Before I could walk, my family was taking me to the drag races. My mom and dad raced at Halls Dragway back in the day! I grew up in a bracket racing family. My mother was probably the best driver in the family. She beat Joe Lunati’s wife in the money run of the first powder puff race she ever entered. Dad raced at Halls, Jackson, Pickwick and Lakeland. Our ’69 Nova ran in Super Pro and was lots of fun. Racing was the backbone of our family. It consumes us and overtakes our family. We would go to the US Nationals every year in Indy. I saw Don Garlits win in ‘75; Tom McEwen win in ’78 and Lee Shepherd give Bob Glidden fits in the greatest Pro Stock rivalry to date.

I saw the best Mid South racers ever at Lakeland including Bill Taylor’s Super Duster and Bill “Maverick” Golden take on the Hell On Wheels wheelstanding tank back in the day.

Being blessed to be in the sport also comes with its downside. I know exactly what it’s like to see your father going downtrack, see the left back tire explode and the car do an immediate turn into the left guardrail. A stunned 12 yr old kid stood on the starting line paralyzed with fear and didn’t know if his father was dead or not. To this day, I don’t want to look at a car crash in traffic because it brings that memory back.

My turn behind the wheel came when I was 15 yrs old. Track owner Larry Todd of Jackson had watched me grow up and felt comfortable enough that I knew what I was doing to let me get behind the wheel of my dad’s car. I had some success with it and knew it was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. But alas, after my parents’ divorce, dad lost interest and left the sport and thus ended my driving career. I was driving what would now be called Footbrake racing. No electronic delay boxes, no air shifters, nothing like that. I had to do a burnout, dry hop with VHT, stage, torque up the car, leave on time and not break out on the big end to have a successful round. It was more fun than life itself. It was all I thought about and a savior in an at the time tumultuous home life.

Fast forward a few years when in college and I was fortunate enough to meet Rick and Charlotte Gonzalez of Music City Raceway. The Hill was/is a hotbed of racing action and my favorite was the Super Stock/Stock combo meets that they ran about once a month. They’d have 40 cars show up and my favorite were the small block stick cars that seemed common there. It reminds me of the old Modified Production days that I still miss now. It was also that time that I met Bill Holt, NHRA Division 2 Director. He wound up asking me if I wanted to manage a track in Alabama, but I didn’t want to move my family away from our West Tennessee roots because we’d just had a baby. It was at the time that I interned at Diamond P Sports when they were affiliated with The Nashville Network in Nashville.

After graduating from Middle Tennessee with a degree in Communications, I wanted to stay close to the sport so I became a freelance Journalist. With credits in Racing For Kids, Southeast Dragster, Midwest Drag Racing Magazine and National DRAGSTER, it was fun to travel to the different events and get to meet some of the drivers of the sport.

After realizing it would be really hard to make a good living being a drag racing journalist, I stepped away for a while to focus on being a normal guy and father. As of Summer/Fall of 2009, my son is now 16 and has his first car; I gave him the keys recently and told him I trusted him, he kind of wants to do his own thing.

Then I saw the job opening for the Announcer’s post in Memphis in January of 2009. I interviewed the following Saturday and immediately knew I was talking to somebody who understood the sport. In drag racing, you know if somebody understands the sport and it only take 5 minutes! We shook hands that day and I immediately began formulating the Mid South Bracket Nationals in my head. For TWO months I searched high and low about big money bracket races. I researched car counts, entry fees, payouts and event production expenses. Then I pitched the idea to the management at MMP and hey thought it was a good idea. The rest as they say was history!

To conclude…

This ride that we are on is the most fascinating in all of sport. Drivers of all type buckle themselves into their land based rockets to take to the race course. Fearless men and women from all corners of the globe seek the thrill of acceleration…and I love every bit of it with them!

Glynn