The youngest of our “expert” sales group is Chris Eggleston.  He started racing quarter midgets at age 5, and has been racing something ever since!  He is no stranger to winning, as he had 300 feature wins in the quarter midget, including 6 National Championships and 3 World records.  He started racing a Legend car at age 14, and won rookie of the year at CNS in 2005.  In 2006 he won both the CNS and Rocky Mountain Legends Racing Assoc championships, while also competing a limited schedule in the Latemodel at CNS.  In 2007 he competed at CNS in the legend and Latemodel and ran several ASA North and Midwest races, competing in that series full time and winning the ASA North Championship in 2009.  He is now racing in the Camping

World Truck series on a limited basis, and competing with the Latemodel and Legend locally as his schedule permits.

Advice to those just getting into racing:
Whether you are entering the sport of racing as a hobby, or looking to make a career out of it, before you become successful, be ready to fail first. Racing is not an easy sport to enter and to become good at within your first few attempts. Every racecar driver has to start somewhere and begin to know and understand the dynamics of their racecar. Anytime you’re around people that will help you or give you advise, try to soak it all in, even if the puzzle pieces doesn’t yet make since. One day, after you have raced enough and learned more about the engineering of your racecar, all the puzzle pieces will begin to fit together and you will be more able to work and set up your racecar based upon your driving styles. All the successful racecar drivers in this world and industry all started somewhere with most failing during the entry of their racing career. It was those that never gave up, picked up on everything they could learn (on the track or off) who made a name of themselves. Working at Leary Racing Products for so long has allowed me to ponder and pick the brains of two of my best teachers in racing; Mike Leary and Roger Avants. Almost every day at work, I would come in having a couple question at hand ready to ask them and they were always there to assist me, giving me further understanding of my very own racecars. I will never completely understand the engineering of a racecar nor will I ever stop learning, however, I would like to thank Mike and Roger for laying the foundations of what I now know which helped and enabled me to win the races I have won within my career so far. 

Advice to those building a new car and needing many new parts:
Unfortunately, racing is a sport that involves some source of money or sponsors to at least enable you to make your initial investment and begin racing. However, I have been to a lot of tour and ASA races, and seen guys show up with a late model on a flat bed trailer. They don’t have a fancy tool box or a good looking car. The five year old paint job is faded away and you could barely read the vinyl numbers as they had started to deteriorate away. However, once all cars are on the track and you strap on that helmet, none of that stuff matters whether how you got to the track or the appearance of your car; the end result of your performance will come from the preparation you put forth into your car during the prior week before race day. Those that are on a limited budget are often times the ones most dedication and put the most work and effort into their cars during the week. And having learned this lesson several weekends, races are almost always won back at the shop. Therefore, it doesn’t matter about the trailer that hauls your car, or the amount of money you pour into your cars, they are all racecars and have an equal chance at winning when the green flag drops. Back to my ASA story with the guy who showed up on a flat bed trailer paying for his weekend of fun with his pay check he cashed the night before; this man went on to win the feature that night showing that his hard work and dedication at the shop paid off and that the lack of money he did not have could not hold his talent nor his end results back…..