Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You said the neighbors looked at this racetrack and thought, it's just a lot of noise and a lot of riff raff. And I don't think people realize what a mission field a racetrack is.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: The battle is not yours.
Do you know how freeing that is? That is so freeing to realize that God's got this, but you've got to give it up, too. You have to let it go.
[00:00:23] Speaker A: Welcome to Life Reviewed, a podcast by Hope House Colorado, where we invite you into conversation with teenage moms and the people who champion them. These stories of struggle, overcoming and perspective shifts will challenge you to review life as you've known it. One story, one person, one conversation at a time.
Here we are, back on Life Reviewed, and I'm so excited. Today I get to interview my friend Tammy Bandemeer, and I'm actually turning the tables on her because she is the expert interviewer. She has a radio show called Living It Loud, which she invited me to be on probably a year ago now. And so I'm like, okay, you owe me one. I want you to come be on our podcast. And it's pretty fun to turn the tables on you when you're usually the one asking the questions, my friend.
[00:01:15] Speaker B: So, surprise, surprise.
[00:01:18] Speaker A: Thanks for coming today. I'm super excited to just chat with you. And Tammy and I have been friends for a really long time, but I think there are still things I don't know about you. So I'm excited to learn more about that. And maybe you can start by just telling us a little bit about you. You kind of come with a famous last name. Most folks know Bandmere Speedway, but share a little bit about just your life growing up on a racetrack.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: Yeah. So I'm a Colorado native and my grandparents started the racetrack in 1958, and in 2023, we sold the property. I mean, that was our last. Our last season. It was also our 65th anniversary. So it was, it was a pretty year. It was an insane year, to be really honest with you, because as you can imagine, over 65 years, you become family, you know, with, with your guests and your racers and that kind of thing.
And it wasn't an easy decision for us. And yet, on the other hand, it kind of was because we had.
When the highway, when C470 came through in 1988, we. That was a godsend for our family because it gave us an incredible amount of ingress and egress which we hadn't had before. You know, before we just had Rooney Road, which was this little road that when we started running Races out there was a dirt road and a little two lane road that got all these people in and out.
And so the highway gave us an ability to get people in and out so much easier and make such a much better experience for our guests.
So the highway was great.
But they did tell us that give it about 30, 35 years and you'll see development encroach along that corridor. And they weren't wrong. I do think that God gave us a little more time because a lot of that development started further south, you know, the Highlands Ranch Centennial area. And then it just gradually worked its way to us.
But during 2020, across the street from us, they started moving dirt to build homes.
And originally the racetrack was supposed to be out in Nevada off of like 56th and Ward Road. And if anybody is listening to this and remembers where Jolly Rancher was at, it was out in that area. And his brother Horace had a piece of property out there that was perfect for a racetrack. And he gave it to my grandfather.
And my grandfather got all the approval from the county and started to move dirt. And the neighbors said, what's going on here? And he said, well, I'm building me a racetrack. And they said, no, you're not. Well, if you know my grandfather, he wasn't somebody who really wanted to fight that kind of a battle. And I think he knew in his mind that it would become something bigger. I don't think he knew that it would be as big as it was, as it was when we sold in 23. But he just gave it up. He said, you know what?
Find me a better piece of property. And the piece of property that the county found for us or for him up along the Hogback Mountain was unbelievable. I mean, a lot of people would come to our racetrack and let's face it, we're at 5,800ft above sea level. So that is, we are in on the NHRA National Hot Rod association circuit. We were hands above higher than any racetrack ever, ever.
And that's really difficult for cars to get power when there's not any air.
[00:05:17] Speaker A: And.
[00:05:17] Speaker B: And yet they loved to come our facility because it was beautiful. And, you know, none of that had anything to do with the Bandimeer family. That was all God. And we would tell them that, you know, you don't have to understand, we didn't build this mountain. We didn't. We just are occupying it. And.
And we said that, that if that we were just caretakers of that piece of property for, you know, for such a time as this.
And and when we had the opportunity to sell the property, I think we all looked at each other and went, really, is this really going to be a thing? But it was.
And so holding something loosely gives you the opportunity to let it go.
And. And then you're. You don't grip a hold of something quite so tightly. And. And so I think as far as our family goes, you know, it was sad to walk out the gates the last time and of thing, but we'd done it before, my grandfather had done it before and it turned out great.
[00:06:27] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:06:28] Speaker B: So you just never know. And so sometimes my mom, I used to always cry at the Orlando Airport when I'd say goodbye to my son because I was like, I can't say goodbye to him.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: I just, I'm gonna miss him.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: My mom said, in order to say hello, you have to say goodbye.
