I got a kid from Australia here with me. Next week we go to one
of the biggest races in the country. He's gonna commentate so he stays with me for
a couple weeks.
What is this?
Play-Doh. It's all over your head. Why are you doing that?
Did your new numbers feel fast? Yeah they look cool don't they? I like 'em.
Yeah I got a few friends. Especially working in the industry it's nice to
have relationships with as many people as you can I mean I've been doing this
for a long time and I've learned the hard way on a lot of things so I mean to
help others shorten that learning curve is a big deal because I also have to go
share the track with them to you know?
It's also you know it's like a family because the people you meet in that are
also passionate about it that you know that also compete or do this they do
understand because they're in it too and so those are the people that I'm closest
with they're you know I've got friends all over the world
to do this because of it so it's neat.
Look Zac, we're on TV Zac. I even got the microphone. You got a microphone? Lucky you.
We made some really good labs I was cautious the first few just to make sure
I gave myself enough time to get by cars that were slower and then when we got to the
lead and got clean air and we just held it to the floor for the rest of the race.
I wouldn't say we're very far off in hot laps we made just a minor adjustment to
the fueling and it looked really good. I have a lot of technology on my race car
that acquires a lot of data. It tells me like my air/fuel ratios I have an O2
sensor in my exhaust pipe. It shows me my RPMs my lap times my fuel pressures
battery voltage water temperature so I know that it's running at its most
optimum performance.
So one two three I got four gallons in there
and that's just about perfect. You getting the light show back there?
Hope that rain ain't coming this way. Which way is that one moving? Is that one going
same direction I guess I have. Yeah they're going they're going east.
Okay maybe we'll get through and then have to drive home through crap. Yeah.
He's gonna get put in the back he went too early. Yeah that's the third time he's done it.
Before the line and they put them right to the back so yeah see they let him go
that's that's not fair. At this track it's it's just club racing so what they do is
after two weeks they start you buy your season point average so the best
averages start in the back and the lower averages start in the front. I'm pretty
confident we'll get to the front we just have to be sort of cautious on the way
through there I mean there's you can't be too conscious because there's a lot
of cars to pass obviously and you don't have a ton of time but you don't want to
be overly aggressive and junk your equipment either so.
Make sure you get the hair he done it up for you. She's
she's chasing that dirt that grandma. Last minute inspection.
Uh oh. Grab him.
What's his name? Cash! Given my parenting situation my daughter only gets to come
about every other week but she loves the races she she'll tell you if you ask her
she wants to be a racecar driver so I don't know how I feel about that because
it's exciting for me because obviously it's my passion and I would love to
share my passion with my child but on the other hand it's like I understand
the dangers of what I do and to put my child out there it would be
nerve-wracking to say the least.
They're filming you. Isn't it past your bedtime?
No! No. I'm at the races. What time's your bedtime? You don't know
just when Daddy says go to bed. You don't go to sleep when I put you to bed anyway.
Yeah! What do you usually do? Hey watch TV. It's my favorite! My best nights are when my
daughter's here so she kind of keeps me at ease.
So sometimes I wonder if I get to come home if I don't win when she's around
because she gets upset more than I do.
I've lost friends over racing because you
know like growing up in the summertime when I'm not in school or whatever you
know I'm in the garage working on race car stuff and then all weekend long
I'm traveling across the country racing and competing and trying to make
something of this racing thing.
This is my baby man we've we've everything about it is me. It's nice to
have something that you put your heart and soul into to go compete with. I don't
know it's just the one thing that I've always just been so passionate about for
my entire life and I've literally dedicated my life to it.
99A Alex Owen he got pinched down on the burm
causing it to go upside down.
He was running really good tonight. I think he was probably sitting probably almost 4th/5th. Race fans,
good news down there on the front stretch let Alex Owen hear ya.
Let's hear a roar for the feature race winner of the night, number 12, that's Frank Galusha!
Good job Frank. That was the first time a racetrack wore me out a little bit this year.
She looked a little rough. She was rough.3 and 4 she was really stuck.
I kind of remember in the beginning I was trying to be maybe too cautious
because the tracks really rough and tricky and you know just observing
previous features in the other classes a lot of guys were crashing and tearing
equipment up so I kind of wanted to let everything sort out before I really
started going hard. Then I remember getting to a point where I was like okay
it's time to go and I just started getting after it. The white car was
running the the high side in front of me and he was kind of in the lane I wanted
to be in but he was better than the guy that was on the low side and that guy
was just glued to the bottom not coming up so I just I waited a couple laps
before they got next to each other and I just decided it's I'm done being patient
I'm going. You can't win the race in the first five laps it's the last lap that
counts so I just took my time and when I had openings I took them and you know
once I got out in a second I knew I could run down the leader which I did
and then it was just smooth sailing from there. I got a lot of momentum right now
I've got two in a row that last one was last Saturday and and the next one I'm
going to is for a lot of money so you know I need this momentum I need I need
to have results so I can be confident when I go to the next one.