Name: Billy Melvin
Year / Make / Model Car: 2014, Ford, Nix chassis
Number: 45
Class: modified
Years Racing: 25
Job: HVAC Tech
1. How did you get into racing ?
BM: When I started I had a cardboard box for a tool box and worked on my car in my parents drive way… I paid 300 for the car… I still have the cardboard box to keep it all in perspective…
2. What would you be doing if you were not driving a race car?
BM: I have no other hobbies other than racing so I have no idea.
3. People who have inspired you the most while you have raced?
BM: My sister was my biggest fan but all of my family has supported me through the years…
4. What is the biggest obstacle you are facing in your quest to succeed in racing?
BM: I was involved in a serious motorcycle wreck a few years back… “I hit a deer in my neighborhood”… I could not touch my head with my hands for over a year due to paralyzed deltoid muscles… I have had two spinal fusions in my neck due to the paralyses… I still can’t touch my head with my left hand and I also have a paralyzed diaphragm that causes me a lot of breathing problems… I’m obviously not supposed to be driving a race car…
5. What driver are you a fan of?
BM: There are too many to name just one but they are all old school… Those guys were gladiators of speed… Not like the rich punk kids of today that can’t work on there own race cars…
6. Out of all the race cars you have driven, which one was your favorite and why?
BM: Modified because it’s very fast and very light… And you still have to get up on the wheel and drive it…
7. Pick one : CD player, I pod, 8-Track or Record player, and who do you listen to?
BM: I listen to the radio and it’s always sports talk shows or politics… As for music I like old country and rock like Seger and Waylon..
8. What have you been doing during the off season?
BM: There is not much off season because I travel a lot and run most of the big races…
9. Is there any other type of race car that you’d like to drive that you haven’t yet?
BM: No…
10. Your best and worst moment in racing?
BM: When my son won at the Fairgrounds when he was 10 years old and getting his picture made in victory lane with my parents has to be the best… Being told that I would never be able to drive again a few years ago was the worst…
11. Any local legends that you admired while coming up in Short Track Racing?
BM: There are too many great drivers to mention but Jody Ridley was the best…
12. What motivates you to be the best in your racing division?
BM: I hate to lose…
13. Favorite smell at the track : race gas or burning rubber?
BM: Concession stands…
14. What’s the funniest thing you have ever seen on the race track?
BM: Bobby Peoples wearing a tank helmet from IRAQ… I gave him a racing helmet…
15. What local driver do you have the most respect for and why?
BM: On the race track Dave Mader won a lot of big races with a homemade car… Jerry Goodwin won in everything that he ever set in dirt or asphalt
16. Do you have another sport you enjoy to watch or participate in?
BM: I like to watch football…
17. What’s more important … racing for points or racing for the win?
BM: I have never chased points… If you win races the points will take care of themselves…
18. Your favorite track and why?
BM: I loved Birmingham because it was home now it would have to be Montgomery or Nashville…
19. Which describes you best : calculating driver or kamikaze driver?
BM: Depends on the situation but you have to finish to win…
20. Last Lap, you’re in a side by side dash for the win… who would you want to beat and why?
BM: Ty Roberts because that means that I have done my job…
Thanks Billy, for providing us with this information, and if anyone else would like to be featured here please contact me at ShortTrackTalk@gmail.com
