This Cop Really Does Like To Go Fast

Below is from several emails I received from Ernie Reiss,  a police officer from Beatrice, who also happens to be a Factory Stock driver. Ernie is the kind of driver I want to cover more in this blog.  There are thousands of Ernie’s who race because they love the sport.  It is a hobby, not a job.  They all deserve some publicity, and I would love to give it to them.  Just email me @ brutonnb@yahoo.com and I will see what I can do to write about you.

 

Actually, Ernie helped me out.  From time to time I like to use a substitute blogger.  Greg Soukup has helped me out several times, and I would love to get others to do so. I even pay double what I get for doing this (although 2 times 0 doesn’t amount to much).  Friend Tom McLaughlin would be a good one to share his insights.  So would my son Matt-we could call it Matt’s Madcap Magazine, or maybe Matt’s Manifesto.

 

Anyway, Ernie did the writing on this and I thank him. 

 

I hope things are getting back to “normal” for you.  It’s so hard to lose a loved one.  Jan’s Dad passed away over two years ago and he is still in our thoughts on a daily basis.

 

You’ve had a lot on your plate, first with your surgery then with the ordeal with your Dad.  I hope your shoulder is well on its way to recovery now. 

 

My work schedule as a Police Officer doesn’t allow me to do near as much as I would like to, but I’m doing as much as I can.  Like you, I am also a diabetic.  Fortunately, I am on oral meds and hope that I will be able to stay on oral meds.  I have a hard time even poking my finger to do Accu-Checks, so I don’t know what would happen if I had to give myself shots. Note: as Ernie said, I am a diabetic too.  This was discovered about four years ago when I was hospitalized with a kidney infection.  I received insulin shots to stabilize my sugar, and while the insulin needle is very fine and honestly doesn’t sting much, I still hate needles.  And like Ernie, I hate sticking myself everyday to check my blood sugar.

 

I first got into Law Enforcement as a Corrections Officer with the Hall County Sheriff’s Department in May 1983.  I went to the other side of the Law Enforcement Center in Grand Island in November 1983 when I was hired as a Police Officer.  I left in August 1988 and went to the Nuckolls County Sheriff’s Department for a short time.  I started with the Beatrice Police Department in November 1989, so I’m coming up on my 20-yr anniversary soon.

 

I met my wife at Beatrice Speedway, believe it or not.  It was August 1994 and I was on a pit crew for a guy who lived up the street from me.  His wife was a nurse and Jan was an LPN who worked with her.  Jan came to the races one night and she came into the pits after the races.  Our first date was a trip to Sunset Speedway to watch the late models.

 

We got married in June 1996 and took our honeymoon on our Gold Wing.  We went from Beatrice to the west coast and back in a little over two weeks.  We hope to go the other direction before we get too old.  

 

Jan’s oldest son, Jason, and I bought a factory stock together at the end of the 1997 season.  Jason drove in 1998 – 1999 and 2000.  We sat out the 2001 season trying to get a shop put up, and then we bought a different car and sold the old one.  We were getting ready to race the 2002 season when Jason broke his leg, putting him out before the season even started.  I had a couple of people come to me and ask to drive the car, but after some thought, I decided that it was our money in the car and if it was going to be on the track, I would drive it.  At 50 years old, I turned my first laps.  

 

I’d made an agreement with Jan that I was going to race the first week and if my underwear was still clean when I came home, I would go the next week.  When I got on the track, I thought I was going really fast!  It took about 3 laps before I got lapped!!  The first few weeks, I prayed for a rainout!!

 

Because of my hectic work schedule that year, I wasn’t eating right.  I had been 205 lbs in 1998 and by this time, I was down to 162 lbs.  Jan had been telling me to go to the doctor and I finally went in July.  My blood sugar was about 300 and my A1C 12.5.  For two weeks, the doctor had me watch what I ate and told me to be sure to eat healthy and regularly.  After that, I started my oral meds.

 

I’m still on oral meds and a lot more mindful of how and what I eat.  Sometime I really hate it, as I absolutely LOVE chocolate candy and all kinds of ice cream!  I had never liked diet soft drinks, and now I realize that going somewhere with fountain drinks, they usually have a big choice of sugar-laden drinks and ONE diet drink!!  I wonder if a lawsuit would help.

