COREY MICHALEK TALKS ABOUT MBR’S LONG JOURNEY TO WINNING WALLY IN CHARLOTTE AS TEAM OWNERS
The journey hasn’t been easy for Michalek Brothers Racing.
When Corey Michalek and his brother, Kyle, bought a dragster in 2015 they had a plan – as team owners – and the plan came to together on May 1.
With Corey driving, Michalek Brothers Racing won the Top Alcohol Dragster title at the 2022 NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMax Dragway in Charlotte, N.C. It was MBR’s first Wally as team owners.
“I don't think there was ever a time that we didn't think it would be possible,” Corey said about having success as team owners. “But at the same time, we've always known the challenge of winning at events, especially in one of the top (classes) in the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series. But we saw the hard work and dedication that it took through some of the previous experiences that we had when we worked for other teams, and we raced on those teams that we decided to buy our car back in 2015 and it was always the goal to have to try and do things the right way and make sure that we surrounded ourselves with the right people.
“Sooner or later, it's going to be the possibility that hopefully a day like we had on Sunday was going to come to fruition.”
The fact the MBR won its first Wally as team owners in Charlotte did have some irony.
“It's kind of interesting,” Corey said. “So, at this time last year, we actually were leaving Charlotte and we were doing a little bit of soul searching because, for the first time as car owners, we really badly wounded our race car when we broke the crank in the first round of eliminations at that same (Four-Wide) race.
“We had an oil fire that really severely burned up a lot of stuff in the car. So, after that race, Kyle, my brother, really stepped up from a leadership standpoint and he empowered our full crew by basically going hands off in terms of wrenching on the car and focusing his whole attention on tuning the car.”
With Kyle’s new approach and the addition, the of a new crew member sparked a resurgence in MBR.
“At that same time, we were also really fortunate that a gentleman by the name of Adrian Long believed what we were trying to accomplish, and he accepted my cold call asking if he would be interested in coming to a few races with us,” Corey said. “Since then, both him and Kyle have really hit it off. They work extremely well together, and they've completely reinvented the way that we run our car, and that's what's really put us in the direction over the course of this past year to put us in the position that we were in on Sunday.”
After owning a team for seven years, the Wally did have special meaning.
“We always said that, when we buy the car, we wanted to try and do this the right way, with surrounding ourselves with the right people, not cutting corners, hopefully gaining respect within the overall class,” Corey said. “We did not come from a racing family, so we had to kind of figure out some additional things along the way that maybe some others have got. To each their own, though. Everyone has their own journey in that specific regard.”
The Michaleks also put in the hours finding financial backing to make MBR happen and prosper.
“We've been able to be fortunate enough to really pound the pavement in terms of trying to procure partners,” Corey said. “We brought partners into the sport that never had any previous relationship with NHRA drag racing and chipped away at it since 2015.
“The biggest moment of perspective for me, actually, was that it's been seven years since we bought this car and it seemed like, ‘Well, why did it take seven years to win a race?’ Sunday was only our 10th national event, so it's not like we've been in there running 15 races a year. So, in the grand scheme of things, it actually happened pretty quick.”
Along this path to MBR’s first team win, there has been tragedy.
On February 23, 2019, Steph Andrews Michalek, wife of Kyle Michalek, passed away unexpectedly. Their infant son, Andrews, was delivered.
“This has always been an opportunity for our family to come together in a common area,” Corey said about racing. “There were many years where we lived in different areas of the country, but the racetrack was always the gathering spot. We took that year off in 2019 due to what happened and there was always the goal when the time was right to be able to get back out there.”
Corey said when MBR reached the winner’s circle May 1, the team had plenty of company, which made the celebration even sweeter.
“What was really special about this past weekend was that my entire family, whether it parents, aunts and uncles, mother-in-law, father-in-law, wife, daughter, Kyle's wife, his family, etc., every single person in our family was there and it was a rare occurrence that we were able to get everybody in one spot,” Corey said. “The fact that it all happened, that they were able to be in the winner's circle and celebrate was, I think, just the icing on the cake there.”
Outside of racing, Corey is a creative director at a marketing agency and Kyle is a manufacturing engineer at a company. The brothers work in Columbus, Ohio.
“So as soon as we got back on Monday, we were both back to work, but it made it a lot easier clocking in knowing that we had such a great weekend,” Corey said.
Corey also doesn’t have to look too far to find the prized trophy.
“The Wally is sitting two feet to my left right now on the desk,” Corey said. “We're in the process of, in between now and Norwalk, (Ohio, June 24-26) we are moving into a new shop. So once the shop's finished, the Wally will be relocated to his permanent residency (in the team shop). The shop is going to be in my brother's backyard. So, he's building a house and then there's a shop he's going to build in there.”
Corey had won a Wally in the Top Alcohol ranks before May 1, but it wasn’t as a team owner. In his first race while driving for another team he won in Charlotte in 2014.
“I don't want to undervalue a win because that was... the circumstances of winning, my first race ever (in Top Alcohol) will not be able to be replaced,” Corey said. “But it's a different level of gratification and satisfaction doing it with your own stuff and understanding the sacrifice and the work that is involved in doing it with a race car where you're not just showing up and getting in and driving. It's completely different, for sure.”
Corey said MBR’s plan for the remainder of the 2022 season is move forward with its seven-race schedule in 2022.
“We've done Gainesville (Fla.), and Charlotte so far, and then we'll do Norwalk and the Columbus regional (race), (then go) back to Norwalk and then close the year with Indy and Dallas.”
Although MBR was the best TAD team in Charlotte, Corey isn’t about to boast about the rest of his team’s schedule.
“Yes, that's something that we certainly hope for (to win), but if anything, that it's taught us over the past seven years, it's that nothing is guaranteed within this sport, and it takes a tremendous amount of work as well as some luck to be able to do it. That's why we're really savoring this one. We hope that there's more, but we know it's not like we just walked out the door and the floodgates were opened. There's as big of a battle, if not an even bigger one, now that we've done it, so we got to be able to do it again.
“I think their collaboration and partnership between Kyle and Adrian and in the way that we've run this car, we completely changed the way that we did things after our fire last year in Charlotte. That's what's fast-tracked us to this moment, and without those two being so lockstep with each other and with the rest of the crew, Sunday wouldn't have happened.”