Randy Day: Built for Speed

Feb. 22, 2006

When Randy Day smashed his race car to smithereens in a spectacular high-speed collision at the Kalamazoo Speedway last year, Northern Michigan responded with a fundraiser to help get him back behind the wheel.
This weekend, Randy will return the favor, hosting a fundraiser at Streeters in TC to give something back to the community. The event will collect non-perishable food donations for the Father Fred Foundation in addition to hosting a silent auction for the Grand Traverse-Leelanau Department of Human Services. Mojo and the Boogieman will provide a blues backdrop for the event and Day’s new $30,000 NASCAR-style racing machine will be on display.
Day, 29, has the laid-back persona and good looks of a country music star, with a slight down-home drawl to his voice. He’s literally on a roll with his new car, an “outlaw Taurus” he co-owns with his cousin, Tim Brownwell. With a 302 hp Ford Stroker engine and a Port City chassis, the car is designed to handle the 100 mph races that Day competes in during the summer. “It’s built for racing with all new parts added,” he says. “There probably isn’t one thing on it that’s street-legal.”

THE CHAMP
The car is one of several that Day has owned through the years since the age of 15, growing up in a family with racing in its blood. He’s won close to 150 races, including a championship at the Northern Michigan Speedway in Elmira in 1998.
“Once racing gets in your blood it’s something you’re always going to do,” says Day, who competes in approximately 30 races per year, mostly at the Kalamazoo Speedway and occasionally at the Cherry Speedway near Kingsley.
Day’s specialty is racing NASCAR-style cars. “I’m in a weekly racing series that runs late model cars on a short track,” he says. “It’s faster racing than what you usually see on TV -- probably 10 or 20 miles-per-hour faster.”
Day is the son of Bob and Donna Day of Suttons Bay, both of whom were active in the racing lifestyle. His regular job is as a wire drawer at Alcotech, the world’s premier welding wire manufacturer, but his passion is with racing.
“I’ve been around racing my whole life,” he says. “My dad started racing when he was 18 back in 1965. He had a car he’d built but his mom wouldn’t sign a waiver to let him run it until he was 18. My own mom ran races in the early ‘80s and my cousin Tim has raced in Kalamazoo for 20 years.”
He got his own start racing at the age of 15 on the dirt track of what was then known as the 113 Raceway (now the Cherry Speedway).
“I had a 1967 Cougar -- that was my first race car. But I ran out of money and had to sell it; I sure wish I had that car now,” he says wistfully.

BEHIND THE WHEEL
What does it take to race? More guts or skill?
“Probably more skill,” he says. “When a car’s working right, it doesn’t feel fast; but when it’s not working right and it’s sliding all over, that’s when it takes guts.”
Day has had three really bad wrecks at the track in Kalamazoo.
“Last year I had a bad wreck. I was trying to miss a wreck on the track and had a part break down on my car. I hit the wall pretty much head-on at 100 miles per hour. The car went about six or eight feet in the air and came down on the driver’s side and slid into some cars that were wrecked in front of me.”
Was he scared? How did he feel?
“I was mad,” Day says. “I had so much adrenalin running through my body that I didn’t feel any pain for about an hour. Then I started feeling all the cuts and bruises.”
Although Day is only 29 and one of Northern Michigan’s top racers (if not the best), he says it’s unlikely he’ll ever race in the big time NASCAR series. “I’m probably too old for the Nextel Cup, but I could compete in the Craftsman Truck Series or the Busch Grand Nationals,” he says.
“Most owners are starting to look at real young drivers coming up,” he adds by way of explanation. “Drivers who are 15 or 16 years old are getting contracts for development. Then when they’re 18 they’re getting into the national series.”
Racing is an expensive sport. For starters there’s the weekly 200 mile drive to the track in Kalamazoo, then the cost of fuel and the car itself.
Fortunately, when Day wrecked his car last year, he picked up the sponsorship of Grand Traverse Resort and Casinos. “They came on board when my car was wrecked and that really helped because myself and my other sponsor were out of money,”

Check out Randy Day and his car this Saturday, Feb. 25 at Streeters in TC from 7 p.m. - 2 a.m. with a fundraiser for local people in need. NASCAR Steve from WKLT will be on the scene with giveaway prizes. Music by Mojo and the Boogieman. A $5 donation and non-perishable food items will be accepted at the door.