This week on the Racing Insiders Podcast, Kate and Jimmy welcomed Bill Lupinos from Fastrak Racing Series. 

Bill, Fastrack has been around for quite a number of years. But you are newer to the whole Fastrack World. Tell us tell us a little bit about how that all worked out? (1:59)

Well, my family and I bought Richmond Raceway in Kentucky, which is where I'm currently sitting because we live in a racetrack we're starting our seventh season. And two years in, I actually became the series director for the ultimate Heart of America super late model series working under a fast track companies International. And, you know, as time kind of went on, you know, worked a lot with Stan and Mary Kay and all and he had brought up to me maybe a year or so ago, and actually, where you're at now, about two years ago, about potentially taking over buying the entire company, because you know, his health wasn't the best. And he's having you know, a lot of surgeries, and just a lot of things just weren't really going their way where he could race often he couldn't go to races, you know, you don't have all of us and then COVID destroyed everything basically for you know, a lot of the racing industry and all. And so then I'd have to say it was the World Championship in 22. We went to Virginia Motor Speedway, and you know, metal out with them and everything. And that's when he asked me to come on as Vice President. And I did that starting in December. And then February, he came and said that it's time to basically do the paperwork, sign this cross the T's and let's do it. So March 23, march 24, we signed everything pulled out of there with trucks and trailers, and we're we've been running everything ever since. We're all developed.

How did you even get back get into racing in the first place, you've owned a series now for about a year. And you own the racetrack a couple years before that. But like, how did you get involved? You know, what's your backstory here? (3:43)

I grew up going to Lebanon Valley Speedway in New York with my dad, who was a scorer there. Since I was a little little kid, I mean, I cannot remember not going. It was every single Saturday night. You know, I went and sat in the stands while he worked. And then when I got a little bit older, a little bit older mean like seven or eight years old. Uncle Aarthi announcer they're brought me in and gave me some jobs to do. You know, I started working the lap counter up and turn one and you know, just doing all these different things as I was growing up. And then when I graduated high school, my dad decided it was time to hang that up because he, you know, didn't have to bring me anymore. And that's what I hooked on with a big block modified team for a couple years and kind of learn that side of it. And then left and joined the United States Army and got out of that and was living far far away and got a job with PepsiCo, which was my career that I took the retirement from, found Richmond raceway on Facebook that is being sold. We came and look at it actually, ironically, we're living just outside of Seattle, Washington. We were across country driving in the RV to go to the world finals to Charlotte stopped and looked at the track Halloween of 17 I came back in December did the paperwork on that and moved here in February of 18. And here we are.

So I could keep going. But that's pretty much it in a nutshell. So here we are. And you know, we do still own and operate Richmond. It's tough nowadays with nine tracks within three hours or running on Saturday night. So with us having the series stuff as well, we kind of only scheduling here nine or 10 weekends, kind of trying to go off weekends at some other tracks so we can kind of work together and some things. And then we do travel with fast track and ultimate Heart of America ourselves, myself and my family, we run those races, you know, we don't have them franchised out or anything like that. We actually physically go run those. So once we kick off the race season, we're either on the road or here running a race pretty much every weekend from April till October.

So you have the Ultimate Southeastern as well? (5:53)

Kelly Carlton is our series director. He is still running that completely for us actually just saw Kelly this weekend at the SI group show, we went and set up down there at that. And Kelly was there with his SEDRA and talked to him a little bit and all that. But yes, I also bought that as part of the deal. And Kelly runs out for me. So we kind of just let him do his thing. You know, send them the checks and the paperwork, he sends it back. And he does it for us. And we don't have to worry about that. But the other two branches, I do run myself.

You have the weekend warrior racing. Why don't you tell us about that? (6:23)

Yeah, it's actually our whole backdrop is behind me. But the way we got to position that's only when you really see our weekend where we program. You know, we do sign on some tracks to be weekend, weekly racing tracks with us, there is no cost to the track. And then the drivers either $100 membership makes them eligible for the point fund. And their best 15 finishes throughout the season after home track or if they travel around to other fast track sanctioned Tracks add up to be you know, add up and then you have the champion. And we do pay 10,000 to the champion paying the top 10 points. And we just had our banquet last weekend. And I think it was about $22,000 We paid out and weekly point fun money to our you know, our weekend warrior racing guys. And last year, VP came on as the presenting sponsor for that. And you know, last year we went into CS, we only have two weekly tracks. And we have four currently still working on a few more. So it's fully grown back. We're working on it.

