TheHOTTEST2018
“We all do this because we’re passionate about it and
we love it. There’s no reason why we should be going to
the racetrack and not having the best time ever.”
Big Sky Motorsports, Delta Faucet, Jeff Pierce
Race Car Tuning, TT Motorsports, and RS Per-
formance, Melanie’s father’s business, appear on
the car. Products from sponsors like FuelTech,
Strange Engineering, LAT Racing Oils, Atomiz-
er Racing Injectors, Browell Bellhousings, Ross
Pistons, Motorsports Unlimited, R&R Racing
Products, Flat Out Gaskets, Hoosier Tires, NGK
Spark Plugs, MVM by GALOT and Kinetic Engi-
neering can be found throughout Melanie’s MSR
Performance-powered Firebird, as well as many of
the cars that come off the jig at G-Force Race Cars.
FAMILY MATTERS
Drag racing is truly the Salemi family
business, as Melanie drives and her
husband, Jon, and brother-in-law Jim
(right to left, counterclockwise) tune
the car. Melanie’s stepson, Evan (left),
even helps on the car and absorbs as
much knowledge as possible.
A
s we sit down to dinner
at Gramma Mora’s in Buffa-
lo’s North Park district, the
conversation centers on the
unique family dynamic that ex-
ists within the Salemi pits. The
group gels along well now, but
that wasn’t always the case, as Melanie recalls a
point in 2015 when going racing just wasn’t fun.
Tempers would flare at the track, resulting in
unpleasant but necessary conversations back at
the shop on Monday.
“We had to come back and have a meeting and
say, ‘Listen, I don’t like how you’re acting at the
races, I don’t like how you’re acting at the races,
and I certainly don’t like how you’re acting at the
races. So either we have to fix this, because it’s
not fun for us to go, or we have to do something
different.’” Melanie says. “We all do this because
we’re passionate about it and we love it. There’s
no reason why we should be going to the racetrack
and not having the best time ever.”
The ensuing discussion among the team mem-
bers was enough turn around the morale. Lately,
the atmosphere in the pit is lighthearted, as evi-
denced by the team’s appearance on Sidetracked,
an documentary-style online mini-series that
follows the Salemis’ adventures.
“We make it fun, even the times when it’s hard,”
Melanie says. “You will never, ever come into our
pit a nd see us working on the race car or having
to change a piston and see people in our pit who
are mad that they have to do that. That’s part of
it. We know that if we’re pushing everything to
its limits, we’re going to burn a piston or we’re
going to break something. We very rarely ever
have anybody upset that something happened,
just because we know that’s part of racing.”
As Melanie and Jon both point out, a big part of
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the even-keeled team attitude is everyone know-
ing their roles within the team.
“Jim and I have a relationship where I look to
him for comfort in the race car,” Melanie says. “I
know that if I say to him, ‘Jim, this is happening.’
He can say to me, ‘Don’t worry about it, you’re
fine,’ whereas Jon has a different relationship
with me, so he might be like, ‘Oh my goodness,
it’s my wife in there. Uh...I don’t think I want
you to make this run.’ There’s less emotion be-
tween me and Jim talking on the radio. Jon is the
last person who talks to me on the radio before
I make a run. Everybody has their certain roles
and everybody has to be OK with other people’s
roles, or else it doesn’t work.” Jon adds, “We say
it all the time: Know your role. Live up to your
expectation of your role.”
Melanie, Jon and Jim not only race together,
they also work together daily. Jon’s Resolution
Racing Services tuning and consulting firm and
Jim’s five-person G-Force Race Cars business
operate under the same roof in a shop Jim has
occupied for decades. Melanie works in the office,
handling the bookkeeping, social media and lo-
gistics for the businesses and race team. She also
tries to organize the guys in the shop “as much
as Jim allows me to,” she laughs.
All of this time spent together, especially in
high-pressure situations like the racetrack or the
shop, could easily lead to tension, but the trio of
co-working family members abides by the rule
that work-related shop talk stays at the shop. The
same can’t be said for racing-related shop talk,
which bleeds into family gatherings and outings
Issue 130