Today’s Budget Racer

By John Pellan

It’s not always we highlight the little guy in the amateur ranks. The other day I heard from an old friend who helped me out on a Scene Girl photo shoot a few years ago. I was impressed to hear just how driven he continued to be in this sport despite having to pay for his own racing.

If you’re like me you like a good underdog story, especially since a lot of us now days seem to be underdogs ourselves.

The sacrifices and hard work that 19 year old Alex Zalewski and his brothers Adam and Ryan are willing to make in order to race their ATVs remind me of just how cool our sport really is.

I decided to fire some questions at Alex and run this little feature so that those of you with parents footing your race bills will appreciate mom and dad a little more after learning what a lot of riders like Alex go through in order to line up on the gate next to you.
First off, good for you for going to college. A lot of riders think they can race their way into a life long career, which is very rare in all reality. What  are you studying?
Currently I’m studying marketing. Further down the road I’d like to major in Graphic Design as well.

A career in either is a great choice. There’s a lot changing going on in both of these fields now days. How do you like learning about marketing so far?
Marketing is such a broad category. Taking this class really opened up my eyes to see how much of our day to day lives are affected by marketing. It’s amazing to see the amount of product placement on television and in the movies. Right now we’re learning a lot about how to adapt to the ever changing economy. It’s also cool to see how marketing relates to the racing world. So far I really like the marketing field. It’s very interesting to say the least.

What about racing. I thought you were going to get out of it?
Considering my adult future, I sold my race quad and my pitbike so I could afford to move away from home and attend college. I got a part time job that paid seven bucks an hour washing cars at a Mercedes Benz dealership. Once I was settled into my new apartment, it became clear to me that I couldn’t live without racing, so between my classes I worked two jobs and purchased a Suzuki LTR and began setting it up for motocross. Ever since I’ve been working seven days a week, 50-60 hours, while taking 14 credit hours of school at night.

Alex Zalewski Bio Nickname: Staple, A Rod Birthday: May 24, 1990 Home: Appleton, WI Born in: Antigo, Wi Occupation: Janssen Motorsports, Parts/eBay dept. Marital status: Single Education: Freshmen in college Bros Sis: Two brothers, one lovely sister Pets: Had a yellow lab named Gus, but he died a few weeks ago. Began Riding in: 2004 First ATV: Honda 300EX Current Quad: Suzuki LT-R 450 Racing #: 5 Race Series: ATVA Nationals and WATVMX Sponsors: Janssen Motorsports, Troy Lee Designs, Scott USA, Yoshimura, ITP, Schwag LLC and my family! Must have ATV bolt on: Janssen Motorsports head and a set of Pro Taper Pillow tops Best Track: Walnut, IL and Daniel Boone MX in KY Home Track: Motozone in Tigerton, WI Ride Spot: Anywhere I can! Whip: ’98 Ford Danger Ranger First job: Painting with my dad Hottest Girl: Megan Fox and Jeniffer Aniston in the late 90’s Favorite Place: In the truck with my brothers going to the track Worst Place: Airports Restaurant Chain: Chipotle and the Spaghetti Factory Worst Habit? Procrastinating Pet Peeves: When people taking their socks off Addictions: Mountain Dew or low carb Monster if I let myself get naughty Flicks? The Departed, Dumb and Dumber, Tommy Boy, I Love You Man Laptop or PC? Always on the go so I can’t live without my Laptop Book: The Big Jump: Tale of Travis Pastrana Websites: ATV Scene and Facebook Magazine: Transworld Motocross, ATV Insider and Maxim Cell Phone & Carrier? Blackberry from Verizon Wireless What’s on your I pod? Breaking Benjamin, Trapt, Smile Empty Soul, Eddie Vedder, lots of 80’s jams What’s usually on your TV? Supercross once a week. Thats all I have time for. What’s on your walls? Chad Reed, Dustin Wimmer posters and pictures of past races. Tonight’s Dinner: Fish Tacos! Favorite Sports Team: Gotta love them Packers! Favorite athlete: Chad Wienen, Will Hahn and Adrian Peterson Coolest thing you’ve won: My first race in Wittenberg, WI Talent you would love to have: I’d love to be talented on a bike Tatoos, Piercings: Hopefully have a tattoo next week! Past Crazy Fads: I had a mohawk for almost a year Trade places with for a day? Bubba or Josh Creamer Who do you admire? Cody Grant for his hard work. New Year’s Resolution: No soda and more milk Bucket list? Skydiving, own a Subaru WRX STI, and most of all to race in the Pro ranks. Motto: You can do anything if you put your mind to it.

I know you’re paying for your own racing program, are you paying for school too?
My parents helped me out a lot for this semester. For the following years I’ll be taking out some student loans and applying for scholarships.

I take it you live at home?
Nope, I relocated to Appleton, Wisconsin where my brothers live after I graduated from high school.

