Back To Zero...
by Andy Belmont-Staff Writer and ARCA Series Driver
12/17/2003

The 2003 ARCA RE/MAX Series season has officially ended once and for all! Awards have been given out, points checks have been cashed and everyone is back at square one, or zero. No points. Everyone is even, for now. Well except one. Stock up on the bondo and spray bombs bud, you got it coming.

2004 has started a while back for most of us. We started redoing our short track deal back before Talladega. The plan to move ABM out of North Carolina was a decision that we struggled with immensely. What to do? What to do?

Once the realization of our place in the grand scheme of things was clearly understood, action was pretty simple. First and foremost, the recognition that the top level of performance at the Cup or Busch level is pretty well out of reach for a driver that is 46 years old and has 5 kids. Second and easily the most important, my family and spending time with them is far more important than any racing program of any kind. Ego, pride, call it what you want. It is the fact. Quite frankly, I am proud and extremely comfortable with the thought that we are an ARCA RE/MAX Series team with a home in that division.

ARCA RE/MAX is home.

22 races a year and a handful of tests leave plenty of room to go to baseball games and tackle our latest endeavor of quarter midgets for the kids. I guess it was inevitable and we tried to avoid it like the plague. But the kids are resilient and I learned a valuable lesson here in the last couple of seasons. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Christi Passmore drive our cars in 2002. Then, this year, Travis Geisler drove one of our cars to a great run at South Boston in his first ever ARCA RE/MAX start. Realizing that there is more to this deal than just driving has been a pretty cool revelation. It really is exciting to teach the younger ones how to get it done, something that I always wondered that I would be able to handle or not.

So the goals have changed a little. Of course, we would like to have a couple more good runs before we hang up the shoes and helmet. But it isn't going to be the end of the world. For a long time, I never got that.

When I made my first Winston Cup start in September of 1989, man I thought I had arrived. The yellow brick road was headed straight to OZ and we were just going to dance our way to stardom. Then, the cold hard reality that yes, you can do this, but it takes far more money than it does talent and drive. It takes far more butt kissing than I ever intended to stand for. So, my time to be Dale Earnhardt came and went.

Being a career Cup backmarker just wasn't the hot ticket for old AB! Roughing up some key players along the way simply made the rainbow nothing more than a lesson in frustration. I always had it in my mind that I would do it my way and I am not a career politician, so I call most of the shots. They're our cars and motors and so on. At the end of the day it might be a pile of junk, but it's my junk.

Career wise, it has been awesome. Sure, King Richard was winding down the career in 1992. But how many people in this country can say they raced door to door with THE KING for lap after lap at Dover? My very first start, the Intimidator ran over us just because it was how it was done. How many got a real driving lesson from DW? DW would come up in the trailer and we would just shoot the bull. He took me around Darlington and I will forever be grateful for the lesson. It taught me a bunch that has stayed with me a long time. Yeah, I still make the bonehead mistakes and get people po'd, but not nearly as much!

The goals have changed, but the drive hasn't. As we grow the company, putting younger drivers in the seat has had some real rewards. I couldn't possibly imagine what it must feel like for Jack Bowsher or Big Bill Venturini, to see their kids turning into real good race car drivers. It is pretty cool to understand a little of that. Christi, Travis, and Brandon thanks. You can't possibly imagine what it felt like when Brack Maggard finished his first race at Atlanta, one of my dearest friends accomplishing a goal that he thought out of reach for a man fifty something years young.

So, on into this decade, we look to wind up the driving side and be a car owner. I don't have any illusions about trying to compete with the five or six owners who own the Cup, although of course we would consider it if the right deal was out there. But, it still might be a decision that would be difficult.

We went to Langhorne Speedway as a young kid. We saw some of the greatest of all time.....Dutch Hoag, Ray Hendrick and Richie Evans. I grew up in Langhorne doing oil changes and dreaming, daring to dream that we could do this. We left for the big time and moved family more times than I would like to remember. We even won some races and championships here and there. Then, found ARCA RE/MAX and the family of competitors.

I can think of a ton of successful racers who chose not to be "in the hub" or "Race City USA," just wished I would have figured it out a little sooner.

This probably sounds like a broken record. But, when I started a regiment of prayer every day of my life, things started to change for the far better. Maybe it's just my way of looking at it that has changed, but I don't think so.

If I don't see you or write again before, have a safe holiday season. Merry Christmas.