Two sisters, Jennifer (left) and Heather (right), and their mother, Ann, promote the Top Gun Sprints. They picked up the reins after the family patriarch, Don Rehm (whose vintage car appears here), passed away in 2018. The three ladies run a series noted for being inclusive rather than exclusive when it comes to the variety of sprints that participate on the tour.
Learning by Immersion
“Sprint car racing was Don’s life — he lived for sprint car racing,” said Ann Rehm. “My daughters picked right up where he left off.”
The Rehms immersed their two daughters in the family business.
“I was selling parts and tires since I was in sixth grade,” Heather Rehm said. “We’ve helped with every racing series Dad and Mom have been a part of. Running the series as a family just came naturally to us.”
Don set the bar high. Many highly regarded him for his people skills.
“My dad was great at making a racer answer his own question,” said Jennifer Butler, née Rehm. “He had a fun side to him, but was serious when cars were on the track. He believed in helping people, and would teach people about sprint cars and the sport of sprint car racing. I traveled with him to trade shows since I was five and witnessed his passion for the sport. He was a fun dad, and shared his love for racing.”
Ann serves as the owner, operator, president, and CEO of the Top Gun Sprints. Jennifer maintains points, generates lineups, and calls the races from the infield. Heather is in charge of safety, controls the restart cone, and helps her sister with IT issues.
“Safety is my main concern, and I am first responder to on-track incidents,” Heather said. “My dad sent my sister and I to a four-day fire safety school back in 2004. We were both fire-safety- and emergency-certified when we were teenagers.”
Don Rehm’s Vision Lives On for Top Gun Sprints
More than 60 drivers registered to race with the Top Gun Sprints last season. Much of its success comes from the inclusive rather than exclusive rulebook. Winged or wingless, carbureted or fuel-injected, if you have a 360 sprint car, you can most likely find a place in the Top Gun Sprints.
“We have weight and tire rules in place to maintain a level playing field,” said Jennifer, whose husband Keith is the series technical director. “As new tech arrives in sprint car racing, we have to make changes in the rules to be fair for all cars competing across the board.”
The Rehms expect car counts to further increase in 2022. They will open their season January 27–29 during the Winternationals at East Bay Raceway Park in Tampa, Florida.
“We are growing,” Heather said. “We have more and more interest in the series from people across the country who want to come to Florida to race.”
The Top Gun Sprints hope to have at least one show at each of the seven dirt ovals within the part of Florida outside the Panhandle.
“We will continue to attract young people into sprint car racing as they go from karts to mini sprints, to full-size race cars,” said Jennifer. “Our following, our rules, and our reputation will make it natural for them to graduate to us.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