And I thought, that's true. You know, you do have to close a door in order to let another door open sometimes, right?
[00:06:53] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: So, yeah.
[00:06:55] Speaker A: Man, there are so many memories at Bandmere Speedway, even for me. And I had never even been to a race, a drag race in my life until I met you. And, and I mean, it was pretty privileged to get to come and be in the tower for, for a race and get to hear your dad, John Bandemeer Junior.
[00:07:15] Speaker B: Right, Junior.
[00:07:16] Speaker A: You gotta call him John Vandermeer junior Because his D was always senior. But to get to hear him teach me with so much enthusiasm and excitement about the tree and the lights and how it works and like what you're watching for because it goes so fast. It goes really fast.
And I just felt so privileged to have him teaching me. But it was always. At least it seemed to me. And I know from you it was always about more than racing at Bandimere Speedway. It was always about how do we connect people to Christ.
And your dad always started with prayer, right? Always, yeah.
[00:07:51] Speaker B: Always, yeah. In fact, when I was. I played softball for many years when I was younger and my dad was my coach for seven of those years.
And he always started whenever we had a game. He always brought all us girls in and prayed. And I remember my dad was out of town for something and so he wasn't there for this game. And one of the girls said, come on in here, everybody. We gotta pray. Because Coach Vanderbilt, that's what he would want us to do. And I'm. And here I am his daughter, and I'm not even the one that made the suggestion. So it does make an impact. And you Know, when you think about it, drag racing.
Drag racing was one of those things that if you are at the racetrack and let's say you show up at 8 o' clock in the morning to be in your racer and you're there until, let's say 8 o' clock at night, let's say 12 hours, the amount of time that you're actually on the racetrack is, you know, typically less than five minutes.
[00:08:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:57] Speaker B: You know, and so that means that you've got all that other time to, to connect with people, to, you know, hang out with people, to.
So for us, we, we looked at it as a facility that we served people. Oh, and by the way, we drag race.
And, and when you take that perspective that it's not all about the racing, then it's completely different. You know, the comp. You take the competition out of it and you take more of the community side of it. Yeah.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: Which goes all the way back to the beginning because talk a little bit about your grandpa. And I mean, I know snippets because I read your book, your family's book, which is, remind me, is Living It, Living It Last.
[00:09:44] Speaker B: And I'll tell you how we came up with that too.
[00:09:46] Speaker A: But Living It Loud.
You have to pick it up, folks. It is such a good read and it is such an amazing history of really our city, the city of Denver. But in the book, he talks about why he started in the first place, the racetrack.
[00:10:02] Speaker B: Yeah. So my grandfather, he came from kind of a farming family, so to speak, but he really was never interested in that.
He was mechanically minded and he was, he was an inventive person. You know, if he saw something he. That wasn't working the way it should, he would work on it until he could figure it out, make it better.
And I think to myself, you know, my grandfather got relocated to heaven in 1986, and I have said many times that if he could come back and spend a week here on Earth, he would be so fascinated by all this technology and all the stuff that took him months, if not years to create.
You know, 3D printers would blow his mind.
Cell phones, I mean, you have basically a computer in your hand. And I don't think that would scare him. I really don't. Because it doesn't scare my dad. And my dad doesn't fall far from the tree. My dad loves to do that kind of stuff. And my mom's like, I don't get it. But my dad, he pushes it, you know, pushes that kind of thing. But my father was, he was a Bit of a hellion. And he'll admit that he was a street racer. And my, my grandfather loved cars and he loved to make them go fast. And there really wasn't a safe place to do that.
[00:11:35] Speaker A: Right.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: And that's why he wanted to build the racetrack. Now, originally it was called the Safety Proving Grounds of America, S P G A.
And he, in order to help fund it, he sold lifetime memberships to his buddies. I think they were $25 a piece, something like that. And he, that's what he did. He sold it. But, you know, he.
Again, and this is kind of interesting, kind of a squirrel moment, but when he had to buy that piece of property after he got moved, that piece of Property cost him $11,000 back in 1956.
And he had to borrow the money from his father and pay it back with interest.
But he always said, I'm telling you, someday this piece of property is going to be worth a million dollars.
[00:12:33] Speaker A: Well, I mean, a little off.
[00:12:34] Speaker B: But, you know, he wasn't wrong.
It did, it did appreciate tremendously well.
[00:12:40] Speaker A: And it was, I mean, it is, it was, it's a mountain. So it's not like he just went there and there were, there was a place to race. He had to build. Build a place to race.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:12:51] Speaker A: So tell us.
