New
Money
Teenager Gage Burch earns
six-figure payday at US
131’s inaugural SFG 500
By Brandon W. Mudd
A
solid week of racing for Gage
Burch ended with a six-figure payday
when the 19-year-old Florida resident
earned the victory at SFG Promotions’
massive Inaugural SFG 500 bracket race at U.S.
131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan. The
race kicked off Wednesday, June 26th, running
through the dawn Sunday morning, a mara-
thon event featuring nearly 700 racers. Some
of the biggest names in NHRA drag racing, like
Jeg Coughlin Jr., who made it to the semifinals,
showed up for this bracket racer’s dream race.
“It was kind of like a roller coaster,” Burch says.
“My girlfriend [Nichole Medeisis] and I drove
in from Iowa to Illinois and we stayed the night.
I woke up at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday and drove
the rest of the way to the track and we stayed
up all day and raced. I think we wrapped up at
midnight. We went to the hotel and got like six
hours of sleep and just kept going like that the
whole weekend. I think I ended up with nine
hours (of sleep) total before we started the 525.
“I was a little bit worried about that, but I fig-
ured if I got a nap or two in between the rounds,
I’d be OK.”
With as much as seven hours between rounds,
Burch stayed rested and mentally fresh for the 10
rounds he had to win in order to visit the winner’s
circle. Driving his friend Matt Dadas’ 1984 Ford
Ranger, Gage collected a $300,000 purse, which
he split $160,000/$140,000 with the runner-up,
Johnny Ezell. Both racers were past D rag I llus -
trateD 30 Under 30 honorees.
Burch was confident in his ride, although Da-
das did tell him a small fib prior to the beginning
of race week. “On day one, I wasn’t sure how good
the truck was,” Burch says. “I’ve known Matt for
a couple years now and I asked him (how it was)
and he said, ‘Oh, it’s pretty good.’ He lied to me
be-cause it was really good! He didn’t tell me how
good it was, he just said it was pretty good. So
after the first day, I knew we could do something.
I thought we had a good chance to win.”
With the number of entrants and well-
funded big-name star power at the track,
Burch, who got his start racing Jr. Drag-
sters at age 8, wouldn’t have been blamed
for letting nerves get the best of him. Turns
out, the race was just a week-long good
time for the young man who calls Braden-
ton (Fla.) Motorsports Park his home track.
“You just have to have your state of
mind when you get into the car and put
your helmet on,” Burch says. “You just
gotta have that place you go and just
be yourself up there. I had the best car
there, I feel, because me and (Matt), we
get along super good. Our girlfriends are
friends, so we just hung out and probably
had the best time there. It wasn’t really
like a serious time.
“[Matt] just kept me laughing and was joking
around the whole time so I didn’t have time to
think about much. We were just having a good
time and when we were down to 15, we were doing
big burnouts and just having fun.”
Easily the biggest victory of his young career,
Burch began receiving congratulatory calls and
text messages the deeper he got into the field.
“It’s been crazy,” he says. “As soon as I won, my
phone was just blowing up. I just turned it off at
around eight cars to go...I was just trying to keep
a level head. It’s crazy. I haven’t been able to get
back to everyone. I just want to thank everyone.”
As for the large chunk of change he earned for
the win, Burch says he’s planning on investing
the money in an effort to make it grow. “I’m not
really sure,” he says. “I’m going to save it, try to do
something positive. Maybe invest it somewhere
and see if I can make more out of DI
it.” DI DI
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36 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
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Issue 147
Dirt