RACER TURNED CHAPLAIN

by Tom Pirkel

After the ’06 Mid-Am Rockford Spring Opener event, I was talking to a few drivers and their wives about a little on track incident. I asked if there was anything I could do to help. The answer back was “I can’t tell you, you’re the chaplain." I also heard, "you’re not a racer, you wouldn’t understand”. I replied, I was a racer long before I was a chaplain.

So here goes the story of the racer turned chaplain. A friend of mine Steve Gillis (Gilly) and I decided in the sixth grade we were going to race when we got out of high school. We graduated in 1970, but it was not until 1971 that we got a car together. A Jefferson Speedway hobby stock. She was a screaming 1963 Ford Galaxie with a fire breathing 289 c.i. Did I mention it was a 4 dr sedan? Gilly was the wrench and I was the driver. We started out slow but learned along the way. Won a few heat races and as the season went along we got faster. We started making the fast heat and the feature and our goal was to set fast time or win a feature by seasons end. Well we did finish second in a few features but never did win one. In April of 1972, I got married to Elizabeth (my bride of 34 yrs). The race car got a face lift a 2dr sedan body and a healthy 289. The goal was the same - win a feature, set fast time. Again it never happened, second was the best I could do. I was getting a little discouraged, but we would get it next year. 1973 rolled around same old Ford with new skin and a 351 Cleveland engine. The car was fast, we started out great. Had second fast time one night, second in a couple of features and then K- BOOM the 351 was junk. Gilly said that was it for him. We would put the old 289 back in and race till the car sold. After two weeks we had a buyer, and I finished second both weeks we had the car for sale.

Well needless to say I felt like a real loser 21 yrs old and washed up. I bought a few old cars and played with them but I always wanted to race again.

Then in 1980 I stared to help a guy with a Jefferson style limited late model. At season end I bought a car and planned to race Jefferson, Columbus and any where else I could. I was lucky Charlie Doerr was looking for a car to wrench. We got together and rebuilt the old Camaro I had bought. My goal was the same, win a feature or set fast time. Charlie was used to winning as he had won a few track championships with his drivers in the past. I think one of them was with a guy named Doug Strasburg or something like that. We started the 1981 season at Columbus did O.K. the first two shows. Then it was opening night at Jefferson. O boy. Well it happened, fast time that first night back at Jefferson! But you know I didn’t feel any different. A few weeks later I won my first feature at Columbus. I thought I should feel great, but still didn’t feel like a winner. The whole season was like that, I would win or be fast and it didn’t make me feel like a winner. Overall it appeared we had a great season, still I was feeling real empty.

At season end Greg Folk came to Charlie and me and said he was getting into the chassis fabrication business. He said, "you guys are the ones to beat, how about I build you a car?"

Well 1982 started out with a new car and a lot of hope. We had a good start to the season. In June was the first Pat Schauer memorial race at Slinger (Pat had been killed in an ASA race the year before) Charlie had also raced with Pat in the past so it was very special for Charlie that we do well. I had never raced at Slinger so it was a special challenge to me. At nights end we had fast time and had won the feature. Our local newspaper in Watertown did a big spread on the race, but my empty space was still there. I still didn’t feel like a winner. I continued to race and we did very well. But I made up my mind at seasons end I would quit. I felt bad I had not won a track championship for Charlie and also maybe I wasn’t the best choice for Greg and his chassis business. My last race at Jefferson was the Wisconsin State Championship I was second in time and finished second in the feature. O LORD, why couldn’t I go out a winner?

After a couple a years of not doing much I bought a 1971 Boss 351 Mustang. I restored the car and entered a few Mustang Club of America shows. At the big Grand National show at the end of the year I won the Grand National championship. But, you know what? I still didn’t feel like a winner. So the next year I did the same thing and won again. Still empty. So I thought I’ll sell that car and get more. Soon I had to put up a big building to put all my Mustangs in. Still empty. I’ll sell my cars and do something else. Like a dope, I went back to the track at Jefferson to watch one night and said to myself, "I can do that." I went out and bought a turn key late model. And then it hit me. This is not going to make you happy either. I went to bed that night I bought that car and cried my self to sleep how could I be so dumb? I got up in the next morning feeling lower than, well, you know. What is going to bring me out of this? I looked for a Bible and started reading the Psalms. It seemed to help. I went to work and asked a couple of Bible believing Christians to pray for me. I started to feel better. My wife, daughter and I started to attend a Bible believing and teaching Church. Things were looking up. First our daughter Amy accepted Christ as her Savior. I little while later my wife and I put our faith and trust in the shed blood of Jesus Christ to be our personal Lord and Savior. The feeling of being a loser was gone, my emptiness was gone, filled with the spirit of the living God! “ But, thanks be to God who gives us the victory thru our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor.15:57) I now had the victory I had always wanted. It was not in things of this world but in a relationship with Christ the Lord.

So, now that I have the peace I was looking for, how can I share it with others? Well the Lord gave me an interest in cars and racing why not go racing again. So I bought a Legends car and we raced and tried to share the gospel that way, but it was tough. As I got around 50 I thought maybe cruising in a hot rod would be better for an old man than racing. In 2003 my wife and I were looking to get involved in a ministry with cars. At a Goodguys show in Iowa we found the Christian Rodders and Racers Association. We joined and later became affiliate leaders.. Pretty neat be able to share the love of the Lord and an interest in cars, too.

So that brings us to now. One night the phone rings, it’s Doug Strasburg. Doug says, "Julie and I are buying the Mid-American Stock Car Series would you and Betty be interested in helping us with you being the chaplain?" Well the rest is, we are and we are here with the Series to be a help in any way we can. We are not here to beat you over the head with the Bible unless that’s what you want. We are here to answer questions you might have about things of the Lord. Maybe you have the same empty feeling I had.

I am available at the track or you can call me at home, before 8:00 PM 920-324-6189 or email thomaspirkel@sbcglobal.net.

Previous Articles
RACER TURNED CHAPLAIN - posted on 26 Jan 2007
IT ALL BEGAN ONE MORNING! - posted on 28 Dec 2005