Ray Groves cherishes few memories from his 40-plus-year drag racing career more than the time he raced against a truck completely decked out like a chicken — à la the dog van from the 1990s classic movie “Dumb and Dumber”.
Oh yeah, there was also that time, in 2009, that Groves won the NHRA Mile-High Nationals and proved that a blue-collar race car driver from Greeley can compete with, and upend, the household names from big-budget teams from throughout the country that converge on the prestigious event at Morrison’s Bandimere Speedway.
But, ultimately, for Groves and longtime friends and racing companions Ray Schoneman and Morgan Minor, the memories that will last a lifetime are the ones created before and after the dedicated trio sits behind the wheel during hot summer weekends.
There are the countless hours they spend working on each other’s cars, on the heels of a full day’s work at their day jobs.
There are the summer cookouts with each other’s family after another successful weekend at the track.
There are the moments in which they’re just kicking back, discussing strategy or allowing the conversation to carry on to a topic outside of racing altogether.
The actual race is exhilarating. But it is the journey that keeps this passionate Greeley trio coming back to the racetrack year after year.
“We all work together, and we have a lot of fun,” Schoneman said. “And if one of us gets beat and the other two guys are still in, the guy that’s out always helps the guys that are still in ”
Recently, Schoneman, 60, made it all the way to the finals of the “super gas” division at Mile-High Nationals on July 15-17.
Driving his treasured Chevy Nova — Flying Dutchman — Schoneman survived through seven rounds before falling to Kris Whitfield of Littleton in the finals.
“The hardest thing about a race like that is you usually run four rounds on Saturday, and then Sunday, they finish it up,” Schoneman said. “So it’s almost like in two days, you start a whole new race. It’s tough.”
Racing is a family affair for this Greeley trio.
Ray Schoneman and Ray Groves became brothers-in-law after Groves married Schoneman’s sister in 1981, around the same time Groves and Schoneman first met.
Schoneman’s wife, Dee, is Schoneman’s crew chief in the pit during races.
Groves’ girlfriend, Cheryl Green, is every bit as hands-on. She’s in the pit for every pass down the track, helping with tire pressure and whatever else is needed for the trio to go toe-to-toe with drivers who stock their pits full of paid professionals.
But the brotherhood built throughout the years by all three of these dedicated drivers is undeniable.
“This isn’t as much about racing as it is the people around it,” said Minor, who now lives in Denver but is a longtime Greeley resident who still considers Greeley his hometown. “Of course, going fast is fun. … (But), I almost feel happier when (Groves and Schoneman) do well than when I do well. They’re as much my family as anybody.”
Minor met Groves while working for Groves’ dad when Minor was just 16 years old.
The trio first began racing about 40 years ago after hanging out together at an auto parts store in LaSalle owned by longtime Bandimere public address announcer Bruce Kamada.
Minor, 55, said his most memorable moment at the track was watching Groves win Mile-High Nationals in 2009.
Groves’ victory at Mile-High Nationals in 2009 was made even sweeter by the fact that standout performance came oh so close to not even happening.
The weekend of the race, Groves found some cracks in the vehicle chassis, the frame of his car.
Luckily, he was able to have somebody weld the chassis during the first day of the event.
Groves, 63, went on to defeat the first- and third-ranked drivers in the world en route to his first-place finish in the “super comp” division.
“It was unexpected … I didn’t even know if I would race,” Groves recalled. “Then, to make it to (the finals) and run against those guys, I’m like, ‘Well, you know, it’s been fun. It’s been a good day.’ But I never thought I’d be able to win.
“But, I did.”
Groves, Schoneman and Minor routinely go head-to-head with professional racers who compete every week.
All three members of the trio have full-time jobs away from racing.
And in a very good year, any one of this trio would be more than happy to just break even and make about as much money through racing as what they’ve invested into the sport.
The Greeley group hits the track anywhere from a couple times per month to about a half-dozen times per year, as their family and work routines allow.
But, boy, does that make it that much more gratifying when one of them overcomes the odds to take down a competitor with a big budget and perhaps an even bigger name.
“Us small-town guys go up there and whoop up on ’em, and it feels pretty good,” Schoneman said.
Neither Schoneman, Minor nor Groves do this for the money. They do it for the memories, the camaraderie and their sheer love for racing.
So when an event organizer approaches them with a rare opportunity — like, say, racing against a vehicle that is part truck and part poultry — such an opportunity is simply too good to pass up for this fun-loving trio.
Thus, Groves cites one of his favorite memories as the first time he raced against the White Fence Farm truck — a plodding, deliberating-moving vehicle sponsored by a Denver-area chicken restaurant that fielded the truck to raise money for various causes.
“Oh my God, it was the greatest thing ever,” Groves said. “After that, everywhere I would go, the other drivers would ask, ‘Do they got a chicken truck out there, too?’ I would go to Topeka, Kansas, or Phoenix, Arizona, and people would say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know they had a chicken truck out here, too.’
“That became my identity. Everybody loves giving me a hard time about that.”
Groves even raced against the chicken truck several more times during his vast career that continues without an end in sight.
Groves started racing in 1978. Before that, he was involved in rodeo. He roped with his brother.
Going from one high-octane sport to another, Groves discovered racing provided him with a feeling like no other.
“I’ve never done drugs before, but this is my drug,” Groves said. “The adrenaline, the excitement … It’s a blast.”
Bobby Fernandez covers sports for the Greeley Tribune. Reach him at (970) 392-4478, by email at bfernandez@greeleytribune.com or on Twitter @BobbyDFernandez.