You still have the touring side as well, right? (7:16)

We do have the touring side as well. I know that in 22, there was only one race that was a world championship in 21. They didn't run a single race. Last year, we had five right now we have eight on the schedule, which who more than about that I will have on once we're done. The goal was 10. And we should be right at that goal. Reason The goal was 10. As I said, like I said ultimate heard of America, that goal was 10 to 12 races, then I have the race track. And so we're kind of setting the goals of 10 to 1290 series and then what we have to do here and we figured that's a nice little solid, solid series. You know, you don't need a 40 race regional series. That's too much if we can keep attended. Well, the guys seem to like that.

Do you still have a world championship race at the end? (7:54)

We didn't have that last year. What we actually did, and I'll give you a little backstory on this as well. We actually took the weekend warrior championship and the Series championship and tied it all to the 2 day Show at my track, which it was the sixth annual Damn Yankees 50 And it was 5000 win, which is what has been all along for 2024 it's gonna go up to 10,000. We ran a Friday night 5000 And a Saturday 5000 for 2024. We're going to run a 3000 Friday and a 10,000 Saturday. And that will actually be our championship race. And at those two races we also did give away to GM604 GM performance great motors. In a random drawing you sign in and attempt to qualify your name was in it had a little kid from the grandstands pull the names? Chetty Currents won on Friday night Tommy Bailey won on Saturday night I had the motors here on the ground, so they got to load them up and take them home. And the Damn Yankees 50 I said is better. I'll tell you when we first moved here. I'm from New York, my wife is from Connecticut. Someone said on Facebook that the Damn Yankees need to go back to Yankee town. So I named the race after it. And now this will be the seventh annual Damn Yankees 50.

There isn't a world championship. But we do the biggest race of the year is 10,000 win. And that would be the weekend warrior and the Series championship with a motor giveaway. And two days, two separate races. Two shows. And that'll do it. That'd be September 20 & 21st.

A topic that comes up a lot, you know, just along the racing industry and and I would say it comes up on this podcast quite a bit. Probably because it's always top of mind is, is just talking about how racing has turned into a year round sport. And that so many of us miss having an offseason. So I just commend you for for the fact that you clearly have some sort of an offseason. I mean, if you're going to end in September with with one of your ideals, and even if you end in October with with ultimate, but then you know, I take it you're not starting up in November. Here, you're probably waiting until - when is your first race April? (9:50)

April 20. For fast track, we'll be in North Georgia, and April 13. week before we're at Paragon up in Indiana with ultimate herd of America. So we are taking off ultimately will end in October again. So by November 1, we are done until April with both of the series ultimate se starts next week actually March 9, but he has little better weather opportunities down there where he is. So but yeah, we do take an actual offseason.

What tires are you guys on? (12:46)

For all these years we had the FT 204 & 400. And you know, Hoosiers doing away with a lot of the special things such as that. Sso we are running those this year as a burn off if people haven't they can run them but we are going with the National Late Model tire as that is where you know the direction Hoosier is trying to go and by having everyone on that same tires just going to be a good thing in the future I feel but we are going with the National Late model 2, 3, and 4 - 4 year burn off on the 200 & 400 A lot of my thought process on that is I know that a lot of you know smaller crate teams especially some of the weekend teams can go and buy those used tires from those big you know traveling super guys. Specially my guys up in West Virginia area that aren't that far from Rocket and all that we're you know they can go buy a tire that's still good and serviceable used relatively cheap and go run on so you know we are going like say the National Late model 2,3,4 four year burn off of the 200 & 400 So far I have I've had all positive feedback on that. So hopefully that won't change.

Hoosier doing that, do you think that's part of it is because they were taken over by Continental? And, and it's a way of having more efficiency? Or is are really, really trying to get serious to sign on to this national drilling model tire? Or was it the series that we're asking for a universal tire? (17:18)

Yeah, I honestly don't have an answer for that, I can just tell you that when I reached out to Hoosier with us, you know, having taken over and all that last year was locked into the FT tires, you know, big part of our conversation was just that, you know, they don't want to continue to make 1000 different tires. And then when, you know, they told me what their current inventory was on the FT and I knew that there were some racers that still have them. And you know, we kind of walked through that of allowing them for the year, they are giving a discount to people that they want to buy these FTs, they are discounted, which is a good thing, too. You know, it just made sense, knowing what the big picture was, was to try to get it where everybody's on the same tires, just doing it. You know, why go any different route with it, let's just do it now and be in front of it when Hopefully, everyone comes around to the same idea. So I think it benefits everyone, if we're all in this entire, you know, anybody could go anywhere and start with one series at night, you know, it pours at five o'clock, there's another series running two hours down the road, they can hightail it down the highway and race another series, and they're not worrying about tires. To me, that would be perfect. 