[00:12:52] Speaker B: And so my grandmother died of cancer in 1965, and my grandfather just, he started hanging out at the racetrack. Now, bear in mind, there was nothing out there. Nothing out there. In fact, that whole side of the mountain was full of Indian arrowheads because the Rooney Ranch was an Indian trading post, which is right down the street. And so they would come along the mountain there and, and people would say, can we go look for Indian arrowheads on the side of the mountain? And he's like, yeah, sure, whatever. I mean, that really didn't mean anything to him. You know, he was there to build a racetrack and so he built, he built the quarter mile drag strip. And it was so unique because the staging lanes where the cars come in have a.
Have a hill. So when they come around from the pit area, they can basically turn the car off and just let it coast. And that's very unique. Very unique. There's. There isn't any other place that has a place like that. And then they go down the racetrack and then at the very end there's an incline, so it slows them down at the end. So basically the racetrack sits kind of like down in a little pocket down there. And. And again, that was very visionary. You know, a lot of people come to the Track because you go to other racetracks and they have to come around a corner. You can never see the races if you're in the staging lanes. And so that was. That was pretty visionary from him. But he really wanted a place. He. My grandfather fully believed that not every kid was born to play stick and ball sports and that kind of thing.
He, he said, hey, you know, you give kids a baseball, a football, a basketball, and you tell them to hit it, to throw it, to, you know, do something with it. But then you give them a car and you say, don't do this, don't do that, don't do this. And he said, you can do that, but it needs to be in a safe environment.
So my dad always said that my grandpa was the coolest dad that a young man could have in, like the 50s and 60s, because my grandpa was always supercharging stuff and making things go faster.
And he was connected with quite a few of the Detroit manufacturers, and they would give him vehicles. He'd have to buy them for a dollar, and he'd get them so that he could do high performance stuff to the cars and, and say, yeah, this works or this doesn't work, or try this or whatever.
So that was really fun. He. He raced the Pikes Peak hill climb. Yeah, he did that. And that was fun. You know, I mean, that was crazy. Racing is racing. I mean, seriously, I was talking to somebody the other day and they said, as long as there's two vehicles in the world, there will always be a drag race. Yeah, there will always be a race. Somebody said, if there were two stap, I, I'd race staplers, you know, but, yeah, you know, there's just always that you get on the highway and you want to beat that person in the lane next to you. You don't think you have that in you, but you do. As soon as you see that fender starting to come up on the side, you know, you're thinking, no, no.
[00:16:08] Speaker A: Well, and I know you like to drive quickly, you know, within reason. But did you race, like, I don't even actually know whether did. When you were a little girl, did you race cars on the racetrack?
[00:16:22] Speaker B: Yeah. So now we have a program. There's a program with the National Hot Rod association called Junior Drag Racing did not exist when I was younger.
It was there when my kids were younger. So my kids were involved in it, but we never did.
But we had high school drags out at the racetrack. And that's kind of a funny story too, because my, my grandfather would work with A lot of high school kids and they asked him, a group of them asked him one time, hey, Mr. Bande could like a high school drags thing out here on Memorial Day. And he goes, yeah, sure, no problem, come on out, you know. And so he, I don't know, I don't even know if he charged him the first year, but it was very dismal. They had, oh, I don't know, maybe 12 cars, something like that. It wasn't, it really wasn't that great.
And so the next year he, they, he said, if you want to do it again, that's fine. You know, let's, let's, it'll, it'll grow, I'm sure.
The Peterson family, who lives right across the street from the racetrack, and Frank Peterson is a Pikes Peak hill climb champion. I mean he, he won one year in Pikes Peak Hill climb. So they're a racing family too. And they called my mom and dad. Now bear in mind, this was the days of the phone was on the wall kind of situation, okay? And they called. The phone rings, my dad answers it and it's Frank Peterson or Kay Peterson. And she goes, what is going on across the street? And my dad says, I don't know, what are you talking about? She goes, johnny, there's cars all the way down Rooney Road.
My dad hangs up the phone, he goes, get your clothes on, kids, we're going to the racetrack. So we run out to the racetrack and they had a huge group of high school kids that wanted to come and race. And it was my grandfather and his wife Frances that were running it. And they were so over their head. And that was the birth of the high school drag racing program. And we ran that every year for 65 years.
[00:18:26] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know my story. But I met my husband cruising Westminster Mall and he was driving a souped up Chevy Nova. And it was always his dream to go race at Bandimeer in the high school drag race. I don't know if he ever did it. It was my dream to race our Corvette at Bandemeer and sadly it closed before I was able to do that.