 

I’ve kept racing, and in 2005 I even won some heat races and finished in tech one race.  That was a real hectic season as I raced in both factory stocks and IMCA stock car.  That wasn’t the original plan, but I’d ended up with 2 cars due to Beatrice Speedway saying that in 2005 there wouldn’t be any more factory stocks.  Then they came back saying “one more year” and I already had a 2004 Jet Phantom.  At the end of the season, I had a 9th place finish in points in the stock car and 8th in Factory Stock as well as “Most Improved” in Factory Stock.

 

The 2009 season brought uncertainties with it as we didn’t know what rules the factory stock class would use.  At the end of the 2008 season I had an offer to buy the Phantom and I had another chassis spotted.  I ended up buying the other chassis, which was a bare SCS car.  It didn’t even have any suspension under it, and when we brought it to our shop, we set it on jack stands on the apron in front of the garage.  I had bought a coupled of parts cars and cut the body off one.  I put the floater rear end under it and got front suspension under it.  We set the body on and rolled it into the garage.  In the meantime, the guy who said he would buy the Phantom never returned calls.  I decided to keep the Phantom and use it as a back-up or maybe race one car at Beatrice and the other at McCool Junction on Saturday.  However, the rules at Beatrice changed and pretty much follow McCool Junction.

 

In the past, fellow officers gave me a hard time about racing.  Every week, I was asked “Did you win this week?”  When I ended up with two cars again, this year, I decided to challenge them.  I left a memo, telling them “These are the weeks I am racing.  Sign up to race against me.”  As things evolved, the Chief signed up and has thus far raced twice, as has one of the day shift sergeants.  This week will find a Deputy County Attorneys behind the wheel of the 6x R & R Racing factory stock.  In the weeks that an officer does not drive, either Jason or Jeremy (Jan’s sons) have driven the 6x.  The weeks I can’t drive, Jeremy has driven the 6.  When I registered the cars, I registered the 6x as being driven by different Beatrice Police Officers.  Right now, the 6x is ahead of the 6 by 4 points.  I would love to see both cars finish in the ton 10 in points, but with the competition being so tough, I don’t see that happening.

 

I have been taking the 6 car to McCool Junction every other week and am currently in 10th in points there.  I would love to have a top 10 finish in points there, but the season is a long way from being over.

 

I thought the idea of having different officers in the 6x every week would help generate more local interest in the Beatrice Speedway.  It also shows police officers in a different light than what is usually seen.  I am working on putting together a charity race in which officers will be driving factory stocks and hobby stocks.  I hope to have 10 or 12 cars, thus 10 or 12 drivers.  I have 8 charity organizations in the Beatrice area.  I want each driver to pick a charity, and the winner’s charity will get 50% of the purse.  2nd place driver’s charity will get 30% and 3rd place will get 20%.  The purse will be paid from donations that will be collected each week up to and including the night of the race, August 21st.

 

The weekend, weather permitting, I will have both cars at Beatrice on Friday.  Barring bad luck, I will be taking the 6 to McCool Junction.  Sunday will be a change of pace as I plan to ride to Milligan, Nebraska to meet with other members of the Nebraska I chapter of Blue Knights for lunch.  Later, I’ll take off on the Gold Wing to ride to Albion to take in the WDRL Late Model show.  Ideally, I’d have somebody driving the pickup to McCool Junction on Saturday so I could ride there, but so far I haven’t been able to get anybody to do that for me.

 

I’ve been fortunate over the years to have Jan’s support.  If she didn’t support this, I’d have had to quit years ago.  This season, it’s gotten back to what we intended when we first started, a family thing.  I’ve raced against Jeremy twice, and will race against Jason on July 26th.  Jason and Jeremy have raced against each other a couple of times. 

 

Fashionette Salon in Beatrice as well as Good Samaritan Center in Beatrice have been on board as sponsors the 2008 and 2009 seasons.  Blue Knights Nebraska Chapter I Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club has been on the car since we started racing.  Shew Towing and Homestead Auto in Beatrice have also been with us for several seasons.  Grant Crannell in Beatrice painted the car this year, and Watts/Pope Racing of Beatrice has helped out in loaning equipment out to us.  

 

Here’s hoping the 2009 season will finish on a positive note, and we will be able to race into the 2010 season.

 

I do hope things work out for Ernie the rest of the season.  Thanks Ernie, and thank you for stopping by.

~ by Ron Meyer on July 8, 2009.