So this year, they can run either the FT tires, or the FT Universal, the 200, 300, or 400. What are those compounds like? The FT 200, which would be like the 1350 I believe, and then the FT 400 was like the 1650? In CrateRacinUSA numbers. How does this tire fit in? (18:39)

200 is the equivalent to the 3 is what they told me and then the 4 is very equivalent to the 400. So guys won't see much of a drop off or change in anything if they're doing what they what they're doing. And in the past Fastrack didn't allow grooving and siping, we are going to allow that 100% this year. One of the reasons for that is if they are buying a used tire from the big super team, and it's already been grooved in sight. Then what you know that I'm saying go buy the tire from these guys, but I can't run it. So we are allowing them to grooving siping across the board, fts. And then that's all the models just so that they can just go and buy them and run with them. It just makes it easier and just I feel a better fit for everybody.

Well, I'm glad to hear that there's not any particular advantage. You know, if there's a lot of equivalency between, you know, with the two hundreds and the threes and then the 400 and the fours, you know, you always hear like, Well gosh, well then, now we've got five tires to choose from now we have to buy five tires. Right 20 tires just to make it through one race, because one tire is going to be better than the other and, and it, it's like it's a whole thing. (19:44)

We're trying our best to make it as easy as we can for everyone. And then you know, we do know that by next season FT should be 100% gone by what the current inventory is. And then we'll just go straight to three, four. And you know, people can just go with a gray, so that single race for the Supers. They can just do whatever they want, and make it a lot easier in the big picture.

Now is the two softer then? I take it the four is the hardest. (20:29)

Now they're making. They're making a 2.25 now, right?

Tell us about your victory lane sponsor this year (20:44)

Victory Fuel is actually the sponsor for Fastrack Racing Victory Lane this year. If you're not familiar with Victory Fuel, it's an electrolyte water. It's actually made by Kevin and Jordan Swindell. And getting pretty largely into racing. They were you know, the sponsor of Logan Stevie's car when he when he won the Chili Bowl again. And they're getting big on that. But yeah, that's Kevin and Jordan's. Drink and it's an electrolyte water. It's not an energy drink, no caffeine. And it's actually really, really good. And they are Victory Lane sponsor. 

Do your racers ever talk about like trying to do anything with the rules as far as like the shocks and springs or any of that type of stuff? You guys are wide open, right? Like everybody else? (21:43)

The one thing that we had that we did change in the rules for this year is in FastTrack rules that did not allow the Triple Adjustable Shock, where other series did and I was asked about it last year. And once we rolled into the season, I wasn't going to make a rules change in you know, after X amount of races, because it's just not fair to people. But here in the offseason, I actually asked a few racers and all and I did look at other series rules. And seeing that other series were allowing them we did make that change to allow them as well. I did put that out at our meeting that we had at our banquet and everybody thought it was good change and you know, on board with it. I mean, I do I look a lot at other series rules before we make any kind of change because we really want to try to be as uniform as we can with other people. Because you know, last year, other series relying triple we were not so if they want to come race with us, so you had to buy or change or whatever. And that's just more work and more money for them. So I'm trying to avoid that if I can. 

If everybody went to a single spring, you know, you get rid of the spring smashers, you get rid of the pull down rigs, you get rid of all that. I mean, I mean, obviously the shock that stuff would be like, I'm a big proponent for the fact that like, you know, I don't know, if the, the, the the entry level series need to be on the wide open stuff. Yeah, I mean, it's so expensive. Yeah. And then beyond, you know, the, the the engineering, tech, you know, expertise, you have to have to run that stuff. But I've been like a Triple Adjustable, a double adjustable is bad enough, a Triple Adjustable is, you know, like, you know, you have to have, you know, you have to really know what you're doing in order to like, you know, to change that. (22:58)

I agree. And like I said, The only reason we went to it is because I saw that is literally what everyone else was running. So, you know, we were making it where these guys had to make a change to come run with us. And I tried to avoid that. I mean, the more you can make it uniform for people, the more cars we're all gonna get run to me one week and another series the next weekend, because we're off, that's awesome. And, you know, kind of bounce around and run for points with whomever but run other places. And, you know, that's how we all win. So, you know, hopefully other people will kind of see it that way eventually.