[00:18:47] Speaker B: But, well, and you asked if I raced. So my grandfather had this little car, we called it Grandpa's Toy. And it was a Renaul 16, which as the listeners are just gonna have to look it up. And it's a French car anyway, but he opened the cavity, the engine cavity up and he put like a larger Chevrolet engine in it, which Bande mirrors are Chevy people. You know, even though we had Mopar as our sponsor for years. I think our blood ran Chevy. But anyway.
And he put that in there and so he goes, hey Tam, you want to race it for high school drags? I'm like, sure.
So I did, I raced it I maybe two years, something like that.
The problem was is that if anybody knows anything about drag racing, it's all about consistency.
And that man would change everything in between rounds. So I could never get a good read on that car and I could never win first round because it was never, it was never the same.
[00:19:49] Speaker A: He tinkered. He had to tinker.
[00:19:50] Speaker B: Very much so. Yes, very much so. So that was my short lived racing career.
[00:19:55] Speaker A: Yes. But your kids raised.
[00:19:57] Speaker B: My kids raced in jun. Junior dragsters and they still, I mean the, the junior drag racing program is incredible. It starts with kids as young as five.
[00:20:06] Speaker A: Yeah, those cars are so, they're adorable, but they go fast for a five year old.
[00:20:11] Speaker B: Okay. So when you're sitting in the grandstands, it's. You feel like you're watching paint dry, but they really are going 30 miles an hour and 30 miles an hour for a five year old is really, that's fast.
And if I was a parent down there, I mean my hands would be sweating. I would be. Me too. I mean kids didn't start until they were like 11 and 13. And then my hands were still sweating, you know, but, but yeah, yeah, my
[00:20:39] Speaker A: hand sweating moment was you invited us out. So you guys had a program where just normal, average, everyday people like me could come and race a Camaro against each other and you invited us to do it. And I was like so scared. And then you get in the car and you're like basically just hit the gas as hard as you can. At least that's what I knew to do. Like, and then it's like, how, how is this gonna stop? Am I just gonna fly off the end of the thing? Oh man, that was hand sweating moment.
[00:21:11] Speaker B: So I had a, I had a reading program that I did for 27 years out at the racetrack called Race to Read. And it was, it was a six week reading program for elementary age kids.
And it was, it kind of started out of necessity. You know how some of those kinds of things happen. You know, when we were doing our renovation out at the track, my dad needed to change some of the zoning and so he had to meet with homeowners associations and that kind of thing. And a lot of people just didn't understand what we did. Yeah, you know, they just figured that we were that place on the side of the mountain that made a lot of noise and attracted a lot of riff raffles.
And what they didn't realize is that it was started to get people off the streets that, you know, have that need for speed. And it was more of a. It was designed more as an education facility, you know, just a place. And so my kids were just starting. My daughter Edie was just starting in kindergarten at Rooney Ranch Elementary School and just right across the valley from the racetrack.
And and so I get to talking to the librarian and she said, hey, would you ever want to do like a reading program for the kids after we come back from Christmas break? And I said, sure, yeah, let's do it. You know. And so we started. It was called. Well, and we didn't even think it was going to be a program. We thought it was going to be like a one and done kind of thing. We called it Race to Read and the kids loved it. They had a blast. And then the next year they're like, are we doing Race to Read again? And I'm like, like, well, maybe.
And then she, of course, starts talking to friends. Because what we found is that typically girls are good readers. Girls will slow down, curl up with a book and enjoy, you know, enjoy that, that thing.
Boys, on the other hand, they want to be outside, they want to be doing stuff.
But if you give them the opportunity to come to the races, earn tickets to the races for reading, then it changes that whole dynamic. And now they're like, oh, yeah, it's only six weeks. I'm just gonna sit and read so I can earn these tickets. Well, what you don't realize is that typically it takes about three weeks to start a habit.
Six weeks, they're deep in the woods, you know, now you got a reader on your hands. Now you got a young boy that, that was a lot. Or maybe a reluctant reader that's now a good reader, right? And then it takes your good readers to be great readers. So it just had really good, good implications all the way around. So we would do that racing, what you were just talking about, you know, where we could put people. Each school could send one representative and the same thing. I would get more phone calls from people. Do I need to wear a helmet? Do I need to wear a fire suit? Do I need it? And I was like, no. Do we need to shift the cars? No. And they would come looking like deer cotton headlights. And you'd give them one time trial, one practice run, and then you're hooked.
