2020 Eagle Raceway Sprint Car Champ Adam Gullion

BY GREG SOUKUP

WOW!!! Just a few days until the 2021 kicks off at Eagle Raceway with the Icebreaker Challenge leads us into our favorite season; RACING SEASON!!!

I spoke with Adam Gullion, the 2020 ICMCA Racesaver points champion. Although he garnered the points crown last season, which was his first at Eagle, it was not his first by any measure. But more on that later.

“This one has been a long time coming, for one reason or another. We should have 5 or 6 of them, but I’ll sure take this one for now! I got it out of the way finally and now I’m kind of left not knowing what I’m going to do in the future”.

I asked him if he was planning on winning more or not, and he replied “You know, at this point in my life, the younger Adam would have said ‘We’ve got one, let’s go for 2’. But I’ve gotten a couple of championships in the micros, I think 2 or 3 of those; and I was fortunate enough to win a 360 championship for Jimmy Turpin at Albion. So, I’ve won a couple of championships, including the Sprint Series of Nebraska points twice and now I get to add my name to the Eagle champions list. So, as I started to say earlier, the young Adam would have said ‘let’s stay here and get some more’, but at this point in my life my son is now 5 and he’s going to start racing cage karts and I’ve got a 2-year old little girl who I’m sure is going to be in gymnastics and everything else; I own and run a roofing company in Lincoln and we are extremely busy, I now also own a trucking company with 4 trucks running up and down the road now; we’re building a new house. I would like to say let’s go, but I have a lot going on right now”.

I wondered if we weren’t going to be seeing the number 91 around anymore, but he said not to worry. “I’ve got a development driver named Bobby Eubanks and he’s driving for us this year. As of right now we’re going to run around 10 shows right at the beginning of the year and run real hard! We’ll see how we do and reevaluate after that. Figure out if we want to go after some more or see what he wants to do. I actually started the winter off thinking that I was going to go 410 racing! I put all my efforts into going that direction, but then my wife lost her job, and for awhile there it was kind of questionable. I thought that running 410’s is never really financially responsible, and I definitely didn’t think it was responsible to go running 410’s; arguably one of the most expensive types of sprint car racing there is, especially on one income. I am very fortunate in that I do do very well, at least better than most but when you’ve got little kids and have to take care of everybody, I decided to dial it back. And then, the wife got the better job, so I said ‘Let’s go after this again!’, but eventually lost interest in it with everything else going on. In fact, my trailer won’t be here until this week, so I haven’t even had a trailer!! Everything that didn’t have to do with business has taken a back burner, but that’s just part of growing up I guess”.

I said to him “So, we won’t see ‘The Bull’ but we’ll see ‘The Bull’s’ car”. He corrected me stating “No, you’ll see ‘The Bull’. Over the last couple of years when you don’t win you get frustrated, so you go after it the next year and get frustrated, but you go after it again. After four or five years of that constant frustration…..we’ve been so close but for some reason or another it just didn’t pan out. The last couple of years I just haven’t had fun racing. It’s much more of a job now than it was before. We added Jordan to see if this development deal would work out. We’re modeling it somewhat after how Keith Kunz does it and what Frank Galusha does; I leaned on Frank quite a bit in fact. He helped me out with some of the particulars and some of the logistical things. Now that we’ve got so much other stuff going on, the quality of cars that we put on the racetrack, getting a new 53-foot trailer, and my trucking company and over the past nine years my roofing business has just grown exponentially bigger and busier, which I’m extremely grateful for. But it’s just gotten harder and harder to take care of my own dreams and take care of my family. We’ll see how my son does in the cage karts. I’m not going to push him. If it’s something that he wants to do, I’ll give him every ounce of my body and everything else I can give him to help him be successful! Right now, he wants to race, but if he finds out he doesn’t, we’ll find something else for him to do and enjoy. Most little boys grow up idolizing their father, they see him every day and want to be like him. He’ only 5 years old, but he’s my best friend and no matter how busy I am I try to take him with me. I always told him that I don’t care what he does or what he wants to be, he has to love it and want to be the best. Whatever that is, whether it’s golf or racing, as long as he wants to be the best that ever walked this earth, I’ll give him every ounce I’ve got”.

He went on by relating “I’ve been focusing more on my son lately than I have myself. I just don’t have the same interest anymore. So, as far as what my future is, I’m sure I’ll race forever in some form, at some level but I don’t think you’ll see me run for a championship ever again. At least, not on purpose. If we go out there, have fun and accidently win one, that’s great. But to start the year out with that goal, it’ll never happen again. I just want to have fun, win races and go home. When we started this deal with Bobby, we were going to travel. It was going to work out really well because we were going to run at Husets and race both the 410 and the Racesaver. Actually, I’ve got 3 cars now so we could have taken 2 Racesavers and the 410. Even with lofty goals, winters are long and it’s hard to stay dedicated and focused, and this winter was really rough. My mom had several health problems, Justin has been in the hospital 3 times with COVID. But I’m definitely ready for racing to get going; just so we can change our focus and start having some fun. I don’t plan on racing at any one track two weeks in a row, but I definitely will run the Racesaver Nationals. We’d like to split our time between some URSS stuff and Eagle. But out of convenience, I think you’ll see us out at Eagle more than I’m planning on currently. I’ve raced at Eagle since I was 16 years old, starting out in a 360; every weekend with the exception of the year I took off for my wedding. My heart is there, it’s my home track! I love the place. It’s definitely changed over the years. Drivers have come and gone, the track has changed, the owners have changed, but it’s hard for me to not want to be there. If we can go out there, have fun and distance ourselves from the drama of trying to win a championship, laugh and enjoy ourselves I’ll probably be there every weekend”.

Let’s all hope that they can have fun, laugh and enjoy themselves so we get to see them a lot!!!!