What's your favorite track Bill? (25:22)

It may not be as easy as it sounds because growing up is obviously Levana Valley Speedway, it'd be easy to say my own but I have a love hate relationship with my own. So I actually really love going to the dirt track in Charlotte when we go to the World Finals. I just think that place is awesome. Just the whole atmosphere, the racing the whole everything about it is I just I love going to Charlotte. It's just it's fun. I mean, it's funny too, because we call it a vacation but it's not really because I talked to a lot of people I know a lot of things and asked me questions, but it is still a vacation. But, you know, the easy answer would be Mountain Trek. Like I said, I have a serious love hate relationship with with her. 

I thought it was really cool how you gave away two engines at your at your big final race. It was that part of that was sponsorship or how did that work out? (31:57)

Yeah, part of our deal with GM to be our presenting sponsor for Fastrack because it is Fastrack racing series powered by GM performance is we do receive the motors and it was designed to give them away. So we just figured that doing it at our championship race on the whole weekend like that, tried to come up with as random of a way possible to do it. So we just basically made the criteria is you have to sign in, you have to attempt to qualify. And you have to have the sticker on your car, the decal that we give you which I checked as it came through the scale area and took pictures, make sure they have them. And then each time when we finished up, Wesley Outland was announcer for FastTrack, you know, he was here. And he found a random little kid each night and had them come down on the track and pull the name out of the hat. And so it was about as random as you could get. And I thought it's about it's fair as you could get. And the only reason that we made it, the way we made it was we didn't want it to be where someone signed in just to be eligible for the motor and never even took the racetrack. We also didn't want it to be where if you went out and tried to qualify and blew your motor on the first lap, you weren't eligible. So want to make it as fair as possible. So you sign in, you sign in and you attempt to qualify you are eligible to win the motor, you didn't have to run the feature, you need to have to qualify for the feature. There's so many other criteria where somebody would be like, you know, someone in the feature gets it or someone not qualified yet. We just want it open to everybody. So you know, Friday night, it was Chandy Currents. And then Saturday night is Tommy Bailey, which is kind of cool because one of our weekend warriors traveling over to race with us. And then Tommy's a local guy that was always a super late model driver that started running a crate. And I think he finished in the top five, and I took he was on the front page for an interview. And then he won, you know, he wanted a motor. So it's kind of cool. That was one of our travelers and one of our more local that both got one. And like I said we had them in house. So they got to leave physically with the motor. So it was kind of cool.

I think you did a great job of setting that up. Because you also want to make sure it's going to a racer, a race to the races with you, you know, rather than than somebody who just is going to get it and then sell it. I mean, you want someone who's going to like really be able to use the product and exactly, I think that's that's great. (33:55)

Yeah, and ironically, I just saw Tommy Outside Groove show Saturday and ask them how it was going and he said is really awesome. And you know, a lot of times Tommy starts later in the year because he always sends out all stuff and all that and I see getting started a little sooner this year and he said absolutely. So that's a good thing. So it helped him get rolling sooner. You know, having a brand new 604 ready to go.

So our current plan is to do it again this year, you know, as long as I want to have them in house to do it. I don't want to be where here's a certificate and I'll get in touch with your motor gets here. So hopefully we'll have him in house again. And we can do the same exact thing coming in this year on the Friday and Saturday routine, because you know We just basically picked them up with our wrecker and put them in the back of people's pickup trucks and away they went once we broke up in the case and national crate and all that. 

Where was your banquet? (35:39)

Our banquet was in Kingsport, Tennessee at the Marriott Meadow View, something like that resort. It was really nice place was absolutely beautiful. I mean, they have all this banquet space, brand, brand new renovated, it was just huge. And we got a nice room and got all set up. We actually had my track & series photographer, Jimmy Pittman come make the trip. So we got real pictures instead of cell phones, like we did at the banquet last year. And it was the food was really good. You know, everyone had a really good time and handed out a lot of money. And a lot of trophies and a lot of good stuff. So yeah, between the three series and we can where we get $68,000 Go up in point money So yeah, the thing is, you got to sign up to be a member. And it's only $100. And you got to do it by a certain time, which is, you know, that is in our rules. And a lot of people they don't want to do that $100 For whatever reason, then banquet time comes and you know, they would have been getting a check for, you know, $2000 or $3,000. And they're not because they weren't a member. So, you know, maybe it's worth paying that $100.