[00:24:16] Speaker A: That's right. You're Hooked. Totally hooked. Totally hooked. And raced. Read turned out to. I mean, it blew up. How many schools were you in? At one point?
[00:24:25] Speaker B: The biggest year that we had was 75 schools. And. And that's. We figured. We typically had about 500 students per school. That was kind of an average. Some schools had more, some schools had less, but, you know. Yeah, yeah, 500 was about the average, but. And we had some schools that did it for 12 years at a time, and then, you know, they drop off or, you know, that kind of thing. I mean, you just. But we never spent one dime of advertising on that program. It grew by word of mouth. People were like, oh, you're not doing Race to Read here. What's raised to read?
[00:25:00] Speaker A: So what's wrong with you? You gotta do. And seriously, one of my most favorite memories at Bandemeer is Tammy Wood kind of rope all of our Bible study girls in to coming to help with Race to Read. And it's like, what are we doing? Okay, we're going out to the racetrack. Lots of fun. We're going to the racetrack. You get out there, and she's got these tables and tents and books just piled up, and we're, like, trying to get them all in the right, like first graders, second graders, third graders. And then here come these kids, and they're coming through this line with their parents, and they've got their bag, you know, and they've got their Race to Read tickets. And they are just so proud of themselves that they earned this opportunity to come to the racetrack. And I think for some of those parents, it might have been their first time at the racetrack. And. But seeing those kids, like, picking through the books and trying to. Which one do you want? I mean, the first year you roped us into it, we were like, what are we doing? Second year, it's like, yes, we get help with Race to Read because it was so much fun to see those kids come through.
[00:25:57] Speaker B: You all brought your husbands?
[00:25:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:58] Speaker B: And so the husbands are standing in a line watching races, and all the girls are working, you know, and then we're like, hey, guys, could you bring us another box of books over? Oh, oh, oh, yeah, sure, sure.
[00:26:10] Speaker A: Yeah. They just got a free chance to come to the races, which was awesome. I mean, worked out for them. But. Yeah. So talk a little bit about how do you remember? How did we meet?
[00:26:20] Speaker B: How I do remember. It's been a long time. It has been a long time. So it's been about 18 years when I realized that my marriage was over.
And, you know, you Think to yourself that you're on cruise control and everything's going to be the same and nothing's going to change. And.
And then.
And then your life gets upended.
And I met.
I met you through the Bible study. Yeah. So I was invited to be a part of this group of women, which, you know, there's times in your life that are your best yeses.
And that was one of my best yeses, is saying yes to that group of women. Because, Lisa, as you know, we. We laugh. Are we really a Bible study group anymore? Are we more like a life group that opens our Bible and, you know, because we have a really hard time finishing studies and we really. But we love each other and we share each other's joys, we share each other's pain, we share each other's health situations. And that group of girls just came into my life at the absolute right time when I was searching for answers. And, you know, it's interesting. I was never angry at God for that whole thing, because I don't know if that. If I was scared that if I got angry at God, something worse would even happen. I don't know. You know, sometimes you just don't know where your brain is at that time because you're traumatic. Yeah, exactly. I remember showing up for the first Bible study, and you were doing the study on Esther, and it just felt right. The whole thing just felt right. And then we eventually moved that Bible study out to the racetrack.
[00:28:18] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:28:19] Speaker B: And now we're kind of, again, kind of like women without a country.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: We find a coffee shop.
[00:28:25] Speaker B: We find a coffee shop here, we find a place, place there. You know, that kind of thing.
[00:28:28] Speaker A: But I remember thinking how brave it was when you came, because it was fresh when you. So when the Bible study got started, because Terry Attiker and Lori Scott, their husbands, came to a Bible study at Bandimere Speedway with your dad. And your dad was famous for his doing his Bible studies at the racetrack. And Terry one day says, why do the boys get to have all the fun? Why can't the girls have a Bible study? And so she's like, we're going to start our own Bible study. I'm like, okay, this is awesome. And so I got invited to be a part of that Bible study by Terry Eidecker. And then I think it was Lori that invited you. Was it Lori Scott?
[00:29:04] Speaker B: It was actually Terry.
We were at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes event in Mexico, and we were. We had a delay at the airport, and she said, hey, would you be Interested. And I was like, yes, I would, actually.
