Aside from someone like Peter Biondo, who you can put in a cardboard box with wheels and he’ d win, I think we all have to have the whole thing.
You’ ve said before that Peter Biondo was someone instrumental to your success. Who else has been part of that in your career? In the Jr. world, we had to figure it out. We didn’ t know what bracket racing was, and we learned as we went. My dad and I, we learned from scratch and figured it out together. When I got older, V. Gaines taught me how to work on the car, check valves, change jets, all of the above. That’ s where I really started to like working on the car and the tuning aspect.
But the biggest influences on my driving were Kyle Seipel and Peter Biondo. Peter and I became very good friends and would talk every day, and he taught me so much about racing. From the driving aspect, from start to finish, there is no one better than Peter Biondo.
Fast forward a few years and I was probably 20 when Kyle and I started racing together. I was lucky enough to race with Kyle for years. We traveled together, he would race the cars and help me along the way with my dial. Kyle was incredible at dialing a race car, and he taught me that and expanded on what Peter shared with me to help my driving.
Those two were huge influences in racing and life. They’ re older than me, so I was the youngster –
LAMB PROUDLY COACHES NUMEROUS NEXT- GENERATION BRACKET RACERS, INCLUDING HIS COUSIN, TREY VETTER.
LAMB RECOGNIZES A WORLD OF OPPORTUNITY TO COACH DRIVERS AND PARENTS IN THE JR. DRAGSTER WORLD, AND HE PRACTICES WHAT HE PREACHES WHILE RACING WITH HIS OWN KIDS.
just a punk, bratty kid – and they forced me to get over that.“ Don’ t be a punk. Figure it out.” It wasn’ t just racing, it was life stuff with those two.
And now, you’ ve come to be a coach. How did that transition happen? A big part of that started with Luke Bogacki. He asked me to come on as an instructor with This Is Bracket Racing Elite, initially just for a couple of months. I didn’ t know a lot about it, but he let me become a member to see what it was all about and I thought it was awesome. It was a refresher to stuff I already knew, but I was also learning stuff. Right away, I was like,“ Do you want me to do this long term?”
The other side is that my dad and I have always done work for people, putting together cars, getting them set up and running consistent. We started putting together Shane Thompson’ s Silverstate cars, and now I do the same for Dylan Hough, helping with his cars and with his driving and dialing. It’ s a group effort, but Mindy and Brian [ Dylan’ s parents ] give Dylan and I free rein to go to different races or try new parts. It’ s pretty cool how it morphed into this. Dylan is a good driver and I get to do the rest – tune, setup, dial. It’ s been pretty successful to this point – he almost won the championship last year, won a couple national events. It’ s pretty fun.
What’ s the best part about helping others reach their own goals? In a way, it’ s almost like paying it back. This is what Pete and Kyle did for me, and I would assume they probably felt the same. They helped me a lot, and I went on to win x, y, and z. There is nothing cooler than helping a This Is Bracket Racing Elite member on a Tuesday, and Monday morning a week later they’ re like,“ I went out and did what you said, and it helped.”
People are so appreciative, and we have a great group of members. Same thing with Dylan. The Houghs have been around racing their whole lives, but not bracket racing like Dylan is doing. It’ s awesome seeing them excited, and when he wins, it feels like we all did it together. I distinctly remember standing in the parking lot at Fontana when I won my first race, and the first thing I did was call Peter and say thank you. It’ s almost full circle for me now, getting those calls. It’ s very rewarding.
That’ s sort of moved into a new generation now with This Is Bracket Racing Elite’ s Jr. Dragster program, hasn’ t it? Yeah, that was kind of my push to Luke, and he took it and ran with it. He really has a knack for seeing the whole picture. We both have kids that race Jr. Dragsters, and so we understand how difficult it is. There is a huge void there, and there is so much we can teach parents and their kids. We can speed up the learning curve substantially, from the basics to the complicated. There is so much opportunity to help people in the Jr. world, so it’ s really a win-win.
How has your mindset changed over the years, in regard to drag racing? I used to think it was the most important thing ever, and now I realize that it really isn’ t. It’ s a huge part of my life, but I appreciate being able to go to my son’ s soccer tournament and my daughter’ s dance competition and spend time with my wife. That’ s probably been reflected in my success on the racetrack the past couple years, but when my kids are grown, if I want to race 52 weekends a year I’ ll do it. Drag racing is hard, and it’ s taught me a lot about work ethic, but it’ s also taught me to cherish friendships. All of my best friends are in racing, and it’ s where I met my wife. It’ s just a great group of people. DI
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