Chasing the Thrill Frank Galusha
Frank was born into racing. His dad raced at the same track that Frank now races at. Being a second-generation racer, allowed Frank to take what his father learned the hard way and apply it much earlier in his racing career. Frank’s success over the years has led to a full-fledged racing career and the whole family goes when he races. Watch this behind the scenes video of Frank at Kam Raceway chasing the thrill.
Frank: “What’s crazy about racing is, it's been a part of my whole life. My dad raced before I was born, so like I was just kind of born into this. And you know, I've had a lot of success over the years, so it's just led me down this path where now I've got like a full-fledged career. I've won one, I've got second once and then I got upside down racing for the lead the first night, so shame on me. But we're going good, the equipment's working well, the engine runs great, the driver just has to show up and do his job."
"That's the most non-vocal human being you'll ever meet right there.”
Frank’s Father: “I don’t know about that. I got something to say I usually say it, but it's not very often.”
Frank: “It's not very often. I'm the general manager of EMi. I run the day-to-day operation for business and I manage six fabricators. Not a big group, but we get a lot of work done and there's a lot to keep track of.”
“Do you want to go racing?” Do you want to meet my friends? Do you like that color? Yeah? I couldn't decide. I was going to get you another pink one and I thought you already got a pink one, so we did a blue one.”
Producer: "Where are we heading tonight?"
Frank: “Kam Raceway in Hastings Nebraska. It's what I would call my home track I've raced there since 1997. It's a small track so it lends for close racing all the time, you know there's not a lot of time to breathe you're always in traffic it's a little more intense than you know racing on a bigger track. The kid that preps the track does an amazing job preparing the racing surface for us so we have multiple grooves of racing. You know that makes it exciting not only for us as drivers but for the fans to watch."
Race Director: “Alright, thank you all for coming out. I see a couple new guys out here, couple people traveled a long way. If you're new to the track, we enter here, exit on this side. When you exit the track, please go around and then down. There's a slight chance in the forecast we might get some rain later, we’re just going to have to keep things rolling all night. Every class after the feature, no matter what, top-5 scale then we’ll let you know from there what we're taking”
Frank’s Father: “I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have this to do. I've been racing with Frank since ’97. This track is where I bought my first car from a guy up here by the name of Rob Libker. And then I continued to race up here for quite a few years, then obviously when Frank was old enough we raced up here quite a bit.”
"Motor sounded good, you know I think we're pretty good. Looked good anyway. He's looking at the fuel right now, so he'll look at the O2 sensor see if we need to make any adjustments."
Frank: “It just seemed like it had a hesitation on takeoff. This little doodad right there is where it closes. This was my best lap. My average is 84.7 I mean we're like 85 across the board, but my lap times are really slow, so I don’t know.” “Who's that? Do you remember him? What'd he bring you last time?
Frank’s Daughter: “Koala.”
Frank: “I got a kid from Australia here with me. The next week we go to one of the biggest races in the country, he's going to commentate so he stays with me for a couple weeks."
“What is this?”
Frank’s Daughter: “Play-Doh”
Frank: “What’s all over your head?” Why are you doing that?”
Frank: "Did your new numbers feel fast?”
Alex: “They look cool, don’t they? I like them.”
Frank: “Yeah I got a few friends, especially working in the industry it's nice to have relationships with as many people as you can. I mean I've been doing this for a long time and I've learned the hard way on a lot of things, so I mean to help others shorten that learning curve is a big deal because I also have to go share the track with them too, you know. It's also like a family because the people you meet that are also passionate about it, that also compete or do this, they do understand because they're in it too and so those are the people that I'm closest with. I've got friends all over the world that do this because of it, so it’s neat.”
Frank’s Father: “Look Zac, we’re on TV. I even got the microphone.”
Zac: “Lucky you.”
Frank’s Father: “Good motor man! Ran good!"