[00:29:17] Speaker A: Yeah, well. And it just. I want to say it was maybe months after your divorce, and so it was so fresh. And I just remember thinking, wow, that this. She's so brave to come and be in this group with us when this thing has, you know, just happened in your life. And then I don't even know how many years later. But then you invited Lori McGregor fairly shortly after she had lost her husband, Kelly, pretty tragically, because I think he was only 43 when he passed, and she had four little kids, and she said yes to you. And so it really has become, you know, a life group. And we get. We. You know, I remember we gave you space. Like, it's not like, oh, tell us, like, all about your recent divorce, but just, we're studying the Bible together. And when you study the Bible together and you come together to read the word of God and do a study like Esther, where it was all about, for such a time as this, which really was true for you and your life for such a time as this, you just sort of. It comes out, like, naturally you start to just get to know each other better and get to know each other's
[00:30:21] Speaker B: stories and stuff, and you feel comfortable sharing your heart. I think that those are the groups that you just.
You just hold tightly to. You know, I mean, there's times when we can't get together, and we understand that, but then we always do still come together.
It was interesting for me because my family had never really experienced divorce. You know, I came from a family that every time the church doors were open, we were there, whether it was Wednesday night or Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon, Sunday night. I mean, we were there for choir practice. We were there for training union. We were there everything.
And that's how I grew up. So you grew up knowing that you got married and you. It was a life commitment. That's what it was.
And then when those kinds of things happen, it's really interesting, and I've shared this with you, Lisa, but I remember sitting. This is where the emotions come. I remember sitting.
My sister knew what was going on, and my sister's not very good at holding secrets, but I threatened her with inches of her life. And so she did. But she finally said to me one day, tammy, you have to tell mom and dad what's going on. I can't do this anymore.
And so I went into my dad's office, and my mom was there, and I told them what was going on. And it was devastating for me to watch my parents go through that, because as parents, we don't want our kids to hurt, and we want everything to be okay.
And I did. I remember telling them. And I have no idea where this came from, but I remember telling them, please, because my dad said. He goes, now, Tam, you know, stuff like this can affect people's health.
And I said, dad, you give me 90 days to be ugly, and I'm done. Then I'm done with it.
Well, you're sitting there with two other people that are now going to hold you accountable to a certain extent. And I'm like, where did that come from? Why did I think I could deal with this in 90 days?
But I was.
I was pretty ugly for about 90 days. I mean, I cried at everything. I screamed, I yelled. It was. Ugh. My sister would pick me up. We would go to the Walmart parking lot at C470 and Bowles while the kids were at school. And I just. We'd go in and use the bathroom and then come back out and talk and talk and talk.
And what I really wanted is I.
And I hope this doesn't sound wrong, but I wanted people who knew our family to realize that you can go through something like this and still have a really strong constitution and faith in God.
And about five years later, when somebody said to me, well, why don't you invite your husband to come with you? I said, oh, I've been divorced for five years. And they looked at me in disbelief. And that was the moment that I realized that God brought me through that and that there were people that were close to me that really didn't even realize I'd gone through a divorce.
And. And the power of that, the power of the ability to lean into God and realize that there was a Rick Warren devotion that I read during that time when, you know, you're getting phone calls from his attorney and my attorney, and I was just ready to just throw up my hands. And a Rick Warren devotion came through, and it was entitled, the battle is not yours.
Do you know how freeing that is? That is so freeing to realize that God's got this, but you've got to give it up, too. You have to let it go.
And the space that's in our head, we own that.
So if you're gonna allow somebody to rent space in your head, that's your problem. You've got to be strong and allow God to take that. That space and not let people rent space in your head. Not just ex husbands, but even other people that we run into that. That want to that want to bring you down.
[00:34:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:49] Speaker B: Steal your joy, and you still own that space in your head.
[00:34:53] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:34:53] Speaker B: Tammy owns her space. Lisa owns her space.
[00:34:56] Speaker A: So you.
[00:34:57] Speaker B: You have that ability to say, nope, you're not gonna. You're not gonna affect my joy.
[00:35:03] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's something We. We tease you all the time. Because every morning. What do you do?
[00:35:08] Speaker B: Every morning? On my left wrist, I write the word joy with a Sharpie marker.
Now, Lysa knows that it wasn't always joy.
There was a time that that word was trust. There was a time when that word was faith. There was a time when that word was hope.
But I'd say probably about 12 to 15 years ago, it became joy.
And it's.
[00:35:34] Speaker A: And that's why she can't tattoo it, because it has to change with the seasons.
[00:35:38] Speaker B: Doesn't the word joy just make you happy?
[00:35:41] Speaker A: I mean, joy, literally everybody who knows you knows that you bring joy wherever you go. Like, you just bring laughter and fun and joy wherever you go, to every racetrack, which. So talk a little about. About that, because you.
