My name is Mark Dewey. To some I am known as Dewey and that is it. We are an amateur race team. We don’t have a lot of money. We work hard on our car week in and week out. We have made our own parts. and we do what we can to have fun racing on the weekends.
We are the Weekend Warriors that are talk about. We are not in this to make money. We do this because this is our life.
Back when I was younger, our family was able to do some racing. My Dad was only able to do it for a few years, but he made the best of it. As a family, we always went to the tracks to watch. Dad and I aways talked about building a car. He past away in 2006 and we never got to make that happen.
So, back in 2007, we started racing at Jefferson Speedway. I took my Dads number and paint scheme. We started out in the Bandit class with a Dodge Shadow. The most unlikely car to race. We did a lot of learning our first year. We made a lot of ground. We came back in 2008 with the same car and kept on growing our knowledge. We had fun while doing this.
We sold that car and bought a Dodge Neon and moved up to a class called, Internationals. This class you could build a better motor, have adjustable suspension, and do so much more with the car. Like years past, we had a lot of learning to do. But we had some help doing it.
Not only did we have good help and a good car, we also had our issues. In Dewey fashion, we did lose a motor before the season even started. We were able to find another motor to keep us going. after the first week, we were able to get the car setup and running better where we finally found out what the car could do. But our issues continued. we lost that motor also. But, like we have always done, we found a motor and pulled it from the car and dropped it straight into the race car. We were able to finish off the season, but the car has some issues. We did what we could to get them fixed.
our 4th season over all racing, we continued with the Internationals. we continued to struggle with other issues and continued to learn. But close to the end of the season, our luck went worse and we wrecked the car. completely destroying it. After healing up, we went to work building a new car. Made some changes and did everything we could to make it better. But life has cause us to not race and had to sell everything.
Couple of years pass by (2015), life was getting back on track. New life choices were able to allow me to return to the track. Came back to Jefferson Speedway driving a Road Warrior for someone to allow me to get back in and see if this is what I truly wanted to get back to. We were able to get our own car and continued in that same class.
We did what we could and finally winning our first ever feature in 2018. We have won a hand full of heat races, but to finally win the feature was what it took. We continued to drive that car till end of the 2019 season.
2020 came around and we took everything we have learned over the years and build a brand-new car. we have built a couple others in the past, but nothing like this. This car has gotten many upgrades sense it being built. And every year a lot of work has gone into it. Thus, making this car one of the top cars in our area today. I may still only won a couple handful of features and heat races, but we continue to enjoy the sport.
2024 will not be like the rest. We will be traveling to many different tracks this year. But first thing is first, Time to cross a bucket list item off. Ever sense I was a kid, always want to go to Bristol Motor Speedway to watch whatever racing we could. Our family grew up having to always work to make things happen. So we never had the money to do it. Then after I started racing, this became a dream of mine. So now, this year, 2024, we will be checking 2 boxes off of my list. The Road to Bristol is happening now.
I can only imagine the smile on my Dad and Moms face as we prepare to make the biggest race in our family’s life. I know it won’t be easy, and I don’t expect it to be. I am going to carry on my Families legacy.
