Chase Mattioli

Please allow me share some information on my racing career to date.

I was 7 years old when I started racing at the Lehigh Valley Quarter Midget Track. I raced for the Roselli Racing team. The first time I got behind the wheel, I was petrified. I only got to make one turn before I crashed head on into a wall. Funny thing is, it was that very moment I knew that I wanted to be a driver.

I continued to race Quarter Midgets for the next three years, racking up numerous wins. A couple of those victories still stand out vividly in my mind. The most important one, however, was when I won the Kenny Hyme Open Quarter Midget race in my first season of competition. There was a field of over twenty cars and I managed somehow to get the pole. It was the "perfect" day. I led all the laps and ended up winning the race. I remember when I got out of the car Mr. Roselli said to me, "You raced like you were born for this stuff." The irony of this statement is that I knew it was true.

My family has been involved with racing for about half a century now. My grandfather, Dr. Joseph Mattioli, was the founder of the NASCAR track, Pocono International Raceway. My dad, Joseph Mattioli III, owns and operates South Boston Speedway in Virginia and the Music City Motorplex in Nashville, Tennessee.

Growing up I was always at Pocono working in the family business. When I was younger this meant cleaning the bathrooms, picking up old cigarette butts around the track, or painting all the track buildings.

As I matured, my father gave me a job in our Public Relations Department. There I attained and polished my public speaking capabilities by giving tours to CEOs of major companies, by walking through the garage with some of NASCAR's biggest names, and by discussing where the sport was heading with the patriarch of racing news, Chris Economaki.

All of my time has not always been spent at the race track though. I am currently a Scranton Preparatory High School student. I am a member of the Spanish and German Clubs, and have participated in the debate, football, and track teams. I am also the president of our school's chapter of the Junior Statesmen of America. Along with all these activities, I also make time to volunteer as a lector at my local church and a server at my local soup kitchen.

Academically, I have been able to maintain a 3.9 GPA and have maintained my status as an Honor Student, even given the fact that I am taking a number of Advanced Placement College level courses. I have already been accepted into Fordham University and hope to earn my undergraduate degree in six years, taking a lighter credit load to allow time to race.

When I'm not at school or racing I enjoy teaching snowboarding and working at a local ski shop.

When I outgrew the Quarter Midgets, I went on to race Legends cars and small stock cars at South Boston Speedway and Music City Motorplex for a few years. These were awesome learning years where I learned about car setup and how to interact effectively with a race team. During these years, I continued to win races, but yet I still hungered for more of a challenge on the track.

Last year, I decided that, if I was ever going to live my dream to be a world class driver, I would have to do more than just drive around asphalt ovals, and would have to diversify and grow my experience. One of the first steps was racing a Dirt Modified at Big Diamond Speedway. The initial transition from pavement to dirt was difficult, but it only took a few races until I had attained the skills to "play" in the dirt.

Next, I took the famous Bertil Roos Racing School. The Roos School is a road racing school utilizing Formula Fords. The school was held at VIR and consisted of a three-day beginner's school and a two-day advanced school.

This was my very first road racing experience. Having successfully completed these schools, I was allowed to participate in a series race conducted by the Roos School at VIR. The other participants were all much older and much more experienced than I was, being only 16 at the time. During the race, which was run in the rain, I was able to recover from an early spin, and worked my way up through the field. With five laps to go, I made a pass for the lead and won with a 100-yard lead over the 2nd place finisher.

This experience was an invaluable asset towards my racing career. It was there that I started to learn about car control, how to read a road course, and be calm and focused.

An unexpected result of that victory was the media attention I received that included Chris Economaki's National Speed Sport News, Sports Car Magazine and a number of radio interviews.

Being the first one in the Mattioli family to pursue a professional driving career, I have a great responsibility to live up to. What I found out is the Mattioli name is well known among the motorsports media and appears more media attention will be paid to me because of my last name ......affecting the sponsors and race teams with whom I am associated. I really have to perform! Family friends in NASCAR are watching.

I competed in a few more Roos series races last year, posting a number of top five finishes and further developed my road racing skills that led to my testing a Formula Ford at Savannah's Roebling Road Raceway in January of 2007 and the earning of my SCCA National License.

