BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

This episode features Quinn Beekwilder, assistant professor and coordinator of Belmont Abbey College’s Motorsport Management program, who shares his path from a political science degree and real estate to graduating from the program, working a decade at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and returning to teach. He recaps the program’s origins with Belmont resident and Charlotte Motor Speedway leader Humpy Wheeler, created to reduce industry turnover by preparing students for motorsport’s demanding realities. Once NASCAR-centric, the curriculum now spans global disciplines, emphasizes motorsport history, and requires multiple internships and experiential trips (Rolex 24, IndyCar St. Petersburg, World of Outlaws, PRI). Belmont Abbey has grown to 60+ undergraduates, launched the nation’s first fully online M.A. in Motorsport Management with 20+ first-semester students, started the Accelerate Abbey high school summer camp, and received Colonel Donald Capps’ motorsport collection for its library.

This episode of The Logbook, our History of Motorsports series, revisits a 2015 IMRRC “Syracuse Mile: A Look Back” program celebrating the New York State Fairgrounds’ famed dirt oval, the “Moody Mile,” after its final season. Moderators Joe Marotta and Gary Montgomery lead a driver panel with Wes Moody, Glen Donnelly, Alan Johnson, Gary Tompkins, Danny Kapuschinski, Johnny Birosh, and Mel Lane, sharing stories of record-speed laps, unique innovations like the Gary Ballou car, wide-open sprint car runs, pit strategy, crashes, and the culture of Super Dirt Week. Donnelly recounts launching Super Dirt Week in 1972, weather battles, and future plans for new facilities and track surfaces. Historian Dr. Gary George traces the track’s history from early 1900s auto races and AAA/USAC champ cars through stock cars, special events, and tragedies, underscoring the Syracuse Mile’s legacy and irreplaceable significance.

Recorded live at the International Motor Racing Research Center in Watkins Glen, Joe Marotta and Kip Zeiter preview a day-long retrospective celebrating the history of Syracuse’s “Moody Mile” after the track’s final race, emphasizing celebration over politics with driver roundtables, slides, and video. Historian Dr. Gary George discusses his lifelong racing passion, early visits to Syracuse dating to 1949, and a presentation built with fellow historians Jeff Ackerman and Mike Maney, including video starting with the 1972 race. Guests recount memories such as the naming of the “Moody Mile” linked to a 1970 100-mph modified lap, snowmobile and motorcycle racing at the fairgrounds, and standout competitors like Gilles Villeneuve and Smokin’ Joe Frazier. Drivers Cal and Mel Lane share experiences, while champion Gary Tompkins reflects on key Syracuse runs and the Jim Beachy/Pillsbury era.

In this episode of The Ferrari Marketplace Podcast, host William Ross interviews Chris Miele of Prancing Horse of Nashville (Ferrari of Nashville) about his lifelong passion for Ferraris, from attending Ferrari Club of America Nationals as a kid in New Jersey to serving as a Marine scout sniper in Hawaii while obsessively reading car magazines. Miele explains how he entered the auto business through Mercedes-Benz, gained early Ferrari dealership experience in Hawaii, helped launch a New Jersey Ferrari dealership in 2004, and witnessed key model eras, calling the 360 a major game changer. He discusses how Ferrari options and tailor-made evolved, the importance of deep product knowledge and Ferrari Academy training, and how Nashville was chosen to fill a regional market gap. He outlines the dealership’s ownership group, unique atelier features, Classiche work, restoration and concours projects, events, storage services, and the strategy behind sourcing rare inventory.

Motoring historian Jon Summers records a monologue from Highway 40 in New Mexico about long-haul trucking, sparked by a former FBI agent’s book claiming many truckers are serial killers; Jon argues the job’s transience and past lack of surveillance could enable predators, while stressing most truckers are not killers. He links truck-stop culture with prostitution/sex trafficking and discusses how CCTV and truck monitoring change risks today. He also describes the alienation of American rest stops, grueling hours, energy-drink dependence, dangerous speed differentials, and how trucking’s distances strain family life. Exploring his fascination with big rigs, especially Freightliner and Volvo dominance due to fleet support networks and aerodynamics, while Kenworth/Peterbilt serve owner-operators and Mack fills niches. Jon considers buying a truck, CDL requirements, owner-operator “indentured servitude,” pay claims, high turnover, and predicts autonomous trucks will end the era of piloted over-the-road hauling.