Patriot Motorsports 6796 West "D" Avenue, Kalamazoo, MI 49009

 Roger Hensley

- Owner , Chassis Engineer and Driver --

1997 Formula K, Go Cart Series Champion
1996 Galeburg Speedway, Showman of the Year
1994 Galesburg Speedway, Track Champion Car Owner & Crew Chief.
1989 Kalamazoo Speedway, 3rd Place Track Championship Points.
1988 Kalamazoo Speedway, Track Champion & Track Record Holder.
1988 Galesburg Speedway, Track Champion & Track Record Holder.

- More Background -

When I was a young boy my dad use to take me to the local 1/4 mile race track located in Galesburg, Michigan. We would watch as the techno marvels of the time raced and careened around the old flat 1/4 mile bull ring and talked about what it would be like to get into one of those cars and race around ourselves.  I know my dad wanted to race; you could here it in his voice as he talked about the cars and drivers. His priorities however, were in taking care of his family and racing cars just wasn't in his future. We didn't go to the races very often, it was more of a gift for me as my brother and sisters were too young and the cars back then didn't have mufflers. I know my dad would have been a good race driver as he had been driving ever since he was eight (8) years old.

A few years later I began to get a little more exposed to stock car racing when my cousin Joyce married a man who raced cars and came from a racing family. When I was about 12, I began riding my bike into downtown Kalamazoo to visit my cousins, Joyce and Monte Rugg.  Monte 's dad Ora Rugg was a legend in the local short track at Galesburg Speedway back in the 50s and early 60s.  Ora ran an old coupe that had an in-line 6 cylinder GMC engine and Ora beat most of the V-8s with his little in-line 6.

Ora's son Monte had this 57 Chevrolet that he competed in the HI-Flyer division at Galesburg Speedway. Monte's 57 Chevy was red and stood about  10 feet off the ground, or so it seemed to me back then. The cars back then were sprung super stiff and ran M&H racemaster slicks. They used old beer kegs as fuel cells and threaded pipe for roll cage material. These cars slid around the old 1/4 mile race track like dirt cars on wet clay. But with all this antiquated equipment and low budget they managed to have fun. It was exciting and that is what appealed to me.

It wasn't until I was in High School at the young age of 16 that I decided to try my hand at racing. So for $50.00 I bought a 66 Chevy Caprice, heated up the springs, took out most of the windows and hauled the beast out to Kalamazoo Speedway.

I was so nervous after qualifying that I decided to start in the rear of my heat race.  After the green flag waved, the butterflies went away and I concentrated on racing. As I moved up through the pack I lost site of the leaders and began to wonder where I was. As the laps began to wind down I didn't have a clue as to what position I was in relation to the leader; I was too busy running my own race. Then the white flag waived, and on the next lap the checker waived as I approached the flagman. I figured I must have been real close to the leader so I began to pull into the pits.... To my surprise I was told that I had won and needed to go to the front stretch to get my picture taken. The picture of me in the 66 Chevy Caprice was me winning my very first race.  This was the beginning of my racing career. For the next three years I won my first race at the beginning of each year. Then I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.

While in the military I had the good fortune to be stationed in  Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia Maryland and Minnesota. While in these states I watched a lot of races and hung around the guys that were going fast and winning. Some of this knowledge must have rubbed off because when I got out of the military and came home, my racing career really took off. In many respects, my military tour was one of the best things that ever happened to me both as a race driver, and in other aspects of my life.

- Our Name -

Many things became a factor in coming up with the name for our team. Many of my relatives in both my mom and dad's family served in the Army and Navy during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. A few years after I graduated from high school I joined the United States Marine Corps and spent seven years travelling in the United States and throughout the world. I enjoyed travelling while in the Marine Corps but when my second enlistment was up, and my dad had taken ill, I decided to move back home to Michigan.

When I got out of the Marine Corps, I began racing Enduros and then started racing in the Sportsman / Limited Late Model Division at Kalamazoo and Galesburg Speedway. In 1991 the Gulf War was going on and the job that I had at that time, other than racing, was to support the military products that were flowing to our troops in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq. At the same time our sponsors; Harding's Friendly Markets  and American Auto Body had colors that were either RED, WHITE or BLUE or some combination of these colors.

During one of Kalamazoo Speedway's outstanding 4th of July fireworks celebration the idea for Patriot Motorsports popped in my head. Consequently, Patriot Motorsports was born on the 4th of July 1991.

- Our Logo -

Coming up with the name was rather easy compared to coming up with a logo. The logo you see at the top of nearly every page is actually the second logo I came up with. The first logo was very similar to this one: 
I wanted the logo to depict being a patriotic American not just a patriot. Anyone can be a patriot for their own country. So with the help from my friend Rick at Beebe Signs we came up with the logo you see above.

- Our Numbers -

As you can see from our photo album page we have used a few different numbers on our race cars. The first number was 155. That car was actually lettered as 55 after the late Tiny Lund but when I showed up at the race track the number had been taken by someone else so I put a one in front and we got 155.

The next car had the number 53. This number was originally chosen because no one else had the number, until we showed up at the race track. Fortunately the tracks were allowing duplicate numbers so we kept the 53 on the car.

When I got out of the Marine Corps we began racing enduros with the number 53, going back to the car that we raced before going in the service. Problem was, our cars were hand painted and 53 isn't the easiest number to letter so we toyed with other numbers. I still have the table that has the numbers we toyed with. In 1987, after watching the first few races at Kalamazoo Speedway and talking to the owners we chose the number 1 (We didn't get to race in 1987 until four weeks before the mid season championship.). The number 1 worked well with 3 feature wins at Kalamazoo Speedway as well as a bunch of heat and last chance race wins. We went to Galesburg Speedway won one feature race and a bunch of heat and fast car dash races but we  had to change the number to 01 because someone else had taken the number 1.

In 1988 we decided to change the number again; this time the number came a little easier. There were seven people on our race team; there are seven letters in my last name and I spent seven years in the Marine Corps. I picked 7 for the 1988 racing season. That number worked out real well. Three stock car track championships and a slew of feature wins.

- Our Number for 2005 -

We are running the number 7 again in the Late Model, Sportman and Pure Stock divisions at Galesburg, Kalamazoo, Thunder Valley and Mottville Speedways.