Speed Mafia History

 

Speed Mafia actually began in July 2002 when Rick Thompson and Brad Collins were both stationed in South Korea serving remote tours for the United States Air Force. Collins a Weapons Loader and Thompson a Paralegal were both serving a one year tour there and met through mutual friends. They quickly discovered they both had an interest in stock car racing. During a conversation one night Thompson inquired about a copy of Nascar Racing 4 that Collins owned at the time. Thompson had driven previous versions of the game but had not partaken of the more current versions. Collins invited Thompson to turn some laps, which Thompson did and found to be quite enjoyable. Thompson went out and purchased himself a copy and the two began coordinating times to meet online and race with one another.

After racing a while in pickup races online both drivers decided it was time to find a structured league to participate in. Both drivers looked and decided that a league called the American SIM Racing League or ASRL looked to be the best fit for them. Immediately after joining their first league race they began to realize they had much to learn, but both drivers were up to the task. Thompson decided the two needed to form a team and combine their efforts. Resistol Racing was born and the two began racing under their newly formed team with some success but never found victory lane during its existence. Enough potential was shown though that the team was approached by Herb and Tom Ashley who saw that the two drivers were on the verge of becoming very competitive. Ashley Bros Racing decided to purchase and merge the two teams into what later became A-Force Ashley Racing.

A-Force was and still is a very successful team, and while racing under the A-Force Banner both drivers learned from the Ashley Brothers vast experience. It wasn’t long after joining that Thompson found victory lane for the first time at Talladega. Both drivers began performing very well, but the time had come for them to depart Korea and change duty locations. Collins would go to Alaska, while Thompson headed to North Carolina.

Despite the difference in location the two remained close and Thompson soon brought in Mike Hasenauer to the online racing world. Hasenauer was Thompson’s neighbor at a previous assignment and the two had stayed in contact after they had gone different ways. Hasenauer soon after joined A-Force as well and began to enter league races. A-Force then began a drivers mentoring program which became known as B-Force. This was a team that new drivers could join to get a sense of team atmosphere and learn several tools on how to be competitive in online racing. B-Force consisted of several drivers, notably Daniel Julian, Casey Campbell, and Joe Alberico.

In May of 2005 Rick Thompson decided he needed to try something different. He informed Herb Ashley he would like to be released from A-Force. Ashley did not seem happy about this but reluctantly allowed Thompson to leave and wished him well. Soon after Thompson left, Collins and Hasenauer followed suit. Immediately rumors of a new team began to sprout up everywhere. About a month after the release those would no longer be rumors.

Speed Mafia was born in June of 2005, with three founding members, Thompson, Collins, and Hasenauer would be the foundation of the new team. For six months the team remained a 3 man show. But in mid January 2006 the team announced it had signed a new rookie to the fold. Ricky Peshel joined the organization and immediately began to enjoy success in the ASRL with several wins even winning the rookie of the year honors for the first half of the Great Western Series. Peshel was a co-worker of Collins’ and the two had been in discussion about possibly coming on board for weeks before terms were agreed upon. The very next month Collins would bring another rookie on board with John Edwards. Edwards quickly showed he was plenty capable of running up front, but also had a knack of getting into penalty trouble. Eventually the penalties added up and a frustrated Edwards decided to retire very early into what seemed to be a budding career. This would leave Speed Mafia with 4 drivers once again.

In September of 2006 Speed Mafia made a huge announcement when they stated they had not signed one driver, but 4. Casey Campbell, Joe Alberico, Daniel Julian, and Calvin Hutchinson all signed contracts to join the team. Campbell, Julian, and Alberico had all run previously with several Mafia members while driving for B-Force, so it did not take much time for the team to gel with it’s new drivers.

Now the team has 6 active drivers and 2 inactive drivers running in several different series and performing well. The team looks forward to the return of Ricky Peshel who had been serving a tour in Guam which unfortunately put his racing career on hold. Peshel should be tearing up the track soon again as he has made it back home safe and sound and is on a leave of absence to catch up with his family. Hasenauer is the other inactive driver, he has been assigned to Air Force Combat Camera and is TDY much of the year lately. The team is still hopeful that he can participate whenever possible and always looks forward to seeing his #37 Cataz Media car on the track.

The future looks bright for the organization, Collins and Thompson remain the co-owners and managers of the team and both feel that the team is progressing the way they had hoped. Speed Mafia has already won a team title this year and leads the standings in several series for more before the end of the season.