Man, you travel a lot. You're like, you're on a plane to somewhere, to some racetrack so often, or to Florida to visit your. Your son, or now you have a grandbaby in Atlanta.
[00:36:08] Speaker B: So my little Dorothy, my little Dot.
[00:36:10] Speaker A: Little Dorothy, Dot, she. You're going to be traveling to Atlanta a lot more now. But. But talk about your travels. Like, talk about what you're doing now and what you get to do with. With your radio show and your interviews.
[00:36:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:24] Speaker A: You're having fun.
[00:36:25] Speaker B: I am having a really great time. And, you know, there are members of my family that want to build another racetrack, and I think that's great if they. That's. If that's what they want to do. But I really don't see that being in my wheelhouse. I really don't see that being something that I want to be a part of.
Will I help? Will I be there when it gets built? And if they need. Of course I will. I mean, there's still family, you know, but the planning and the organizing and the building and the staffing and all of that, I've already done that. I've done that, and I'm just not.
The thing that I really enjoy that my family has allowed me to do is handle the. The philanthropy and the charitable stuff that we do.
I enjoy coming to Hope House and seeing where. The gifts that we give to Hope House, how they're being used.
I enjoy going to fundraisers, believe it or not. And not everybody's designed for that, but I look at it at a different perspective. I don't look at it as a way for them to. To bleed more money out of you. I look at fundraisers as a way for me to go and see how those gifts are being used and how those things.
And then maybe kind of think, promoter mind, huh? How could we make it better?
Or how could we, as a person, as a donor or as someone who is giving, make it a little different in our giving and that kind of thing?
But I.
And I completely forgot the question. I feel like John Force right now, you ask him a question, and he goes on and on and on and on. He goes, what was the question?
[00:38:11] Speaker A: Well, I was asking you about your travels. That's one of them.
[00:38:14] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:38:14] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:38:15] Speaker B: So, yeah. So when I was working at the racetrack, when I was employed and the track was open, part of my title was community relations, which means that I get to go out and honestly be in the community and see what's going on and that kind of thing.
So going to races has been really awesome for me.
It's really great to go to a racetrack and realize you have no responsibility.
You just get to go and talk. You just get to walk from pit area to pit area and say, hi. And typically, I am connected with the wives as opposed to the drivers, because there's a lot of men, but there's a lot of women involved in drag racing, too. But, you know, a lot of the wives are sitting in the hospitality area, and we just sit and chat. And there's a couple of times that I go to races, and I don't even go to the racetrack on a Saturday because four of us girls go shopping, we go to lunch, we go shopping, we go hang out, and then we realize they're not racing anymore. Let's just go back to the hotel.
And so those experiences, getting to know people on a deeper level and actually get a chance to, you know, find out about their families, find out about. You find out about health struggles that people are having, and. And then when you're willing to just drop everything and pray with them. Yeah, that's huge.
[00:39:34] Speaker A: That's huge. And that's. So anybody who knows John Van Meer Jr. Knows that he's. He is an evangelist through and through. Like, if you call him and ask if he is interested in buying something, if you're a salesperson, he'll say, come on in my office, you got five minutes. And then I get five. And by the time that sales Husband walks out of that office, he's accepted Christ.
[00:39:53] Speaker B: Amen. That's. And that's a true story.
[00:39:55] Speaker A: That's a true story. And Tammy does not fall far from that tree. And that's one of the things I love is that you, you mentioned earlier, you said the neighbors looked at this racetrack and thought it's just a lot of noise and a lot of riff raff. And I don't think people realize what a mission field, a racetrack is and the, that there are people who are involved in the racing world and sometimes racers themselves who, well, everywhere we go, but they need Christ like they need a little Jesus. And you bring your joy and your Jesus everywhere you go. So talk a little bit about Racers for Christ. You're, you're the chair of the board right now.
[00:40:29] Speaker B: I am. Yes, I am. And I, you know, Racers for Christ is something that our family always was involved with is. Racers for Christ is celebrating their 55th anniversary this year. And you know, my dad realized that if we're at the racetrack on a Sunday and our racers are at the racetrack on a Sunday, none of us are going to church. None of us are being fed spiritually on a day that we should be being fed spiritually.
And so we got connected with Racers for Christ and they're based out of Arizona, but there's almost 400 chaplains nationwide that are around.
And so every Sunday we would have a chapel service out at the racetrack so that people could come a little early and they could, you know, have the opportunity to hear, hear the word and that kind of thing. And, and so that was just another piece. We didn't force anybody. It was non denominational, it was open to anybody.
