I assume you meant College, not Collage.

College
NOUN
1.an educational institution or establishment, in particular.
2.an organized group of professional people with particular aims, duties, and privileges:

Collage
NOUN
a piece of art made by sticking various different materials such as photographs and pieces of paper or fabric onto a backing.

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How much are you paying instructors? I've been pushing 40-55 shows per year for the last 20 years and haven't run over a race car yet. This might be a more profitable option than pushing.

Although... there have been many close calls... and race cars have hit my truck, broken my windshield, my light bar, my headlights, my side windows, beat the body panels to the point it looks like hail damage... as well as hit me in the head with rocks while hot lapping under caution. But it comes with the territory. Truthfully, I should probably start wearing a helmet.

You might want to include a section on instructions for race car drivers too... reminding them not to turn abruptly or sharp while being pushed. This tends to make it very easy for the push bumper to instantly climb the rear tire and hump the car like a dog in heat. Not much the push truck driver can do when that happens. He can only steer his push truck, not the race car. I have seen it happen many times. But the push truck driver always gets the blame.

Some inside information for you regarding Anderson and live green flag pit stops. (Which is insane and dangerous in itself) I have pushed there before. I was not there this year. Race Control controls all the push trucks. They do not move to a pitting race car until the race control official tells them to. They do not push until race control tells them to. Sometimes penalties are assessed and cars are not pushed until the penalty has been assessed. In the drivers meeting, race car drivers are told to stay on the apron during green flag stops until their car has fired, if they move onto the racing surface (banked part of the track) before they fire, the push truck is not to follow them onto the track for obvious reasons. Push trucks must remain on the apron and will back off of them if they do move onto the racing surface before firing... resulting in them being left on the racing surface unfired also resulting in a yellow flag. Imagine your perception of the push truck driver who followed the unfired car onto the racing surface and was slammed in the rear end at 100mph.

I'm really not ragging on you for your post, because your perception is many peoples perception. Are there bad push truck drivers out there? Yes. Are there bad race car drivers out there? Yes. Do accidents happen? Yes. Are there wet or slick track conditions on a banked track that prevent push truck drivers from being able to steer their trucks exactly where there would like to steer them? Yes. The same for race car drivers? Yes.

Let's keep in mind most of the push trucks, especially in the heart of the sprint & midget country that we live in do this on a very regular basis and do a very good job. It's hard to keep good people because it is an expensive, thankless job. I am personally over $60,000 in the red doing this, but I love it and continually strive to make improvements in the quality of service our group provides. There is nothing more gratifying than a driver or crew member coming up to us and saying "thanks, we are glad to see you guys here and appreciate what you do".

Enjoy the races... see you at the track.

Joe Chambers
Official Push Trucks