Region 3 – North Central

Tell us a little about you & your family.  My wife Jill, who is also a chaplain, and I will celebrate our 35^th wedding anniversary this November!  We have four children and nine grandchildren.

How did you first connect with RFC?  How long have you been on staff?  We were introduced to RFC in the late ’90s at Norwalk Raceway Park at a Super Chevy show we attended.  I became a chaplain in 2004 and Jill joined me in 2005.  My first event was at an automotive swap meet where I did my first chapel service.  We served with Steve & Sharon Dunn at National Trail Raceway in Hebron, OH, at various times over the first few years of our ministry.  Moving to Arizona in early 2007, we served at a little dirt track in Surprise but ended up returning to Ohio in August of that same year.  Glenn Kreider, the Region 3 director at the time, asked us if we were interested in being chaplains at what is now Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk. We prayed about it and started visiting the several remaining weekends of the 2007 season. We met with Bill Bader, Jr., whose family owns the track, in early 2008 and have been track chaplains there ever since.  Jill & I accepted the North Central regional director position in January of 2019.

What’s the best part, for you, about serving with the ministry?  Serving God and our racing communities at the track! We love meeting new people, building relationships, and having the opportunity to meet the spiritual and emotional needs of our racing communities, serving them in any way possible.

Tell us about a favorite “God sighting” at a motorsports event where you were serving.  It’s just about every Sunday at an event:  holding chapel services, affirming our beliefs in our Lord and Savior, and performing baptisms at the racetrack…How cool is that?!

What’s a random fact most people don’t know about you?  I worked in industry for 40 years before taking the RD position with RFC. I have a background in tool & die making, industrial maintenance and electrical, and I once worked as a high-pressure steam welder at a power plant. And I love to play basketball!

Anything else you wanna share with our readers?  The RFC ministry has certainly stretched me and helped me to grow in my personal spiritual walk and has given me the assurance of God’s presence as we serve the racing community!  Although many times I have been out of my comfort zone, God has always gone before me as I have recognized the calling He has asked me to fulfill in serving others. It is in His strength, not our own, that we are blessed to do these things with a willing heart!!