You know, it's funny too, because with a series we had both Ultimates and FastTrack. The deadline is literally the completion of the third race. And when we when we mean by completion is literally while we're still on the grounds at the track you can sign on. And it was funny because our third race last year was that Elkins and Colby Quick whop being our champion hadn't signed up yet. And he came into the trailer and want to know exactly how the points stood, where he was how it all worked out. We explained it to him, he got his membership right there on the spot before we left and ended up winning the $5,000 fast track championship. So you know, when when I was telling a story at our meeting that we had at the banquet, and Colby was there, and he's kind of laughing about it. Because, you know, when we say completion of the third race of the series, we literally mean before we pull out of that track that you need to sign on, or, you know, it's it's too late. And we have no problem doing it in our trailer that night at the end of the race. We don't care when you do it. Just you have to do it by that third race. But as you know, the completion of the third race.

Now, did they have to do it in person, or can they do it online? (38:02)

They can do it online. Everything's on our website. We've actually already gotten I think five weekend warrior members already in the mail this year. From actually Virginia Elkins and Latrobe already three of the tracks have already sent in, you know, some of their drivers have already sent in membership forms and all their paperwork. So they're already ready to go. And you know, we haven't even started racing it. So no they can go on the website. Fulfilled up there you go, Luke. Yeah, he came up with $5,000. But you know, they can go on the website if they want to sign up for Fastrack or weekend warrior, all of the paperwork is on there. They can, you know, just fill it out, mail it into us, and we'll get you in the system and you're ready to go. So it's pretty easy.

Being a series owner, has there any been anything that's been like the biggest surprise to you, you know, that you didn't expect? (38:48)

Well, not really, because having been the series director for the heart of America, for those, you know, those years, I was already involved in all the, you know, the scheduling of the races and going to the tracks and running the races. I think the only big change was just the now I'm responsible to find all the marketing partners and sponsorship where before, you know, that was above me and corporate and I just kind of went out schedule and ran races. Now, you know, I've spent my offseason working on all of this other stuff along with the booking of the races and all that, but when it comes to actually just race day stuff, it's you know, it's no different than it was, you know, we just kind of go in and do our thing.

Have you found the trade shows to be a helpful resource for you as you either you know, on one side where you're trying to book races but also for you know, working with with sponsors? (39:37)

Definitely. Between going to PRI we went on Thursday, Friday and walked around a lot. I want to get out of there before Saturday because I've heard horror stories about Saturday. But you know, we went on Friday said already walked around and talk to you know, a ton of people we already are tied to some new people, and all that type of thing, then we came to the CARS show, you know, people we didn't know already in the business, some racers that have raced with us with all the different series would come and talk to us. I actually did walk out of there with a deal with someone who was there at your show. So you know, that was a win. Yes. And, you know, that was good. And then this Outside Groove show that we just went to this past weekend, we actually have three, three new marketing partners on board, one for our future cup, stars investor excited and then a fast time sponsor for fast track and a hard charger for fast track all that will be getting announced over the next week or so. So you know, we left Outside Groove with three we left cars with one, so yeah, and it's all down.

Well, that's what we've always prided our show on is the is the fact that you can have real conversations and get some real business done. And, you know, that's, that's really helpful, which I guess does lead us to, you know, of course, I'm always a little bit selfish, like, oh, by the way, how to trade shows where the tradeshow director here, but um, I want to take a look at my calendar here, because we've got an announcement, we were going to, of course, we're going to be announcing this Oh, and a post, press release, whatever you want to call it. But we have a date for our next cars racing show. And that date is and I have to bring up a calendar because I, I was thinking about the Saturday and it is going to be January 10 &11th of 2025. So January 10 and 11th.We really worked on I'm sure you can appreciate this Bill, that it's so hard to find a date that stands alone, that you're not up against something major. And I know there's different theories, but we found that it's always been challenging to be up against the Ice Bowl. So we we worked, you know, straight up with, with Adam over there and said, Okay, when is the Ice Bowl, because we don't want to be on the same weekend as you. So we are scheduling the CARS Racing Show for January 10 and 11th. And hopefully, that'll bring in, you know, some more racers that rather than being at the Ice Bowl that couldn't make it to the Ice Bowl and make it to CARS, we we've lost that to be the case. So we're very excited that we've worked that out. And like I said, we'll be putting out a post. But, you know, this is the first time we're announcing this anywhere else is is to say January 10th and 11th. And, of course, we got to get all this information out to our exhibitors and the racers and, and the whole world to hear. (41:03)

