I was born in Perryville, Missouri in 1963, a place where my family has lived for generations; however, my parents divorced when I was still an infant and I had the good fortune to be raised by Bill and Mitzi Abbott, a wonderful, down-to-earth couple who treated me as if I was their own child. I have always referred to them as “Mom and Dad.” I was their youngest along with one sister and three brothers. Dad retired after 32 years with Southwestern Bell. Believe it or not, he cared nothing about cars. He liked baseball.

Perryville is a small town of 10,000 about 100 miles south of St. Louis. It was a good place to grow up, and I did all the things that kids in small towns do. I played baseball, football, and joined the Boy Scouts. I was a good fisherman, having been taught by my older brother, Terry Abbott, who was 11 years older than me. I sort of worshiped Terry as I was growing up, probably because he taught me so much. To the family’s regret, Terry died in a construction accident at age 41 in 1993. My race car this year will have a memorial on it to him.

I graduated from St. Vincent de Paul Catholic elementary school and then transferred to Perryville High School. Looking back, that was one of the big mistakes of my life. I enjoyed school, but St. Vincent de Paul, being a private school, had very high standards, and for a person with my high energy and predilection for mischief, I needed that. When I decided to go to public high school, I found that the standards were not only lower, but I could get away with about anything. As a result, I did too much playing and not enough studying in my high school years. I regret that I did not go to college.

I did discover my love for cars at Perryville High School. I took a shop class and found that I had a talent for mechanics. I was better than most of my classmates, and I loved it. That led me to develop a desire to race, although as a teenager I couldn’t afford it. I finally got my chance at age 24 and entered a “demolition derby.” It was fun but did not satisfy my urge to actually race. That did not happen until I moved to Arizona in 2001.

It is not easy to win a race, and I think that the challenge to win is what attracts me to stock car racing. That, and the fact that racing is the most exciting thing in the world next to experiencing the birth of your child. I enjoy the excitement and nervousness that precedes the actual race. I talk to myself to try and remain calm and pace myself during the race. If a driver is overly aggressive it may lead to violation of the first rule of racing: to win you must finish!

My first experience at Manzanita Speedway was in the Bomber Division in 2001. Unbelievably, my low point in the year was the night I won my first main event. I was excited as I stood in the winner’s circle until I suddenly realized that, being new in town, I did not have a single friend or family member to celebrate my victory with. I really appreciated it when Bob and Wendell Fletcher came over and congratulated me.

I have two sons, Colenan, who is 16 and a sophomore in high school, and Michael, age 13, a seventh grader. Both my sons remember helping me with my demolition derby car when they were just toddlers. Not surprisingly, both Colenan and Michael have a passion for racing. I always want to do my best when they are in the grandstands watching me.

I am excited about the 2006 season at Manzanita Speedway. Upton Racing has a lot of sponsors supporting us this year. I feel like we have been hired to represent them in a positive way; I appreciate them because without their support we could not put a competitive team on the track. I anticipate having a lot of fun; if not, I will just go fishing.

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