Some racers complain about the distance to their local track, but Mike Selig has most of them beat for the longest racing commute. He calls Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, South Carolina, his “home track,” despite residing 900 miles away in Georgetown, Massachusetts. He makes the trek to the Palmetto State two to three times a month to spend quality time with his father, Joseph Selig, who lives in Spartanburg.
“My parents divorced when I was two years old,” said Selig, 40, a construction company owner. “[With] visiting [my father] in the summer, [racing] was our thing we did together. I was a sports player, but he couldn’t be there for sports. [Racing] was his way of connecting [with me].”
Selig raced go-karts for many years before moving into front-wheel-drive cars in 2017. As a native from the Boston area, Selig sticks out in the pits of the South.
“I talk for two seconds, and people know,” Selig said of his undeniable Massachusetts roots. “At first, [racers were like], ‘I’m not losing to a Yankee’ to them realizing who I am as a person. I’ve gotten a lot of followers. A lot of people have a person that they know in Boston.”
During The Carolina Sizzler at The Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, last month, his performance attracted a different type of attention.
“I finished second in the front-wheel-drive race, and I got an offer I couldn’t refuse,” said Selig, who then sold off his front-wheel-drive operation. “I was [at Charlotte] Sunday to race, made the deal, and got on a flight two hours later and went home before I changed my mind.”
Mike Selig doesn’t plan to exit the sport. Nor does he intend to race closer to his home in the Bay State. Instead, you’ll soon find Selig behind the wheel of a 602 modified at dirt tracks around the Carolinas.
“The front-wheel-drive [car] is so much work,” Selig said. “It’s a car on the street — it’s not made to race. We don’t let things break — that’s why we were always in the top-five. I’d replace my right-rear hub every two races. You have a computer issue, you’re diagnosing it for week. We had a fuel pump issue before Charlotte. We spent three weeks trying to figure it out and [the cause] was a broken wire.
“So, we’re like, it’s time to go to a carbureated, rear-wheel [-drive car]. These [modifieds] are bulletproof.”
The Outside Groove Executive Editor has covered motorsports since 2000. His many awards include the 2019 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Jim Hunter Writer of the Year and the 2013 Russ Catlin Award for Excellence in Motorsports Journalism.