We will plan on attending again, because I'd have gone two years in a row the first year last year, we just I just went and we walked around and all that. And then this year, we you know, we did have the booth with you guys and on we will definitely be returning because last year I actually got a marketing partner deal out of there. And then this year, I did as well. And, you know, we'll come hang out again. Your location is perfect to I mean, those hotels are right there and they're really nice and comfortable. And I mean, your location is just absolutely perfect. I know the first year we went, my wife and I were looking okay, where are we gonna stay and I pulled up the hotel. I'm like, that's literally right next door. Literally right next door.

What are some of your future plans or some of your goals for the for Fastrack and Ultimate? (49:12)

We just want to kind of build the schedules a little bit more and like I said, right now the 10 to 12 is what we're shooting for. Can't say that'd be the same mixture, you know, you'd kind of never know what's going on. I would love to be able to have even higher and better point funds for you know, a lot of that comes with some, you know, more sponsorship and marketing partners, and more races and racetracks to come on board with you. I think that's kind of my biggest thing is I'd really like to get it to be aware Uh, you know, we can pay out even more than we just did. Because, you know, it's an expensive hobby for these, these racers, and, you know, if we can give something back to them, you know, that's a good thing. But, you know, we just, you know, we want to go out and just kind of try to be fair and equal to everybody and just put on some good races for the fans and treat everyone well, and hopefully have some good turnouts and some good racing and kind of go from there.

What areas are your racers from? (50:26)

It totally depends on what we're running where and when, because, you know, with our weekly tracks are now being, you know, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, you know, that's where a lot of our weekend warriors obviously are from, you know, then they all did a majority of them did come here last year and race with us. When you hit, you know, the ultimate Heart of America, we pull out of Indiana and Ohio and Kentucky drivers and Tennessee, also, you know, Colby Quicker champions in North Carolina. And, you know, he's said he's gonna follow again this year, so, you know, he'll be with us on the road going everywhere. So, you know, we kind of have a pretty good reach in a lot of different number of states of people that have raced between the three series. So, you know, kind of tough to really say where they're all from. 

Do you have any thoughts about streaming? Are any races going to be streamed? Tell us a little bit about that. (53:57)

We're actually signed on with PitRoad TV over with Tony Stephens and his group there yet we're signed on with them to have a current three year contract that we literally just signed going into this offseason here and all of our races will be on Pit Road TV and you know, people want to get a subscription or watching the can, but it's always good if you're in the local area to come out to the race because my feeling on streaming is it's great for people that are not within a certain driving distance of the track. But if you are within a couple hours of racetrack go out to the racetrack and you know, have a hot dog and get dirty and watch them racing live because there's still nothing like watching live in in person. Because you know, I have Flow and I had to DirtVision and I watch all the stuff from Order and I watched this and I watched that, I enjoy it. But it's not like being at the racetrack. But you know, we are on PitRoad TV. And I do hope that people around the country around the world for that matter will watch our racing. But I do hope people that can drive to the racetrack will come out and watch it live in person.

Do have a favorite Sprint car driver? (58:16)

We all generally prefer David Gravel. He's from Connecticut. And, you know, my whole family, including myself, I was born in Torrington, Connecticut also, but I was raised in New York. My entire family was raised. It was born in Connecticut. So, you know, when we went to the World Finals, I'd watch world of outlaws sprint cars for years. I mean, they used to come to the Lebanon Valley. I mean, I watched with Steve Kinzer and Doug Wolfgang and all these guys, but we were kids. Yeah. When we went to the World Finals when my my boys were young. As soon as my older son heard David Gravel was from Watertown, Connecticut. He event immediately started rooting for David gravel. And then you know, we all just kind of followed suit with that with you know, because he's from where we were all from. So we we do work for David Gravel on a pretty regular basis. But we like Rico too, Rico is awesome.