Lucas Pipala Racing

🚨 Attention in the pits! 🚨

Due to Lucas wanting to (and peer pressure from our friends!)….

Lucas will be making his Light 160 debut this weekend! 🤪

That’s right, he will be racing the green machine in the Senior Honda class (he’s only 3 points back from a top-10 finish!!) and the blue baddie in the Light 160 class! He’s so excited, dad is thrilled and mom…. Well…. She’s picking up a fresh anxiety prescription 🤗

His first weekend back in the car since breaking his arm in June will be a doozy! Come out and cheer him on! It’s free to come watch races, there are trackside food trucks and playgrounds, and TWO DAYS of on track activity!!!

The action starts Saturday morning with batch qualifying at 9am and racing to follow - going alllllll day! Sunday no qualifying, just racing! Start time to be announced.

Stay tuned to our socials for updates or follow North Carolina Quarter Midget Association (NCQMA) for updates and live videos from the track!!!

Thank you for the support Flash Products, Accelo Racewear, Ultimate QM, Scott Seggi, The Pool and Patio Company - we couldn’t race without you!!!!

Anyone out there looking for a single weekend sponsorship of the blue car - give Amy Pipala a shout and buy the boy a set of tires to run his first Light 160 race!!!!

Shoutout to the hard-working dads!!! You are appreciated beyond words and respected by the little racers you're raising more than they can express.

This guy is pitting over 90 NASCAR races this season. He's gone Friday - Sunday most weeks, living his dreams and proving to young racers anything is possible as long as you work hard and let your passion drive you.

Shayne moved to North Carolina at 18 to be on a pit crew. He took welding classes and worked in his dad's auto body shop, and started as a welder at Braun Racing to get his foot in the door. He pitted a race for Kenny Wallace for free just to be out there competing and to be seen. He bought his own NASCAR License so he stood out to a team so they wouldn't have to buy it like they might for someone else. He went the Carl Edwards route and handed out business cards. He helped in the shop for free. He studied pit videos daily.

One weekend he drove to from NC to Michigan for one race, to New Jersey for another, and back to NC. He got home at 6am, took a quick shower, then go straight to work in the shop for 11 hours. He drove 14 hours one-way once to do one 2-tire stop (so change one tire).

He's won back to back Brickyards, the Daytona 500, two Southern 500's, an O'Reilly's Series Championship, and has countless other wins while working with some of the biggest names of the modern era of NASCAR. Dream big. Work hard. And our family motto: NEVER GIVE UP.

This is the shadow Lucas is walking in. The shadow of a hard working and passionate man. A man who loves living his dream and he knows how lucky he is. He will talk to anyone and everyone to help them get there too. He's too nice sometimes and will always be there for the people in his life, and his GIF game is unmatched.

Shayne works all week, pit practice, workouts, and helping out in the Fab shop too, then works on Lucas's race car when he gets home. We don't have an outside source taking care of our equipment, it's all on this guy's shoulders. He's there to help Lucas in practice but when the lights shine the brightest on his boy, dad is hundreds of miles away, watching on his phone or the pit box TV at the live of the race.

It rips his heart out to do all the prep and all the research, and not get to be there for the moments with his boy, the celebrations when he did so great and all the kids and adults are proud of Lucas, and those moments when Lucas is heartbroken and needs a hug from dad. He misses it all.

So this post is a thank you to the dads. You have so much more on your plate than the little racers realize, and make more sacrifices than they could understand. Even when they think they know, they really don't. It's the nights you lay awake wondering about shocks and stagger, track temps and track bars. It's your shoes are falling apart, but you'll tape them together if it means money towards a fresh new set of tires for the race car. It's when your heart breaks because the car was off and your kid is devastated because they were so confidant... and you're feeling like you let them down.

We see you. We thank you. We love you. Racing dads are like no other. They love hard, support hard, work hard, and it's not taking a kid to practice and buying a glove or pads. It's late nights covered in grease and busting your knuckles, hoping you're doing the right thing to give your kid all they need to grow and showcase their talent.

Randomly thank a racing dad today for all they do, for no reason other than they deserve it.

🚨The update everyone has been waiting for!!! The new hardware tells one story but the smile tells another!

Lucas had his 8-week checkup today for his broken arm. After 4 weeks in a long cast, he graduated to the short cast for the last 4 weeks.

In today’s x-rays, we could see one of the two bones was almost fully healed. The bad break unfortunately ….was still visible. To quote his doctor “You broke it really good!”

👩‍⚕️ We sat down and his doctor asked to see video and photos of his car to learn more about the style of racing we do. She said with the safety measures we take and racing not being a ‘full body contact sport’ like football.. 🚨She has officially approved Lucas to get back to racing!!!!🚨 (She even went as far as to say racing, but while it can be dangerous, is one of the safer sports when it comes to protecting the body!)

👉🏼The only stipulation - Lucas must wear a hard brace in his races, just to protect the bone. This brace was molded to his arm for comfort, but it does have a hard spot at the pad of his hand that might be difficult to hold the wheel with, so we’re going to look into other options for a race brace which his doctor suggested…. He needs to wear it for any activity (so recess and PE) but and no push-ups quite yet, but otherwise he’s got his arm back, and doesn’t need it all the time! We have one more appointment in 6 weeks and hopefully then he’ll be good to go completely and we can see what kind of racing we can get into for the off-season 👀

Any friends want to go practice with Lucas next week? 🏁 We’ve got to get this guy a little seat time to get back in the swing of things!! He’s ready to hit the track and make his comeback in 2 weeks at the Carolina Fall Nationals!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

All the cool kids have a pool from The Pool and Patio Company and a motor from Flash Products while driving their Ultimate QM Quarter Midget in their Accelo Racewear firesuit at North Carolina Quarter Midget Association (NCQMA) 😏

We’re out here at our track today at the Honda Cup race to support our friends! We are honored and beyond appreciative that Lucas was invited to be included in the Senior Honda walkout and driver intros!