Written by Nate Van Wagnen
Photos courtesy of David Smith, Steve Fuhrman, Michalek Brothers Racing
One of the original goals of TAN was to highlight anyone and everyone from the alcohol pits - drivers, crew chiefs, crew members, sponsors, etc. In a new series of articles, we'll feature some of the younger personalities that can be found in the alcohol pits. Thirty alcohol insiders under the age of 30. If you have a suggestion for a Thirty Under 30 feature, email us, post on our Facebook page, or tweet it to @TopAlcoholNews.
Ohio-born brothers Corey and Kyle Michalek joined the alcohol ranks as drivers in 2013 after several years working as crew members or drivers of their Super Comp dragster. They most recently worked for Pat Dakin's Top Fuel Dragster team after winning two IHRA world championships with Mark Thomas' popular Ethanol Alcohol Funny Car team. The brothers stepped up to run the Dreher Motorsports A/Fuel dragster at select races in 2013 with continued funding from Champion Spark Plugs, which they originally acquired through their winning 'Search for a Champion' contest campaign. We caught up with Corey and Kyle before the holidays to discuss their past, the future, and how they use social media to benefit their racing efforts.
Corey Michalek
Age: 25
Hometown: Louisville, OH
Residence: New York City
Occupation: Art Director at
Wondersauce, a digital ad agency
Racing Job: Co-owner/co-driver,
Michalek Brothers Racing
Race Car: Dreher Motorsports A/Fuel
Dragster
Best ET/MPH: 5.55/261
Favorite Drivers: Clay Millican, Mark
Thomas, Pat Dakin, and Jared Dreher
Favorite sports: football – Cleveland
Browns and Ohio State, basketball – Cleveland Cavaliers
Favorite TV shows: NHRA ESPN2
broadcasts, The Big Bang Theory, and Moonshiners
Favorite movies: Inception, Dumb and
Dumber, the classics
What's on your iPod: A wide range of
music; anything to fit my mood
What's in your fridge: I live in New
York so I usually eat while I'm out.
Hobbies: Basketball, running – I try
to stay in shape when I'm away from the track.
Proudest Accomplishments: Winning an
IHRA world championship with Mark Thomas, watching Kyle reach the
finals at his debut race (Norwalk regional), and getting my A/Fuel
license.
Goals: Qualify at each race we attend
in 2014
Kyle Michalek
Age: 28
Hometown: Louisville, OH
Residence: Louisville, OH
Occupation: Production supervisor at
Ariel Corporation
Racing Job: Co-owner/co-driver,
Michalek Brothers Racing
Race Car: Dreher Motorsports A/Fuel
Dragster
Best ET/MPH: 5.398/263
Favorite Drivers: Mark Thomas, Pat
Dakin, Clay Millican, and Jared Dreher
Favorite sports: College sports –
Ohio University Bobcats, high school football
Favorite TV shows: Boardwalk Empire and
Eastbound and Down
Favorite movies: Spinal Tap,
Caddyshack, Best in Show and Ghostbusters
What's on your iPod: All metal –
classic metal, new metal – it's all on there
What's in your fridge: Anything my wife
buys – I haven't been grocery shopping since 2009 (laughs)
Hobbies: Running, water-skiing, and
tubing. Working on my Masters degree takes up most of my time.
Proudest Accomplishments: Winning the
Search for a Champion contest, winning the 2005 world championship
with Mark Thomas, and going to the final at the Norwalk regional
event earlier this year.
Goals: Establishing ourselves within
the class, gaining more seat time, and continuing to progress within
the sport, ultimately Top Fuel.
Tell us about your crew background with
Mark Thomas.
Kyle Michalek - I started with Mark directly after
graduating high school. What's unique about our situation is we grew
up playing football, basketball, and swimming. We never turned a
wrench on any type of race car at any time before graduating high
school. Drag racing was just something we watched on TV or maybe went
to a race or two, but never participated. Mark was a family friend
and he asked us to come out to his shop and check out the race car,
which we thought was really cool. Shortly after that, I went to my
first national event as an “honorary crew member” - I cleaned oil
pans, wiped off the car, and basically did anything to stay out of
the way while still feeling special, that I was out there. That ended
up working out very well. I kept going to races with Mark and my
responsibilities increased. I ended up working on the bottom end for
him all the way through college. During my last year with him, 2006,
we won the championship.
