3W Racing is not a professional race team. Just an unlikely group of guys that have come together due to their love open wheel, dirt track racing. Loosely organized a couple years ago, it consists of me (car owner), my sons age 24 and 21 (drivers), Wally (crew chief, and car owner as well), Big Jim and Slim. Our team competes in the United State Auto Club (USAC) Midget series (more on that later, but for now let’s just say Midgets are four cylinder, open wheel cars with 200 – 350 hp; also known as ‘Speedcars’ for our Australian friends).
My boys and I were a small team operating out of a suburban garage crammed full of race cars, tools and toys (but no room for my wife’s car). A couple seasons ago, after blowing the motor in our car we finished the season by renting a car from Wally, and we decided to form the team for the next season. Wally was making do by renting multiple storage units and working in the cold/rain of the Midwest to maintain his cars.
The problem was logistics – Wally lives in Indy, and we live in the central Ohio area, and Wally is limited in his ability to drive due to health issues. So a normal race weekend was 3 hours to Indy to pick up Wally, hour and a half to the track, race, then back to Indy, then back to Columbus. Made for lots of 4 am arrivals back in the ‘burbs. So last year we got serious about finding a home for our race operations. Problem was, do we find a place in Indy (good for Wally but limited opportunity for my boys to learn from him), or in Columbus (good for the boys but how does Wally get to town?), and how do we fit it in the budget? After lots of dead-ends the answer, as it often does, turned up right under our noses. My cousin’s neighbor, Paul, bought an old machine shop and manufacturing facility 15 minutes from my house, and planned to move his graphics business into the main building. That left a standalone structure of approximately 1000 sq feet available, but it had sat empty for years, and was in pretty rough shape inside.
Paul and I settled on a lease last Spring, and the boys and I jumped into the renovation process. I had hoped to post our progress from the beginning, but life got in the way (jobs, school, and of course racing). I finally had a slow day today to get started. GJ has been a great resource for me, and I’m hoping this post generates good conversation with tips on things that grass roots racing teams can do to build and enhance their shops in a cost effective manner.
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