Or a kid even younger. My grandson gets paid anything from a cap, a t-shirt, or in the case of Bill Babcock, a baloney sandwich with a ride in the golf cart.

In many ways these guys are the unsung hero's of our sport!!!! This is where the real depth of how great the racing community is comes into play......the amount of time and work people put in just to be a part of the team is a great and often overlooked aspect. without people like this you would see a lot less cars on the weekends. so to all that have helped, stayed up all night, busted knuckles, sweated gallons, or just hang out crack jokes and scrape mud week in and week out, i say thank you!!!!

Well if anyone has anybody in mind shoot me a pm. Dont know many people around indy

Some of the best times I have had was when I was 15, and 16 wrenching on the goodnight 39 for nothing but a pit pass and memories I'll hold forever. Matt helped me on a personal level more then he knows. More then I knew at the time.. I learned more about race cars helping Matt for a couple summer's then one can imagine, and for that I thank you!

If I ever have any help, they ride with me and I pay their way. However, it's pretty rare that I have any help. There are very few people around, and it's a long ways to find another car from my neighborhood. People ask me if my car is some kind of go kart around my area. There's no one. Literally. So I fly solo most of the time. It absolutely sucks trying to do everything yourself every night and relying on others to push you up, but it sure beats not going racing at all.

If you are looking for trusty, experienced help that will be an asset to your team $100 a night, pit pass and any travel expenses they may incur. That is a good starting point. If you run really well buy them some drinks (beer lol) and some food in their stomach. Most will work their asses off for that!

Bob

Boy, this sounds all too familiar, my bride of 54 yrs has been almost all of my help over the years, I have had, to the best of my memory, one guy that I considered an asset as far as help, and he didn't know that much about it, other than he was appreciated, and everyone liked him, he got what ever he needed, pit pass, fed, a ride to and from the tracks we went to. I had many others, one brought a lunch pail, set out the chairs for other people to BS with him, but not much help to me, and he had been on an Indy car team, a sprint car team, went all over the world with them, Australia, why, I have no clue! Another one only made it one night, another "experienced" racer, his experience amounted to getting a free ride to and from, pit pass, fed, for one night, the capper was after I had everything done, car ready to hot lap, he says, looks like your ready, I'm going to slip over to the stands, and get me a seat, before it gets too crowded, you don't need anything else do you? After doing that for 60 plus yrs, I've given up, had it been me, I would have jumped at the chance to help someone, and did on lots of occasions, I can't understand why anyone who enjoys racing wouldn't be ready and willing to just go and help, if they want to go, and be part of it, what better way than help someone who needs help, learn something, and for the most part, all your out is what you eat, and a pit pass, no cost to get there, sleep all the way home, be ready to go again the next time! Beats me! Bob

Still looking..

The title of this post should be "How to get good pit help". You got to get them before you pay them. I have tried many ways to get good pit help. I have paid up to $500.00 a night. Giving the entire wining for the night to them, to even offering my hired help at the shop overtime pay plus expenses to help at the races.

The best help that I ever had on a race car was to offer a guy a ride in the back up car. For this I got help in the evenings keeping the race cars up, help at the track on the main car and help keeping his car running also. One kid in particular was super energetic and added greatly to the program. We did this set up for several years and it worked out great for all of us.

Racing is a particularly strange game. If you have it in your blood you will do it for nothing. If it is not in your blood no amount of money will bring you on board. Life now days demand much more from people than it did in the past, also there are so many other ways to spend your leisure time. Help will always be a problem. The guy that shows up with 4 or 5 helpers always amazes me, I think to myself that guy has some super personality or pocketbook or both to be blessed with such help.

Honest Dad himself

DAD, you know how it pains me to agree with you, but in this case I'm forced to, I'm like you, real short of help, and unable anymore to do it all myself, best I can hope for is a driver, who will help as well as drive, then we decide who gets what, I wish things were different, but they aren't, in my youth, I would have stood in line, like I did in the Military, for a chance to help someone, and did on a lot of occasions, that's when my wife, and a lot of others, were "volunteering" to score, sell pit passes, whatever just so we could race, not many got paid, kinda like racing go-karts for a living? I got an attic full of trophies, and have found no way to cook them, so they can be eaten. I fail to understand where/how some of these guys get all the help, I've been lucky at times, for a couple of years, I had an all girl pit crew, they were friends of one of my drivers, and came along, just to meet other drivers, both were good help, and paid their own way too! Bob