Poor college kids that live on their own aren’t supposed to travel around and race quads. How are you managing this?
It was a real shocker to my parents when I told them I still wanted to race. I basically worked seven days a week almost 62 hours every week all last winter to save up for this season. The toughest part is the coast to keep the quad competitive. Aftermarket parts aren’t cheap. It also helps to team up with my brothers.

Are your brothers still racing?
Adam and I are still going at it. Ryan quit racing to be our mechanic. We help each other a lot. Teaming up like we do really helps on expenses and it’s more fun than going at
it alone for sure.

It looks like you’ve dialed in your Suzuki well. It looks sharp. Why number five?
Thanks. I actually purchased it from a good friend that passed away last November. My brothers and I nicknamed him “Five Dollar” so I decided to run the #5 in his memory. I have a digital image of a five dollar bill with his picture instead of Lincoln’s that I have on my cross bar pad. It’s nice to look down and remember him when I’m on the line.

Sorry to hear about your friend. That’s cool you remember him with that cross bar pad graphic. What class do you and your brother race?
I am racing College 16-24 this year and Adam will continue in Junior 25+ which he actually won at Steel City last year. That was very cool.

School, living on your own, full time jobs, training, riding and racing. Do you sleep?
Very little. I just try and make good use of my time. That’s key in making all this work. There’s no time to sit around and watch television and not be productive.

How did your season go last year?
I guess all things considering I had a good year. I came unprepared to my first national, raced hurt the second and had my suspension stolen the third. Nationally, it wasn’t very good but I had a good season at our local series. I finished 4rd in Production A and 5th in Pro Am. I really learned a lot though. I think that experience will help me do better this year.

Someone ripped off your shocks? Sorry to hear that.
Yep, brand new Fox Floats too. They were stolen right off my quad in the pits while sitting next to three other race bikes. I couldn’t believe it. You work hard and do everything right to get to the nationals and some punk rips off your shocks. It was so frustrating.

What’s your role at Jannsen Motorsports?
In late July my job searching proved very successful. Joel Janssen offered me a job working in his parts department and controlling the shop’s eBay store. Janssen is a great place to work. They’re well known for their suspension and motor building across the nation, so every day I get to talk to racers all over the nation.

Joel is a great guy, tell him I said hi. I would assume you like your job?
Oh yeah. Joel and I work together on selling a lot of the leftover parts from built race bikes or used parts that we have in storage. Joel is a really great guy to work with. We’ve done a lot of r&d building motors and tinkering with stuff. We’ve had some fantastic results. Watch out for Cody Janssen and Casey Martin to be pulling impressive holeshots all year in the Pro Am classes. Mark my words, Janssen motors are really going to turn some heads this year.

What’s the plan for you and your brothers in 2010?
We’re going to pick and choose which nationals we go to. Ballance, Millville, Red Bud, Steel City and Lorreta’s are on our list. The way they have the north split up it would be tough to make it to Unadilla, so we’ve decided to race as many rounds as we can at the tracks we love. We’ll also be racing a lot of local stuff too of course. For now we’ve just been preparing in the gym until the snow melts.

Why do they call you Staple?
[Laughing] I really can’t remember the whole story. When I was about 8 year old my brothers joked about stapling a windshield face-shield to my forehead. We are a pretty light-hearted group, they weren’t serious and didn’t actually do it, but somehow the nickname stuck.

 

How far do you want to go in this sport?
My goal since I started racing was to make a name for myself locally. This won’t be easy. Even though we can only ride five months out of the year here in Wisconsin, there’s always a lot of stiff competition up here. And I think its a realistic goal to be competitive in the National Pro Am ranks someday.

Do you guys have any crafty ways of making your limited cash flow last a whole season? Any tips to the many riders that will also be racing with extremely tight budgets in 2010?
Yeah, work, work and more work! I try and make good use of my time and work hard to earn money. My parents raised us as hard workers so we all have that mentality. Definitely don’t waste money either by spending it on things you don’t need. And I definitely don’t think credit cards are the answer for anybody, so if this is someone’s plan, I recommend staying away from that. If you can’t pay in cash you shouldn’t be buying it. Also, there’s nothing wrong with racing locally, you don’t have to travel all over the country to have fun and be competitive.

Thanks for talking with me. I wish you guys a successful and fun 2010. Any last words on racing with a tight budget?
Racing on a tight budget makes you very thankful for what you have and to those that help you out.

Who do you want to thank?
I have to give a huge thanks to Joel Janssen at Janssen Motorsports for everything he does for me and many others in this sport. I’d like to thank Adam, Ryan and my parents, Troy Lee Designs, ITP Tires, Mullay Racing, Scott USA, Joe Havel at Yoshimura and Fox Racing Shox. Also thanks John for talking with me today.

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