Greg Martin
Last year was a time of transition for Greg Martin. The Oliver Springs, Tenn. native had spent the past three years serving as crew chief for Super Late Model driver Eric Jacobsen. However, the frequent flyer from California had to shutter his racing program near the end of the 2014 season as a result of a loss of funding. That, in turn, brought about a significant life change for Martin.
After the Jacobsen closure, Martin opened his own business to offer his services to area racers. Bodies by Skinny has placed sheet metal on approximately fifteen cars around east Tennessee region over the past few months, including Martin’s own machine.
“That’s what I’ve chosen to do since Eric had to get out of his racing program,” Martin explained in an interview with InsideDirtRacing.com. “Sheet metal work is what I had done in times before and I had spent a lot of time doing it. I just decided that it’s what I wanted to try to do for a living.”
While Martin certainly misses working with his good friend, the change in occupations has allowed the 40-year-old driver to focus more on his own racing efforts. But more than that, a somewhat unexpected benefit has become evident now that he has more time to spend at home.
“My little girl starts school in August so I feel like I’m able to give back a little time to her where I’ve spent a lot of time on the road working with Eric,” Martin declared. “I feel like the time from now until August is important for me to give back to her.”
Martin pointed out that the life of a travelling racer can be much more taxing than many people outside the business may realize.
“I don’t think they understand how difficult it is,” he said. “You hear everybody say ‘Man, I wish I had your job’ or ‘That’s a dream come true’, but I don’t think people realize on a day-to-day basis what life is like to live out of one of these haulers until you’ve lived that life. There is fun to it, but I think for a married man with children, it’s not really the life you want to live.”
The transition from all the travel required to work on a Super Late Model team to staying closer to home and racing his own car more often than he had been able to in recent years has taken some getting used to. But Martin believes his new life is one that will ultimately be good for both him and his family.
“It’s definitely different,” he said of not being on the road so often. “Being home has been a blessing, for sure. You never know how much you miss home until you’re gone, of course. It’s been good for me to be home on a day-to-day basis with my family, not that I wanted to lose my job or see Eric close down his racing operation, but it’s definitely been good for me to be home. I’ll say this, I’ve been able to unwind and it feels like I’m not as stressed week to week. Its letting me race now and I feel like I can concentrate on my personal racing.”
Greg Martin looks to have his own No. 24 machine on track more often in 2015.
Martin competed in both the Limited and Crate Late Model events at Smoky Mountain Speedway this past weekend. He earned an 8th place result on Friday night in the Limited feature. On the next night, a second place qualifying run with the crate powered car made it possible for the No. 24 machine to show the way for several laps in the feature before contact with the turn two wall while racing for the lead with Jason Welshan ended his night prematurely.
However, Martin believes he can get back to his winning ways after the mindset of racing more often becomes fully engrained.
“I feel like right now I’m in a little bit of a transition to where I’m wanting to try more. Last year I was a little more set in where I wanted to be when I went to a race. I wasn’t really into testing or seeing where I was because I wasn’t getting to race consistently. But now that I’m concentrating more on my own racing, I’m definitely more fired up about it than I have been in years past.”
