Mike Erdley Sends Randy Lisi Out On Top

Posted by: (Todd Heintzelman) (10/14/14)

After 15 years, Randy Lisi will retire as a sprint car owner at the end of this season. In his second to last race in the No. 11, Mike Erdley drove to victory Saturday night at Port Royal.

“It’s sad to see Randy go, but I have to thank him for everything he did for me and the sport the last 15 years,” said Erdley. “I’m glad to get him the win.”

“Things change over the years,” said Erdley. “When Randy and I starting racing together, he was single, I was single, things have changed …Randy’s remarried and has grandchildren and he wants to do other things other than spend every weekend at the racetrack. Ultimately, it is getting very costly. Our tires are more expensive than they’ve ever been. Everything else is expensive. He’s decided that he’s had enough.”

Erdley would like to continue to race a similar schedule to what he did with Lisi.

“I don’t really have anything set in stone,” said Erdley. “I have talked to a couple of people. I would like to find something. It’s going to have to be the right situation for me. I’d really like to run about 30 races a year – one night a week and some special shows. The reality of it is there isn’t a whole lot out there. We’ll see what shakes out here at the end of the year. I hope to put something together. There’s not a lot of owners left. That’s the reality of the sport. A lot of these teams are family teams. I don’t put up the numbers like Greg Hodnett does, but we’ll see what we can do.”

Fifteen years is a long time to be spending money on sprint cars.

“When we started this, if you would have told me he’d do this for 15 years, I would have never believed you,” said Erdley. “It’s been a good 15 years. I’m going to struggle to find another owner like him. No pressure. Basically, it was like having my own team, but it was his. He lets us do what we wanted to do; what we need to do. It’s going to be hard to find that and I’m expecting to find that. This whole looking for something to drive is new to me. I went from owning my own car to racing for him.”

The final race for the Lisi No. 11 will be Oct. 25 at the Port Royal Outlaw show.

“It’s a big deal for us,” said Erdley. “It lets Randy go out and put an exclamation point on his career as an owner and hopefully not my career as a driver, but any night you can win is a big deal especially when you share the front row with Greg Hodnett. That’s makes it that much sweeter for me.”

Erdley and Lisi shared some big wins together including the Tuscarora 50, Labor Day Classic and the biggest one of all was against the National Sprint Tour in 2006 at Selinsgrove Speedway. He won the points at Port Royal in 2006. He won an All Star race at the Grove and few other ones there as well.