events and offer their thoughts on the state of bracket racing as it stands , as well as where the sport goes from here .
Your various races have certainly been on every bracket racer ’ s map for a while now , but the Great American Guaranteed Million last year really sent your brand to another level . How did you start planning that ?
BRITT CUMMINGS : After the first Dream Team race , I started thinking , “ Somebody eventually is going to have a guaranteed million . Why not me and Gaylon ?” So , I started running numbers , and I had a small group of people that I lean on for feedback and brainstorming . They ’ ll answer my questions and I ’ ll spin stuff off of them . I brought up the idea to them . Everybody signed a non-disclosure agreement .
It was six months before I even brought it up to Gaylon , believe that or not . Because when you approach Gaylon with something , he ’ s going to have a line of questions . He is a black-and-white guy , by the book , so I had to have my shit together when I approached Gaylon six months after the fact , after I started running numbers and asking a few questions to a few people .
When I presented it to him – I think it was in December of ‘ 18 – he asked a series of questions . “ Tell me how this is going to work . How can we guarantee a million ? What is our risk ? Why do you want to do this ?” Just all the questions I thought he would ask , I had answers for . It took probably three to four weeks to convince him to do it , and then finally he jumped on board and we planned damn near a year . We were going to announce it on the Saturday of our Dream Team race in Memphis . That Friday morning , another promoter announced another Guaranteed Million .
So , we elected not to announce it the next day . We decided to wait until July to announce our race . We had the flyers done , we had our billboards done , and we had our A-frames done . We were prepared to have a Million , and I think everybody saw that and got excited about it . We actually had a TV deal put together for it on a major network , and because of COVID , that kind of shut all that down .
You ended up postponing the Guaranteed Million from its original May date to mid-October . How hard was it for you guys to have to postpone that due to COVID after all the planning that you guys had done ?
GAYLON ROLISON JR : At first , I felt like it was a difficult decision , but it was the right decision because of COVID and the situation that it presented . Racetracks were just opening back up and racers hadn ’ t really raced , and for some of those racers , that was going to be their first race of the year . We felt like , along with the racers , that ’ s not the race to start your racing season . Those racers had a lot of money tied up in that race and they wanted to be sure that their equipment and that
IT TAKES A DEDICATED TEAM OF OFFICIALS AND EVENT STAFF TO PUT ON MAJOR RACES LIKE THE GREAT AMERICAN GUARANTEED MILLION OR EVEN THE KING OF THE COAST SERIES AT GULFPORT DRAGWAY . FRIENDS AND FAMILY , LIKE ROLISON ’ S WIFE , JENNIFER ( BELOW ), OFTEN SIGN ON TO WORK THE DUO ’ S EVENTS .
they as racers were at peak performance going into that event because let ’ s face it : you ’ re paying $ 3,000 to enter that race . You hope to be good . After you sit back and think about it , it was a difficult decision to make but it was the right decision to make .
CUMMINGS : Oh God , it was a sickening feeling . I mean , we were both sick . The unknowns of that was big time . I mean , I was in Gainesville [ for the NHRA Gatornationals ] when the sportsman ran to completion on Friday and they sent the pros home . I was on the way home , talking to Gaylon on that Sunday . I was like , “ Hey man , this is coming .” So , we started running a plan B and everything was kind of fluid at that time . You didn ’ t know when you were going to be allowed to race , especially at a corporate-owned track .
We worked closely with Justin Kamm at MIR and the county , and when they started kind of freeing things up , that ’ s when we decided our date in October . But I can tell you from April to October , I still had that sickening feeling . Didn ’ t know what was going to happen . We had pre-entry going . We had sold a lot of entries , but we weren ’ t sold out . Guaranteeing a million dollars , we were prepared to take an ass-whooping on it . We didn ’ t want to , but we were prepared for it . Luckily , everything worked out .
You actually were able to pay out more than a million , right ? How ’ d that happen ?
CUMMINGS : The week of the race , as a promoter , I would have never thought that I would turn down 100 entries at $ 3,000 a pop . But we only said we were taking 450 with a little bit of oversell for no-shows . The week of the race , man , I ’ m telling you , we turned down 100 entries , people wanting to come . But we did what we said
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