MADERA, California — Saturday night September 24th the Spears SRL Southwest Tour will return to the Madera Speedway for 140 blistering laps around the tricky 1/3 mile race track. In addition to the tour race there will be a fireworks display, nitro lawn mower races, and it is championship night for the local stars with triple points being awarded, and the top three drivers in the Spears Southwest Tour are just 48 points apart so “action” is the buzz word for the Mike Roos Memorial presented by Bob Strandwold Racing!
"As a tribute to Mike Roos, I tip my hat to all of you working so hard under those race cars that propel our great sport!"
In racing fans get to know the drivers names very well, but rarely do they get to know the names of the crew members, yet in most cases they are just as important as the drivers to the success of a race team.
Many in the grandstands or many reading this may not know the name Mike Roos, but most everyone in the pits knew him well and I was lucky to get to know him during the two seasons he worked for my Southwest Tour team.
Mike was born on September 18th in 1968, and he passed away on Christmas day 2010. Mike grew up in the Manteca/Ripon area around race cars and hung out with future west coast racing star Eric Holmes.
Mike worked very hard to forge his own place in racing, he went back east and worked for Darrell Waltrip, when he came back home he worked with many of the top drivers, too many to list but Jim Pettit was one of the drivers that will be racing this weekend that was on Mike’s resume. Along the way he built a reputation as one of a handful of guys on the west coast that could make a race car fly.
Mike worked for me as my crew chief during the 911 tragedy, and I remember flying my airplane to the Las Vegas race shortly after that time, in fact it was the week that airplanes could fly again as all planes had been grounded. Mike flew with me past Edwards Air Force base and then onto Las Vegas, Mike was a big part of the 911 memories for me and during the 10th anniversary of 911 he was at the forefront of my thoughts. We spent a lot of time together over those two years and spent much of that time talking about life and family.
After I decided to stop driving and take on the task of helping the local short tracks I missed my friends on the tour, I always enjoyed when the tour came to Madera as I would find Mike in the pits and share a laugh with him. We really missed Mike this past June when the tour cars made stop number at Madera, and it only seems right to have the September 24th race at Madera Speedway all about Mike Roos.
I enjoyed Mike’s friendship more than anything, he was fun to be around, he was fun to travel with, and most of all his love for the sport was infectious.
As a tribute to Mike Roos, I tip my hat to all of you working so hard under those race cars that propel our great sport!
Pit gates open at 1pm, grandstands open at 3:30pm, heat races start at 5pm, main events start at 6pm, Fireworks go off at 8:35pm, and the Mike Roos Memorial 140 SRL Southwest Tour race starts at 8:45pm. Visit racemadera.com for more information.
