As the final red and white paint is applied to ARCA race car number 45, the squealing tires can almost be heard from Michigan International Speedway’s Aug. 19 race.
The car belongs to 24-year-old Clarkston native Michael Simko, a third generation driver who works for Mound Steel and Supply by day, while keeping his dream of racing for NASCAR alive on nights and weekends.
Even though Simko has his racing sights set on the checkered flag at MIS, he is cognizant of the challenges his Auburn Racing Enterprises team faces.
‘We’re a definite independent team. We don’t really have too many sponsors or a sponsor that gives us that much money,? said Simko. ‘It is pretty much just a family run team. My father, David Simko, 50, raced in the ARCA series 15 years on and off, and my grandfather, Elmer Simko, raced sprint cars around the state.?
Simko said his car is a template of the 2005 Monte Carlo chassis with a roll cage that is ‘sleeked out? to make it race worthy. The racing team owns five ARCA cars and two late-model style race cars.
Simko raced six of seven races this year and plans to race four more. The ARCA racing season starts at Daytona Speedway in February, the week before the Daytona 500, and races continue until the end of October.
‘If we don’t get a sponsor, and we haven’t yet, we don’t start our season until the end of March or early April,? said Simko. ‘We have only missed Daytona, and we have been picking and choosing which ones we go to based on our budget. Everything is out of mine and my father’s pocket.
‘This year we have had some really good runs, but the finishes haven’t been showing. We’ve had something really crazy go wrong right at the end of the race. At the Kentucky Speedway, in May, we were running fifth with 12 laps to go when I blew a tire and hit the wall. That took a good finish away from us. This past weekend we were running seventh with 20 laps to go and the transmission broke, so I had to pit under green.?
He said his best finish this year was 11th three times. He said he never won a race in the ARCA circuit, but in the past won the invitational at Owosso Speedway twice.
‘Our best ARCA series finish was sixth twice and we have had a bunch of top tens. The way we race, we are fighting financially. There are teams out there that run the whole series that spend $2?$3 million a year. We spend $20,000 – $30,000 a year. That is hurting us. They go all out. Money buys everything in racing. If you’ve got money, you buy horse power, you buy fast cars,? said Simko. ‘Even with that said, we still show up and we’re one of the top teams. Everybody knows we find it somewhere else. We don’t have the horse power that the top teams have.?
‘The guy that builds our motors gets a lot of deals from Diamond racing, one of our sponsors. That’s a big help. Mound Steel helps out quite a bit. They don’t just hand me a check, but they let me work on the car during the day. For the most part, it is all out of our pocket,? said Simko.
‘We’ll probably spend upwards of $50,000 this year, not including the cars and motors we already have. That’s all on top of what we have paid for those in the past,? continued Simko.
On a normal business day Simko is a crane operator at Mound Steel. He has worked at the family business since his freshman year in high school.
‘I started doing everything right away so I have been operating a lot of years,? said Simko. ‘Some people call work a second home. This is more like a first home to me as much as I’m here. I go home, take a shower, get up and do it all over again. That is my life.?
Keeping a hectic schedule Simko stays late to work on the cars until almost midnight. All of the cars are housed at Mound Steel in a three bay building where the mechanical work is done on the company trucks, said Simko.
There are nine men that volunteer as pit crew for the races. The team consists of five members of the Steenbergh family, Dan, Dave, Doug, Dean and Mike; John Krueger; Kevin Kowalkowski; Ed Degroot and Clarkston resident Ron Well. His mother, Sherry, 47, lives in Clarkston, and handles public relations department while attending every race.
Sadly Simko’s grandfather, Elmer, passed away in 2000.
‘That was a real rough time. That was my second year racing and he was real instrumental in getting me racing. My grandfather actually owned Owosso Speedway from 1988-1999, so I’ve grown up all around the race track all my life,? said Simko.
The Simko siblings are very involved in their brother’s racing. His sister, Lindsay, 22, is going to Western University and attends every race. Older siblings, Chris, 30, and Kelli, 27, live in the Charlotte, N.C. area and attend as often as possible.
‘As I have become more and more involved in racing, my brother has really tried to get stuff going for me. He moved down to Charlotte and got a job with a marketing company to help. He is still very involved in my racing and will be up for the MIS race next week,? said Simko. ‘The Charlotte area has become a bigger part of our life as I become more involved in racing.?
Charlotte is the center of NASCAR and Simko plans to one day make the jump from ARCA to NASCAR.
‘We really need a sponsor to do anything that big. We wouldn’t need $2-3 million, we could do it very effectively with $1 million,? said Simko. ‘My goal is definitely too either attract a sponsor or to attract a team owner and drive for someone at the NASCAR level. Until that happens, I will stay here and work for a living.?