Corey came along after he graduated
high school. He worked with me and then he took over my duties after
I graduated from college.
How did your crew experience help
prepare you for running your own program?
KM - As we were working with Mark as
crew members, we both decided that we wanted to drive. I bought my
first race car, an old Woody Gilmore Top Fuel car that had been
converted into a Super Comp car. We rebuilt that and raced it for a
couple of seasons while racing simultaneously with Mark.
Corey and I can say that everything we
learned about racing, from the mechanical standpoint, came from
working with Mark Thomas. We really had no idea what to do
mechanically before that point. We were very ambitious and wanted to
learn. Fortunately he was a good teacher and along with his crew gave
us that opportunity to learn.
Corey Michalek - Mark was
actually the one who got us hooked up with Pat Dakin a few years down
the line. Kyle started doing the clutch on Pat's Top Fuel car. I
started assisting him a few races in. That was our first foray into
anything competitive within the NHRA side of things. Pat showed us
the process of running a Top Fuel car at the highest level of the
sport, and how much more attention to detail was required. It's like
ten thousand times more work than the alcohol car.
Corey, how did you get into the multimedia
side of things?
CM I had no mechanical knowledge when
Kyle started working with Mark. I wasn't really interested in
anything motorsports. My dad had taken us to a few races, but I just
didn't have the bug yet. He actually had to bribe me to go to the
IHRA World Nationals at Norwalk that year, promising a trip to Cedar
Point after the race. I took my video camera to keep me occupied
while Kyle worked on the car. I recorded everything from the run to
the maintenance in the pits. I enjoyed the storytelling aspect of
working with the camera. I started making videos for Mark to use for
sponsorship proposals or speaking engagements. At that point, that
was how I felt I was a part of the team, by helping out with the
marketing side of things.
I later worked on brochures and hero
cards for Mark. It ended up being something that I was passionate
about, so I went to school for it. Multimedia and design are parts of
my job at Michalek Brothers Racing, but it's also what I do for my
legitimate, full-time job.
What role did social media and multimedia play in your Search for a Champion win?
CM - The basic premise behind the
Search for a Champion contest is you need a two-minute video that
best depicts why you're a 'champion' – it's all about your
character, the way you present yourself, and your efforts on and off
of the track. The base part of our campaign was showing what we do
best through our video. 33% of the judging for the contest is voting,
so social media became a vital part of winning. We used Facebook,
Twitter, and Instagram – we did everything we possibly could to get
our name out there in front of family, friends, and drag racing fans.
Through social media, we connected with WFO Radio, other racers,
Competition Plus, and various other different web domains within the
drag racing world in order to get our name out there. For the first
year of the Champion contest, we not only won over the Champion
judges, but we also had the most active fan base. That was really
cool to see everyone get behind us.
KM - When it comes to social media,
Corey solely handles that aspect of our operation and does a good job
of using social media creatively, but also effectively. Most of the
content we release is purposeful. We try to make it worthwhile for
anyone who is following us. I think that's been helpful over the last
few years, as we are seeing more followers liking what we post. It's
beginning to pick up steam in that area.
Can you talk about your relationship
with Champion and how it's grown since winning the contest?
CM - We just released our announcement
that we're heading into our third year with Champion Spark Plugs. To
get involved with Champion in the first place was an accomplishment,
but we're very proud that we were able to continue that relationship
over the last two years. We're looking forward to another year with
them this year.
Going back to where it all began, the
opportunity to go from being an unsponsored, unknown race team to a
team who is involved with a Fortune 500 company, that was about as
big of a shot in the arm as you could ask for. That has opened up so
many more avenues for us as we pursue additional partners. We're able
to have that on our resume – it adds a lot of legitimacy to our
team. The group at Federal-Mogul has been great to work with. They're
very supportive of anything that we want to do. As far as what you
look for in a sponsor, we're very fortunate to be affiliated with the
group of Federal-Mogul brands.
The Search for a Champion contest is in
it's third round. We still continue to play an active role in helping
to promote that contest as an attest to all of the great things that
can come about from being involved in the contest. Champion has shown
that they're a group who is willing to take care of racers,
especially grassroots guys who are just getting started, such as
ourselves.
When did you decide that A/Fuel was the
next step?
CM - It would've been the late summer of
2012. We were wrapping up our first season with Champion while we
were racing our Super Comp car. We both knew that we ultimately
wanted to grow in the sport. We were kind of at a crossroads as far
as what we wanted to do next. We had the funding to put together a
great Super Comp car and have a lot of fun with that, or we had the
opportunity to go a different direction. We agreed that racing Super
Comp any further wasn't going to accomplish any of our future goals.
