[Dirtfan]

Mike and Judy Miles have been running the Bloomington Speedway for the past quarter of a century

July 4, 2010
click photos to advance (3 photos)
Gregory Garrison sits with his younger brother, Jarrett, on the top of a truck for a good view of racing on the quarter-mile clay track at Bloomington Speedway Friday. David Snodgress | Herald-TimesPHOTO GALLERY: Bloomington Speedway

On Friday night a light, cool breezes passes through and the loud roar of engines fills the Bloomington Speedway as Mike Miles waits patiently. Sitting on a yellow four-wheeler with his radio set, the Speedway owner closely monitors cars hugging each turn. He leisurely takes a sip of his drink when he spots it: the forceful hit.

His few seconds of rest are suddenly gone. Without hesitation, Mike leaves the infield and speeds over to the scene. A stock car had hit the inner guard rail, causing its front bumper to fly off. Just as the flagman signals for caution, Mike quickly jumps off his four-wheeler and removes the debris from the track.

After he drops off the bumper in the pit area, he is right back to where he started: being constantly on alert to help racers throughout the night. If he’s lucky, he may get a few extra minutes to rest until he is needed again.

Like any other work day, he is constantly on the move. But he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“If you are going to do something for a living,” Mike said, “you might as well do something that you love as opposed to just doing any 8 to 5 job.”

As one of the two promoters and owners of Bloomington Speedway, Mike stays busy. He and his wife, Judy, have run the track for 25 years and do everything from ordering concession supplies to creating different promotions.

And not to mention they do all the other work that keeps a business running — 70 hours a week for Mike, to be exact.

It’s all in preparation for one thing — racing night. Each Friday night, the Speedway hosts races featuring different types of cars including sprint, stock and modified. Despite these races only running from April to September, Mike and Judy have plenty to do beforehand.

“It takes us a few months to get ready,” Judy said with a laugh. “And a few months to wind down. We basically work year-round.”


In their blood
When Mike and Judy bought the Speedway in the fall of 1984, they didn’t just do it on a whim. They had been racing fans from an early age, and Mike knew he wanted to eventually run the track.

When he was about 10 years old, Mike attended races at the Bloomington Speedway with grade-school friend Randy Kinser so they could watch Randy’s dad, Bob, race.

Seeing someone as skilled as Bob compete, Mike says, contributed to his interest. He would sit on the Speedway’s hill and watch, thinking about what he’d do if he were in charge.

He dreamed of building a great reputation for the track, so that it could be known nationwide. When he took out the loan to buy the track, he couldn’t imagine how that reputation would grow. Or how ownership would repay him in so many fulfilling ways.

Current NASCAR stars Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon have raced at the Speedway. Spectators from across the state and country, in turn, flock to the track.

“You just do the best you can and make the majority happy,” Mike said. “And if you do that, you’re doing pretty good.”

Watching the crowd cheer loudly and excitedly on this cool Friday night, it seems that Mike is doing all right in that area. Fans stood up as the announcer pumped up the crowd for the sprint car heat race, the smallest and, as some people say, the most exciting of the races.

Ever since Judy met Mike in November of 1985, she wanted to contribute to this excitement. She helped Mike run the Speedway for five years before they were married in 1990.

But Judy had to make more money while also helping Mike. She worked full-time at Duke Energy for 21 years until 2007. She then decided to work only at the Speedway for one simple reason: she loves racing.

Growing up, she attended her father’s races each Saturday and worked at the concession stand where he raced. Her brothers also loved racing and traveled to races.

“For me, that was our weekend thing — to go racing,” Judy says. “There was nothing else that took our time like racing.”

At the Speedway, she began working as a scorer and eventually took on many different tasks, including managing the concession stands and employees that help each Friday.


All in the family
While Mike and Judy run the Speedway, they don’t do it alone. They have about 40 employees and volunteers that help every Friday night for races.