In 2007 I have competed in SCCA National and Regional events at Roebling, Atlanta and New Hampshire. My first time at Atlanta, a tricky course, I qualified 5th out of 15 in my class and posted a 5th place finish. At New Hampshire, I was able to learn the track quickly, winning the pole and posting two 2nd place finishes behind a driver that has over 20 starts at that track.

I was able to get more oval track experience this year, as well as numerous test days at the Music City Motorplex in a Super Truck (similar to a Late Model with a truck body), and competed in three events. That experience prepared me for the two-day Fast Track School at Lowes Motor Speedway.

Normally in that school the students are paired together in groups with other students. I was so much faster than the other students that I was paired with an instructor, and was able to run 34-second laps. I was told that a 34-second lap is about as fast as you can get in a school car at Lowes. Given my performance, Andy Hillenburg, a former ARCA Champion and the owner of Fast Track Racing, wants me to test one of his ARCA cars later this year.

With oval track Stock Car experience and Open Wheel road racing experience, I was able to combine both disciplines testing a Koni Mustang of VIR's full course. I drove a Black Forrest car, but had the coaching of Rick Howard and Max Crawford (Howard Motorsports) and their legendary driver Elliott Forbes-Robinson. Driving a powerful full body car on a track as technical as VIR, has been my greatest challenge to date. At the beginning of the test I was really slow, but by the end of the day my lap times were within 2-seconds of Mr. Robinson. Messrs. Howard and Crawford were impressed with my quick progress and thought that, with a few more days of testing, I would be able to compete successfully in the Koni Series.

I recently completed a second test in the KONI Challenge JBS Motorsports / Mustang GT at Pocono. James Gue, an instructor and Koni competitor (4th in points this season) served as my coach. By the end of the session, I was turning laps within one second of James.

With this experience, and the fact that I turned 18 earlier in October, my sights are on a season of stock car and endurance road racing, ideally competing in NASCAR Camping World Series events, ARCA RE/MAX events and Koni Endurance events. Given my experiences on and off the track, maturity, and the fact that I have a very marketable name, I hope that you will consider working with me in 2008.

 

 

THE FIGHTINIG MATTIOLIS

The Mattioli family personifies the American Dream, NASCAR-style.

By LARRY WOODY

When Joe Mattioli arrived in the U.S. from Italy in the early 1920's, seeking to build a new life in a new land, his immediate job prospects were limited: the Pennsylvania coal mines or the boxing ring.

Mattioli chose pugilism over the pickax, and the tough little scrapper quickly made a name for himself in the ring. He fought under the name "Pop O'Brien," passing himself off as Irish because of the prejudice against Italians during the period. Years later he would proudly tour his homeland as the celebrated lightweight champion of Italy.

"I guess you could say we got off the boat fighting, and we've been fighting ever since," says Joe Mattioli III, president of Nashville's Music City Motorplex and South Boston (Va.) Speedway. "We've been knocked down a few times but we always get back up."

Ironically, while the patriarch of the Mattioli family earned his living knocking out teeth, his son, Joe II, made a career of fixing them. He became a dentist. Then he became involved in real estate, and eventually partnered in a deal to build a racetrack on a tract of land in the Poconos. That almost accidental involvement would lead to a NASCAR association that now spans a half century.

"I went to dental school on the GI bill," says Dr. Joe, still spry at 82. "I practiced for eight years, seven days a week, and eventually I got burned out. I acquired some land, and one day an old gentleman approached me about building a racetrack on the property. At the time I'd never seen a race, but it sounded interesting."

The investment group, in Mattioi's words, "had a lot of ideas but no money. Eventually everybody dropped out but me. It was time to fish or cut bait. I decided that I had invested too much time and money to quit."

During the process Mattioli did a bit of racing research. He attended a race in Charlotte and liked what he saw. He decided a racetrack in the untapped Poconos might have potential. So he forged ahead, starting construction on Pocono Speedway in early 1967. It opened in 1968 but the debut fizzled when the race was canceled by rain and snow.

The next year's re-scheduled opener was clouded by tragedy when Troy Ruttman died in a crash. It was not a good start. No profits were coming in, while notes were overdue and bills were piling up.

"I was almost bankrupt three times," Mattioli says. "I mortgaged my house and borrowed money from friends. Finally, I was ready to give up. I didn't see any other choice."