We both decided to put the Super Comp operation up for sale and begin
looking at opportunities in the Top Alcohol Dragster class.
We specifically chose A/Fuel because of
the similarities in the driving procedures to those of a Top Fuel
car. We both had aspirations to move up to that class, so we thought
this was the best option to help us prepare for that opportunity.
I don't think either one of us regret
that decision. We haven't been able to race as much, as it's more
expensive, but we're very happy with what we've done so far. Kyle
licensed with Anthony Dicero at the beginning of 2013. We were able
to hit the ground running when we began racing with the Drehers. We
had a successful year racing with them. Kyle went to the finals at
the Norwalk regional and qualified for his first national event (also
Norwalk), then I finished up the year by licensing at Indy in
October.
KM - It just came to a point where we
had to decide how to move forward. A/Fuel looked like it was the most
logical next step. We went all-in and so far so good.
Where do you see yourselves going
forward in the class?
CM – As of right now, the deal that
we have going with the Drehers is something that we're very pleased
with. Jared and Randy pretty much mentored us through everything that
we know about A/Fuel racing. We really like the family operation.
Everyone at Dreher Motorsports was very welcoming – Jared, Randy,
his wife Joyce, Jared's girlfriend Tracy, and Red, as well as the
rest of their crew and family. Their track record speaks for itself. We're
very fortunate to have the opportunity to drive their car. So right
now I feel like we're at a good spot. If it ever came down to the
point where they needed to run more races, we'd totally understand –
it's their car and we respect that. We would maybe look at running
with someone else only because of the fact that we need to get out
and run, but I think we're very happy with what we're doing now.
There aren't any plans to go out and
purchase our own operation just because of how well our current
situation is working out. With us living in different states and
having full-time jobs, it would be too difficult to maintain our own
operation.
The self-promotion of the alcohol
classes has been a big topic lately. As someone who has used social
media to grow your efforts, how do you see social media playing a
role in how alcohol teams promote themselves?
CM - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and now even Vine are all tools that I believe the Top Alcohol community needs to really be serious about embracing. Most of the teams have created profiles for each of the networks, but they haven't fully taken advantage of what they have to offer. Harnessing the power of these platforms can dramatically increase their digital footprint and strengthen their case when talking to future sponsors about how their online network away from the racetrack can provide them a greater ROI.
The free press and fan impressions that teams can get on these channels is something that they can't afford to miss out on. On the computer or on the go with mobile phones, fans are constantly consuming this information and social media is the easiest way to keep teams and sponsors top of mind.
One of the biggest things that I think teams need to keep in mind is being conscious about posting meaningful content. A thoroughly planned media strategy and testing multiple content themes is crucial to having success on social networks. Throwing out 25 posts a day is more likely to lose you followers than anything else. Look at what your favorite brands or sponsors are doing on Facebook and Twitter...the posts that are the most successful are that way for a reason. Modeling your content after theirs is a great starting point. Well thought-out, to-the-point posts are what give your followers something of value and that is what they're after...even if it's only a few times a week. This is definitely a shining example where quality is better than quantity.
Some of the
professional teams that do it really, really well are Force and
Schumacher. They're constantly doing giveaways, chats with their
drivers, and interacting with their fans. These are some of the most
well-established brands in drag racing and what they're doing on
social media should be viewed as the benchmark for all of us to model
our digital strategies off of.
The ability to interact with
some of their favorite teams/drivers is one of biggest draws of
social media for racing fans. Fan mail is no longer nearly as
relevant anymore because social media is so personable and it's real
time, on demand. Teams can easily communicate with and establish
relationships with their fans with a quick response to a tweet or by
responding to a video question. The fans are what make this sport
special and they are what allows us to race, so we can't afford to
not capitalize on every opportunity to interact with them.
At the track, I think the alcohol teams are doing great things. The racing is phenomenal. The efforts of the Pro Sportsman Association, with their autograph sessions, I think that's great. I was very impressed with some of the regional races, like Norwalk's Cavalcade of Stars. I think that race's attendance was greater than that of their national event because of the way the Baders promote it. They really put on a show, with a parade of the cars and the drivers; it's phenomenal. However, I think there's a lot left to be gained away from the track online.
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