Despite many businesses seeing employees come and go, Mike and Judy usually manage to keep the same ones for many years.

Some of them are family members.

Audie Miles, Mike’s mother, is one of many family members who help at the Speedway. Now 82, she has been helping her son and daughter-in-law for 25 years, ever since the beginning of the partnership.

“I’ve been here so long that it just seems like I’ve always been here,” Audie said.

When she started out helping at the track, she was tending to her sick mother in Princeton. When she wasn’t doing that, she was at the track each Friday helping her son run the track. Helping in both good times and bad is what the Miles family said they are all about.

“We are really blessed with a lot of great people,” Judy said. “They are just as much a part of the success as we are. It takes the whole team.”

Many other family members from both sides have helped, whether it is filling in for a day or helping prepare food for the big race.


The love of racing
When Mike and Judy aren’t at the Speedway, they can usually be found at another racetrack somewhere. Their two sons, Shelby, 29, and Cole, 12, both race.

While Cole races locally, Shelby and his modified team have raced at nearly 50 race tracks around the country and race at least twice a week.

Growing up with Mike promoting the Speedway, racing became a passion for Shelby. While his team used to race an entire series and has won several championships, Shelby now books his own races weekly, signing up for races within a 10-hour distance from him.

Like his father, Shelby works long weeks — about 50 hours are spent repairing cars, talking to sponsors and taking care of other business-related activities. He also works at Snedegar Construction for about 30 hours per week.

“I don’t know any other life,” Shelby said. “My family has been so into it that racing is probably the only thing I really know.”

Even with his busy schedule, Mike usually goes to about four or five of his son’s races each year. One of the recent ones was June 16 at the Hoosier Dirt Classic at the Brownstown Speedway, where he was able to see his son beat Tony Stewart, who races small tracks under the alias, “Smoke Johnson.”

Not that Mike has much time to celebrate. There’s always something to do at the track.

The Saturday morning after each racing night, Mike wakes up at 6 a.m. to clean up. He mounts a large tractor to grate the clay track, which takes about four hours. Then he moves on to the next task and usually leaves by mid-afternoon.

“Some people may think it’s crazy to work as much as we do, but it’s just what I love,” he said.

It’s the day before the Fourth of July, but that doesn’t stop Mike from being hard at work. He has to prepare for next week’s race.

Running around the track grounds, answering phone calls, attending races — that’s life for Mike and Judy.

“It’s just the love of racing that keeps us going,” Judy said.



Copyright: HeraldTimesOnline.com 2010

[dirtnonwingfan]

Really nice article. Thanks for posting it so those of us who live farther away could see it.

[SprintManDave]

Nice article, Dan, about some nice people.Also , it was nice meeting you Friday Frank.

[PAW]

What about Bland being BAND for rest of year???

[v8j]

Originally Posted by PAW What about Bland being BAND for rest of year???

what? more info

Heard a couple different stories about Bland Jr. on friday and for what I got out of all of them is Mike is taking a push truck drivers side over a driver. Would really love to hear Mikes reasoning for not kicking the push truck driver out for the year too. Doesn't seem right to me.

[clark9c]

well i know for a fact that bland jumped a fellow racer after the feature friday ive heard different stories on the rest though, i heard someone did something to a tow truck but this is just hear say but him jumping a driver is the truth i was there
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[Hurryinhoosier]

Pretty big news if the points leader is banned for the season...


Nice article though.

[dirtnonwingfan]

This thread started with a really nice article about a couple of class people who do a lot for the sport. How about we confine our comments to that.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by DIRT-TRACK-JUNKIE Heard a couple different stories about Bland Jr. on friday and for what I got out of all of them is Mike is taking a push truck drivers side over a driver. Would really love to hear Mikes reasoning for not kicking the push truck driver out for the year too. Doesn't seem right to me.

It's his track and he makes the rules. He's within his rights to ban anyone he wants and he doesn't have to explain his reasoning to anyone.