That's when he got a call from NASCAR founder "Big" Bill France, inviting him to a set-down. France encouraged Mattioli to hang on. He was convinced that his fledgling young stock car racing association would eventually catch on and that the Pocono track figured in its future.

Mattioli told France he was broke. France promised to help him secure a loan.

As they parted, France scribbled something on the back of a business card and handed it to Mattioli. His message read: "On the plains of hesitation lie the bleached bones of millions who, when within the grasp of victory, sat watching, and watching died."

Remembering the tenacity of his father, who was famous for absorbing blows but always answering the bell, Mattioli reconsidered. Like Pop O'Brien, Dr. Joe picked himself up off the canvas and waded back into the fight.

After a few more tenuous seasons, in 1974 NASCAR awarded Pocono a race in its premier Winston Cup Series. The race proved a huge success, and in 1982 it was granted a second Cup date.

Reflecting back, Mattioli puts it bluntly: "The France family saved our ass."

Today Pocono Speedway is one of NASCAR's vintage tracks, thriving and prospering with the huge crowds it draws for its two annual Nextel Cup races and related events.

Mattioli still carries France's faded old business card in his wallet.

Dr. Joe's son, Joe III, graduated from Lehigh University and was preparing to enter law school when his father asked him to help with the track.

"I guess it's an Italian thing; when your family is in trouble you drop everything else," says Joe III, 54. "I was the oldest boy, so I felt obliged to help my folks get Pocono Speedway on its feet. I decided that law school could wait. It's still waiting."

The bond formed by Big Bill France and Dr. Joe would continue through their sons. Many years later, France's son Bill Jr., then in charge of NASCAR, made a point of attending the first race held by Joe III when he took control of the Nashville track.

"We go back a long way," France said that evening. "I wanted to be here to wish Joe luck."

"It's a friendship that endures," said Joe III. "It's hard to put into words what Mr. France and his family have meant to the Mattioli family over the decades. It goes much deeper than a business relationship."

After serving as president of Pocono Speedway for several years, Joe III began to branch out. He assumed operation of track his family had acquired in South Boston, Va., and also bought the lease to the historic old Fairgrounds track in Nashville.

"The Pocono track was doing great, it was in good hands with other members of our family, and frankly I had gotten a little bored," Joe III says. "I decided to seek a new challenge, and I found it."

Some believe that weekly racing is a dying vestige of a by-gone era, out-dated and withering in the shadow of big-league sports – including, ironically, NASCAR's Nextel Cup Series whose telecasts draw fans away from local tracks.

Joe III disagrees that weekly racing is a lost cause.

"I think there's still a place for it," he says, "and I'm fighting for it. The tracks in South Boston and Nashville have both made tremendous contributions to the sport over the years. We can't just abandon our roots and walk away from our history. We need to preserve it and build on it. That's what I'm fighting for."

Joe III has two sons, Joe IV, 22 a senior marketing major at Misericordia College, and Chase, 17, a high school senior. Chase dreams of someday becoming a champion in the sport that has been the focus of his family for two generations.

"I'm very serious about it," he says. "I've always loved playing football but I gave it up after three seasons to concentrate on my racing. I've gone to some racing schools and even have a personal trainer."

Chase plans to enter college. Fordham and Vanderbilt are high on his list, but like Ryan Newman during his days at Purdue University, he intends to weave racing in around class-work.

"I know it's going to be hard," he says, "but I'm determined to do it."

"Chase has talent," says his father. "I realize that every parent says that, and as someone who has been around the sport all my life I also know how tough it is for a young driver to make it to the top level. But don't count him out... he's a Mattioli."

Meanwhile back in Pocono, Dr. Joe Mattioli credits Rose, his bride of 60 years, for helping keep the track viable. "Hell, she runs the place," he says with a chuckle. "We all jump when she says jump."

Two of Dr. Joe's daughters, Looie and Michele, hold administrative positions at the track, and a grandson, Brandon Igdalski, serves as the Speedway's president. Joe III's wife Lovena, whom he met at a race in Daytona, iis the track comptroller.

"That's the beautiful part," says Dr. Joe. "We've got three great kids who share our love of the racing business, and their kids love it too. When I'm gone and they'll have to carry me out, I know that everything we've built will go on. The business is in good hands."

Indeed it is. It's in Mattioli hands.