I'm actually excited to tell you guys some stories about a
gentleman. that's that's certainly influenced my life in terms
of in the racing world or car world rather the legendary sprint
car builder Brian Schnee. I've always kind of known who he was
because I'm a racer so obviously he's got a quite the
reputation as a car builder. It was winter 2006 I finally got
to meet Brian. I was racing for Gary Swinson and he was gonna
build me a brand new car to race for the 2007 season, so we
went up to South Dakota to to meet Brian and and get some notes
for the new new race car. The one thing that that that I
remember vividly from that trip is I embarrassed myself when we
showed up, I walked in as his front door of a shop and I banged
my head and and right away he started teasing me so I knew
oh this is gonna be fun. But yeah he he had done a little
research about me even which surprised me he he knew who I was
he he had lots of questions about my racing career and so it made me
feel good to to kinda break that ice with him you know, tell
some stories, but the thing that that was really awesome for me
was he was he cared so much about doing a perfect job for us
right he. He took a lot of pride in his work. Every car that
went out as out of his shop is is just flawless right. So it
was a really fun day getting to spend some time with Brian and
his wife Jean getting to see the shop their property and then obviously
going through the car build. I had no idea that fast forward a
few years I'd be working with the guy right. How crazy is that?
for the last five years, I've worked at EMI. He he got hired in
2013 and he started building cars and then I came in in 2014.
So it's been been quite the privilege to work with Brian. He's
not only super influential on on my life, but many others. He
cares a lot about the the up and coming car builders too. He puts
a lot of input in the work down at EMI right, he's he's one of our leaders
and he's fun to be around. He tells lots of stories brings
pictures. Yeah, and you know he's been around racing for a long
long time. I have more gray hair than either one of you, but I
remembered Sioux Falls South Dakota. I was working at a Dodge
dealership at the time and I was probably 18 years old and the
shop foreman a guy named Kenny Omison was racing outlaw
sprint cars, and he told me I only buy chassis from Schnee.
And he told me about you know what a fabulous job and just a
master welder. If you didn't know better you'd think it was a robot that
did it because it's flawless work of art. So yeah for me, it's
like I say it's a privilege to work with the guy cause he's a
legend in our industry and you know, surprisingly, he's just a
lot of fun to be around. You know he's a he's a really joking
guy. He's just just a fun character. So I get to enjoy my work
every day because I get to be around a guy like Brian. Is Brian
completely into sprint cars or does he do other things
motorcycles, hot rods, stuff like that? No these days he's
actually less involved in the racing community outside of work
you know I think he had his hay day where he did a lot of
racing growing growing up himself always being around racing
and then his love for the sport and his passion for the sport
obviously led him into being a car builder. You know
manufacturing cars. Obviously he was able to establish his own
business, which is which is something that I admire because you
know, I think a lot about all of the different pieces of the puzzle of
the business down at the EMI right, we have individuals who
have their specific roles right so even even just the car build
process itself, three or four people might touch that car
throughout that process. And when I think about Brian you know
him and his wife did that did the whole thing on their own, You
know they did all the customer service customer relations stuff
Brian from from scratch built the cars from the ground up, I know Jean
was in there helping with the bookkeeping and she even helped
in the shop you know, bending tubes notching tubes stuff like that, so
the two of them built this big car building business and this
reputation as Schnee Chassis and yeah, it's just impressive to
think about. Brian and Jean they always have fun stories about
going camping or doing things with their friends on the
weekend. You know going on bike rides in the summer, you know
like I say he's a storyteller so. What's your favorite story?
My favorite stories are typically you know the
old racing stories just cause I can relate to those more. You know
he's one thing I've learned recently about Brian is his favorite
holiday is Halloween. So you know we just had Halloween recently
and so hearing about different costumes that he's worn.
I mean he even came to work his face all painted up and everything.
so yeah it's every day you get a story with Brian and particularly
coming in on Mondays are fun cause you get to hear all
about his weekend and there's never a dull moment with
the Schnee's so. You know, I always wonder if somebody like him
that creates a chassis that such a piece of art, you know what
it must feel like to to see it tumble you know down the track
and you know does he ever talk about that? Yeah. He's got
a very very prominent story and it's about the first car that he
built it's it's quite sad rather. It was one of his best friends
his name was Bill Rooke. I know Bill Rooke yeah. He he
built a race car for Bill and Bill won the majority of the races
that he he competed in with Double O I'll never forget him. Yeah and
it was actually father's day he had a a violent
crash and and lost his life and so those are obviously not the
the fun stories to hear about but it's those are stories
that also helps shape Brian Schnee and who he is and and and
really says a lot about his passion for car building because
you know he built one car for this gentleman who you know lost
his life in it and he could have easily said you know what this isn't
for me I don't wanna be potentially held responsible for
the life of others, you know, but what he didn't do that you
know he just he just kept working and building cars and he's
always trying to build a better mousetrap right he's
and that's another thing that I admire about Brian is he's always
trying to come up with ways to make the product better and safer
and and that's what our sport needs is those individuals
to make sure that we keep pushing the envelope of safety and
and performance and Brian has always had a passion for that.
There was an era where you had to have a Schnee back in the
Wolfgang area you know Doug Wolfgang won so many races in Schnee race
cars and so you know, Brian tells a story about how it's just
overnight his phone lit on fire cause everybody had to have his
cars and he didn't even mean to necessarily have a business
he just wanted to build a race car and so yeah, it's neat to see
how things unfolded. I'm sure he's proud of you the man you've
become the racer that you are. I'm sure he's really proud
of you. I hope so he's he certainly become a friend of mine
so yeah, I mean I I think just as human beings naturally,
we're proud of the people we care about, especially if they're
working hard and they're finding success.