Frank: “We made some really good laps. I was cautious the first few just to make sure I gave myself enough time to get by cars that were slower and then when we got to the lead and got clean air we just held it to the floor for the rest of the race. I wouldn't say we were very far off in hot laps, we made just a minor adjustment to the fueling and it looked really good. I have a lot of technology on my race car that acquires a lot of data. It tells me my air/fuel ratios, I have an O2 sensor in my exhaust pipe, it shows me my RPMs, my lap times, my fuel pressures, battery voltage, water temperature, so I know that it's running at its most optimum performance.”
Frank’s Father: “So one, two, three. I got four gallons in there and that's just about perfect.
Frank: “You getting the light show back there?”
Frank’s Father: “I hope that ran ain’t coming this way. Yeah they’re going East.”
Friend: “Maybe we’ll get through it and then have to drive home through crap.”
Frank: “He's going to get put to the back he went too early. So they let him go, that's not fair. At this track, it’s just Club racing, so what they do is after two weeks they start you by your season point average, so the best averages start in the back and the lower averages start in the front. I'm pretty confident we'll get to the front. We just have to be sort of cautious on the way through there, you can't be too cautious because there's a lot of cars to pass obviously and you don't have a ton of time, but you don't want to be overly aggressive and junky your equipment either.”
“Make sure you get the hair, he'd done it up for you.”
Frank’s Father: “She's chasing that dirt, that grandma.”
Frank’s Mother: “Last minute inspection.”
Frank’s Father: “What’s his name?”
Frank’s Daughter: “Cash!”
Frank: “Given my parenting situation, my daughter only gets to come about every other week, but she loves the races. She'll tell you if you ask her, she wants to be a racecar driver. I don't know how I feel about that because it's exciting for me because obviously it's my passion and I would love to share my passion with my child, but on the other hand, I understand the dangers of what I do and to put my child out there it would be nerve-racking to say the least.”
“They're filming you.”
Producer: “Isn’t it past your bedtime?”
Frank’s Daughter: “No, I’m at the races!”
Frank: “What time is your bedtime? You don't know? Just when Daddy says go to bed. You don't go to sleep when I put you to bed anyway. What do you usually do?
Frank’s Daughter: “I watch TV. It’s my favorite!”
Frank: “My best nights are when my daughter's here. She kind of keeps me at ease, so sometimes I wonder if I get to come home if I don't win when she's around because she gets upset more than I do.” “I've lost friends over racing because growing up in the summertime when I'm not in school or whatever, I'm in the garage working on race car stuff and then all weekend long I'm traveling across the country racing and competing and trying to make something of this racing thing."
“This is my baby man. Everything about it is me. It’s nice to have something that you put your heart and soul into to go compete with. I don't know it's just the one thing that I've always just been so passionate about for my entire life and I've literally dedicated my life to it."
Announcer: “Better tighten those belts a little tighter because we are going to go 25 fast laps around Kam Raceway! 99A Alex Owen. He got pinched down there, causing it to go upside down. He was running really good tonight, probably sitting fourth or fifth. Race fans, good news down there on the front stretch. Let’s Alex Owen hear you!”
“Let’s hear a roar for the feature race winner of the night, number 12, Frank Galusha!”
Frank’s Father: “Good job Frank!”
Frank: “That was the first time a racetrack wore me out a little bit this year.”
Frank’s Father: “She looked a little rough. Three and four she was really stuck.”
Frank: “I kind of remember in the beginning I was trying to be maybe too cautious because the track’s really rough and tricky and just observing previous features in the other classes, a lot of guys were crashing and tearing equipment up. I kind of wanted to let everything sort out before I really started going hard. Then I remember getting to a point where I was like, ‘okay it's time to go’ and I just started getting after it. The white car was running the high side in front of me and he was kind of in the lane I wanted to be in but he was better than the guy that was on the low side and that guy was just glued to the bottom not coming up, so I just waited a couple laps before they got next to each other and I just decided it's I'm done being patient, I'm going. You can't win the race in the first five laps, it's the last lap that counts, so I just took my time and when I had openings I took them and once I got out in a second I knew I could run down the leader which I did and then it was just smooth sailing from there. I got a lot of momentum right now, I've got two in a row that last one was last Saturday and the next one I'm going to is for a lot of money so you know I need this momentum I need to have results so I can be confident when I go to the next one.”