2024-2025 Automotive Event Guide: Upcoming Shows and Races

2024

December 12-14
PRI Trade Show
Indianapolis

2025

February 21-23
Lone Star Throwdown
Conroe, TX

March 14-16
Orange Beach Invasion
Orange Beach, AL

List Your 2025 Event

Do you own or run an event in the diesel world? Add it to the directory at motortopia.com/event-directory and we’ll include it in our print edition Events Calendar column!

Crew Chief for a Day

Have you ever stopped to think about how absolutely incredible this journey is? Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Here we go again, Dustin is off his rocker and in his feels again.” While that’s only slightly true, there really is a lot of truth to that statement.

This past weekend (at the time of writing this article), I got to check off one of my lifelong goals. For those who don’t know, I reside in the beautiful cheese state of Wisconsin, and while we don’t have much going for us up here, we are blessed to be home to one of the most prestigious racetracks in the whole world—Road America.

What makes Road America even more special for me is that my grandparent’s farm is only about a mile off Turn 1. I vividly remember finishing chores in the barn at night, shutting the doors, and being able to hear the various race teams practicing as the sun set in the summer months. It’s a memory that will live with me until I draw my last breath.

Although I had never been to Road America until I was in my late 20s, I remember watching motorsports on TV. While every other young boy dreamed of being the driver, I was always drawn to the crew chiefs. Seeing guys like Kirk Shelmerdine or Chad Knaus on TV, race radio headsets on, calling the shots, keeping the drivers informed, and ultimately helping the team win was something that was so inspiring to me.

Last weekend, for the first time ever, I was able to do just that. My team competed in the Gridlife Summer Apex event and it was challenging to say the least. We were underprepared, over-classed, and definitely didn’t set any lap records. But despite the less than stellar performance, I got to check the box of being crew chief (I even bought a fancy radio headset), and let me tell you that the experience was unlike anything else. There’s something about chasing a childhood dream and finally achieving it that just makes a guy feel good.

So whatever it is that you dreamed of as a kid, I hope you chase it with your heart and soul. I hope you keep pushing and driving until you get there, and I hope in that moment, it’s as sweet as you imagined it would be.

Keep the shiny side up and the rubber side down,

Dustin aka Dusti_LBZ