It's not often that flat-track motorcycle racing and Dirt Late Model stock car racing fall into the same motorsports career. And not merely competing in those two racing disciplines, but running both at the national level.
Well, meet Brian Shirley of Springfield, Illinois, a racer who can make that interesting connection. But if not for an unfortunate motorcycle accident in 1999, Shirley might never have changed over to his present career in Dirt Late Models. Sometimes bad luck can result in success.
"But when that happened, I sure thought my racing career was over," he says.
Motorcycle racing came directly from his dad, Jay, who was one heck of a competitor. "Dad was real good and was ready to sign a factory contract when I was born. But he decided to retire at that point. Then, when I was 11, I started racing bikes myself.
"I must have had Dad's genes because I caught on real quick and won about 40 races that first year on a 125cc bike. The next year, I moved up to 250cc and was the National Champion in that class. When I turned 16, I turned Pro and things kept going great. In 1998, I won the Hot Shoe Nationals on a 600cc bike. I thought that this was going to be a great career."
Then everything looked like it was all over, or so Shirley thought when he badly broke his wrist.
"I was told that I would have to keep it stabilized for two years for it to heal, which certainly prevented the operating of a motorcycle throttle control," he recalls. "Was it all over? I sure thought so at the time!"
But then fate stepped in when he started going to races with friend Bill Gibbons, who had a Modified. "I kept on ragging him that I could drive it better than him, so he said,'You think you can do better, you drive it!' So I did. I ran about 15 races and really liked it."
Driving a Modified brought back memories of seeing Billy Moyer, Scott Bloomquist and others race. "I thought that maybe I could drive one of those cars," Shirley says. Thus, in 2002, came the start of an amazing Dirt Late Model career.
"Initially, I didn't think that there would be anything from the bike racing that would apply to stock car racing, but there really were some things," he says. "In both types of racing, you have to be smooth behind the wheel. That's especially the case with Late Models on a slick track."
It wasn't an easy start economically, as he had to sell his personal car to help finance the purchase of a 12-year-old Dirt Late Model. "Hey, would you believe that it was sitting out in a cornfield," he recalls with a grin.
It didn't matter, though, as he got two wins and was the UMP National Rookie of the Year that first season.
In 2003, he got a new racecar from C.J. Rayburn of Rayburn Racecars. "Ran with UMP again and had a pretty good season with eight wins," says Shirley.
Then came more success the following year with a championship in the Northern All-Stars series along with a win at Peoria, Illinois, during the UMP Summer Nationals.
The 2005 season brought a partnership with Rayburn and Ed Petroff and the addition of crew chief Dave Hoff, who remains with the operation today. The team ran the big events and decided not to pursue a track or series championship. The strategy worked, with seven wins that season.
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