Mark Wilson, Race Car Driver

A dream from a young age.

From the time that I was very young, I was pretty sure that I was destined to drive race cars. After all, my dad TALKED cars quite well. And on Saturday nights I'd fall to sleep with the sounds of the stock cars in the distance.

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I didn't race when I was in my twenties because of a lack of funds. I had no money to buy some old beater to race, I had nobody to sponsor me, and I didn't have a garage to work on it in. Most importantly, I own tools but I'm not a mechanic.

A small taste of glory.

I got a taste of it when I got to drive somebody else's cars at assorted events that Cat Country sponsored. Nothing runs as well as somebody else's race car. When you know that you don't have to be the one who has to fix it if you wreck it. So, you get to be a little more aggressive. That combined with the fact that most people in media that I was racing against don't have any track time or racing experience means I won every event that I drove in where you just tried to outrun the other media. Also, because I got absolutely murdered in my only demolition derby appearance, I gave that sport up.

Not going to happen.

I had been to the races at BMP and decided that it was time to start racing. So, I called my old, grumpy mechanic friend (Gary Stoppel) and asked if he'd help me mechanically, to which he agreed. Then I asked him what kind of money I'd need to race. He asked, "Well, do you want to be in front, or do you want to be in back?" Great answer.

So, I don't race.