The COMP Cams MSRA Dirt Late Model Series finds successful leadership from co-owners who have most unconventional backgrounds

When most racers and race fans think of great success stories in racing promotion, several names come to mind. Whether it be the legendary Ted Johnson, who founded the World of Outlaw Sprint Cars; Earl Baltes, who built Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio; or Bill France, who turned a beach into a race track and created Daytona International Speedway, which led to the birth of NASCAR as we know it today – all of these great minds had one thing in common, and that was a background filled with racing heritage.

Most people believe that if you don’t breathe it, eat it and live it every minute of every day, then you don’t have what it takes to be successful in the sport. However, two residents of the small Arkansas town of Beebe are proving the critics wrong, and they are using non-racing related knowledge to be quite successful in the motorsports world.

In late 2006, Chris Ellis began to recognize a need for a Super Late Model series that primarily sanctioned events in the state of Arkansas. The tour needed to be affordable for tracks, while also offering racers a purse that could support their operations. The Mid-America Racing Series (MARS) had filled this role for several years, but by the 2006 season, the series raced primarily in Missouri and points northward. With the only Super Late Model sanction in the area progressively withdrawing north, and no tracks in Arkansas running a weekly Super Late Model program, the end result was long tows each week for drivers from the Natural State just to have the opportunity to race. With the gears in his mind turning, Ellis began making phone calls to test the waters for the birth of a new series.

Ellis, no doubt, had a history of racing involvement ranging from race track promotion to flagging, but none of these duties were his main occupation. For over 17 years, his day-to-day profession involved being a teacher and boys’ basketball coach. In 2007, he was promoted to an administrative role as the Vice Principal of Beebe High School in Beebe, Arkansas, which is the role he continues to perform today. The naysayers were present from the beginning, asking the question, “What does a basketball coach know about running a racing series?” Their question would soon be answered.

In 2007, the coach’s brainchild would become a reality as the Mid-South Racing Association (MSRA) Super Late Model Series took to the track. Luckily for Ellis, the tracks were willing to give the tour a chance. The series responded with a solid product, which saw ten different drivers find their way into victory lane during the first year. Joey Mack from Benton, Missouri, edged out Jeff Floyd for the inaugural season’s title as the Arkansas racing community began to buzz about the new product.

As the tour prepared for the 2008 campaign, Chris Ellis welcomed aboard a new co-owner of the tour. His long time friend, Cary Jones, also a native of Beebe, Arkansas, bought half interest in the tour. Jones had been around racing for the majority of his life, in several facets of the sport. His son, Jordan, raced everything from Mini Sprints to Super Late Models. However, much like Ellis, the racing business was not Jones’s primary profession. He worked as a Loss Prevention Manager for the Cracker Barrel Corporation, and his job focused on overseeing efficient operations for the nationwide restaurant. Much like the naysayers that plagued Ellis in 2007, when Jones joined the series, the same doubters said that he had no business being a co-owner of a racing tour. Together, Chris Ellis and Cary Jones set out to prove them all wrong.

From his background as a school administrator and a coach, Ellis brought a level of firmness and discipline to the series that directly resulted in a well-known understanding of equality for all racers. Racers and teams learned quickly that there would be no favorites, and that unsportsmanlike conduct had no place in the COMP Cams MSRA tour. No matter what the driver’s name was and what his resume may have boasted, no racer was exempt from having Ellis point the black flag at them. Before and after races Ellis would joke with the competitors, but from the time the driver’s meeting started until the time the checkered flag was waved, it was all business.

At the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Jones provided the perfect complement for Ellis in the successful operation of the tour. Via his profession, Jones had a strong sense for the bookkeeping and operational aspects that are necessary to successfully manage a series. He had an easy-going personality that was a perfect match for sponsorship negotiations as well as occasional phone calls during the week to check on drivers and to make sure they would be in attendance at upcoming events.

Many onlookers from within the world of motorsports referred to them as “the odd couple.” Not only did their personalities strongly differ, but their appearances were a stark contrast with Ellis standing at 5’6” tall and Jones standing at 6’3”.

Their differing personalities, appearances and backgrounds created the perfect recipe for success, as the COMP Cams MSRA tour grew by leaps and bounds during the 2008 campaign. New venues began to come on board with the series, as well as new full-time drivers, and when the final checkered flag dropped on the season, Joey Mack had once again edged out Jeff Floyd by a narrow margin for the championship.

The 2009 season was a true coming of age year for the tour as it dodged Mother Nature. They still managed to sanction eighteen events that saw eleven different drivers find their way into victory lane as the competition level of the series reached an all-time high. Second generation driver, Billy Moyer Jr., had a breakout year and dethroned Mack at the top of the standings, forcing Floyd to be the runner-up for the third straight year.

With the 2010 season now underway, more exciting developments have arisen for the tour, including the title sponsorship of Memphis, Tennessee-based COMP Cams. Additionally, there are more new venues, which push the slate of events to over 20 race nights for the year. The tour has grown to be one of the most renowned and respected regional tours in the nation for its quality of show and talent.

The COMP Cams MSRA tour consistently packs the stands everywhere it goes because as all true race fans in the South will tell you, there is no one else in the business who knows how to put on a race like a Vice Principal and a Loss Prevention Manager from a little town in Arkansas.