You guys obviously have trouble reading and comprehending what has been written, so I will post my background again.
We, (my brother and I), have already "Made it Big" in racing. We owned and built the largest and most successfull Speed Shop and race car building business on the East Coast. Tobias Speed and Troyer Speed were big as well, but Tobias only sold to dirt racers, and Troyer only sold to Asphalt racers at the time. In fact, Maynard Troyer would send his dirt racers customers to us. My brother and Maynard Troyer were good friends. We did a lot of business with each other between our respective businesses.
We sold the business after 22+ years for a large amount of money. We still own the building though.
I was COMPLETELY OUT of the racing business after we sold it, and I had absolutely NO DESIRE to get back into it.
I got involved on Wall Street during the late 80's and 90's, which was a very good time to be involved on Wall Street.
Anyway, I bought Paulie a Fun Kart to drive around the schoolyard and industrial park lots with when he was 5 years old. He loved it.
When Paulie turned 7 he wanted to race it. So I built him a racing kart and we went to the NASCAR track at Flemington Speedway to let him try racing. It was June 1, 1997. Paulie was 7 1/2 years old and he was racing against kids in the 8 - 12 year old class. (Paulie was actually underage, since the minimum age was 8 years old to race karts in NJ at that time).
Well Paulie went out and WON. He beat ALL of the 8 - 12 year old kids at his very first race.
He went on to win 4 races in a row, and 11 of the 13 race schedule that year, and the NJ State Championship, the Flemington Speedway Track Championship, and the Bridgestone Tire Series Championship. Needless to say Paulie was hooked on racing.
And I got sucked back into racing. The ONLY WAY I would ever get back involved in racing at that time was to help my son. Period. I quit Wall Street and got back involved in racing. It was very cool for Paulie to want to make a career in the sport that I worked so successfully in for over 22 years. It's rare that a parent has been successfull and knowledgable in the field that there kid wants to pursue. And it's rare that the same kid would be so good at it. It's one thing to have a dream of being a Race Car Driver. It's another thing to be very talented and good at it, like Paulie was.
My dream as a kid was to play baseball for the Yankees some day. I had the desire, the commitment, and the focus to do it.
The only problem was I lacked the TALENT. I SUCKED.
But Paulie had the talent to succeed in racing. So I helped him in any way I could. I didn't care what sacrifice it required. He's my son, and I want to see him realize his dreamns. But I also know how fickle racing can be. That's why I "Pushed & Nudged" Paulie to go to Duke University, instead of to the University of Maryland, which is where he was planning to going.
That's the story. By the way, I got back involved in the parts business with my current company Harraka Racing equipment by accident. Bill McAnally was impressed with the trick, special, LEGAL parts that I was getting for Paulie's BMR Late Model, so he asked me to get some on that stuff for his other Late Models and for his K&N Pro teams. I did it for him and the word spread.
So far I have NEVER spent one dime on advertizing. Not one single dime. The business has grown to be so big strictly from word-of-mouth and from referrals from existing satisfied customers, like Bill.
The very first money that I will be spending on advertizing will be for the 1/2 page add I am putting in the West Coast Hall of Fame Program that will be passed out at the banquet at Irwindale this weekend. I did it to support the W.C.HoF and support the effort Ken Clapp puts in each year.
That's the story.
In the words of Tony Montana in Scarface: LOOK AT ME NOW
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Originally Posted by wolfman2448588