We'd even have spectators, you know, some of our racers that weren't racing on a weekend that would say, could I just come out and come to the chapel service? In fact, it's funny because at our track we would run April through October because we're in a seasonal place.
And when October would hit, racers would say, where am I gonna, where should I go on Sundays? It's like, well, that's when you find your own church.
Find a place, you know, close to your house or somewhere where you feel like you can be fed. But a lot of people felt like the racetrack was their church home. Yeah, you know, that's where they, that's where they learned about God. That's where they, they sell. They, they, you know, celebrated Sundays with.
[00:42:13] Speaker A: And so, yeah, and the, and the folks who attended the race too, I don't even know If I ever told you this, but my. So my son Johnny was so into going to the races. He was at Bandimere Speedway way more times than I ever. Well, not including coming to Bible study, but for a race, he was there way more times than I was. And he had gotten.
His great grandpa was in World War II and he had an old gas mask that he would, he would. Would wear his old gas mask. And he had his friend Jeremy and now Jeremy's friend. His friend Jeremy's family was pretty, pretty broken family. He didn't know the Lord. I don't know if he ever heard anybody pray. And Johnny would take him to the races. And the two of them just loved going to the races together in their World War II gas masks. And the first time Jeremy ever heard someone pray out loud was your dad praying at a race. So I just would say that wherever we're planet, wherever we are in this world, there's a way for us to share Jesus. We all have our platforms, you guys. You live it loud, so you get. You have a little bit louder platform maybe than other people might have. But wherever we go, we have an opportunity to, to love people to Jesus.
So I guess just sort of in. In maybe in moving toward closing because I could sit here and chat with you all day. As you know, we joked before we started this show that she and I could sit here and just chat for like three hours and everybody else would be like, come on now.
But as you kind of think back about not just our friendship, but our. Your history of just being your family, being around Hope House. And I still remember your dad coming and sitting in the living room and with your mom, just chatting with the moms, chatting with the teen moms. They had just had dinner and your dad was just asking them questions about. Of course, because this is what he does. He was asking him questions about do they know Jesus? And how much Jesus loves them. But as you kind of think about your connection to Hope House beyond our friendship, what is there one thing that kind of an encouragement or something you would share with the mamas? Because, you know, we've talked a lot about the fact that they oftentimes feel like if there is a God, he's either super mad at me or he hates me because why does my life look like. Look like this? And I think you guys probably encountered that with, with people at the track too. So what maybe is one thing that you would say not just to our mamas, but anybody out there listening who's like, yeah, if there really is A God. Why does life look like this? Like what? What would you encourage them with?
[00:44:41] Speaker B: Yeah, and I think that, you know, when people come to our racetrack, and much the same as I'm sure when people come to Hope House, they don't feel judged. They just don't feel judged. And. And that was the thing that we always really tried hard is that that they came to the racetrack because they had a car and they wanted to go fast, and they might have all kinds of other baggage that they're bringing with them, and we didn't care.
We just didn't care. You know, I mean, it was. Did it concern us? Yeah, because you don't want somebody to go through life like that, but you earn their trust, you earn their confidence, and.
And you trust that by opening that door for them, that they will then open the door for you to be a part of their life, and then you're able to explain that to them.
People would come to the racetrack that had never been there before, and they'd say, there is something different about this place.
And I always thought to myself, really, because, I mean, I grew up there, so for me, it was the racetrack, you know, that kind of thing. And that was just. It's part of who you are, and it's part of who Hope House is. You don't try hard. It's just who you are.
And when they come in, they feel like that there's no judgment. It's a safe place. And that's what we wanted the track to be, too, is a safe place. So when you provide that for them, you know, where they can just open.
Open up and share their heart. And Are you going to have a few misses? Yes, you are. But you've planted the seed.
And at some point, we've had people come back to us 30 years later, 40 years later that say, you know what? That was the first place that I ever heard somebody pray out loud.
And so now I'm really hurting, and I had nowhere to go. But I remember you prayed out loud with the racetrack, and I'm just wondering. And then it opens the door.
[00:46:48] Speaker A: It's crazy. You can have so many parallels between a ministry for teenage moms and a speedway where, honestly, it's just all about that, like coming to whatever you're coming to with an open heart without judgment and just wanting to know someone's story and being curious and interested in who they are and. And what they're going through. And I love that about you. That is one of the things about you that I love the most. Is you are just an honestly curious person. You're always wanting to hear someone's story, to sit with them and understand them, and which is why we could sit here for another three hours and tell stories, because you are a storyteller. But I want to thank you for coming here and doing this podcast. I also want to really encourage our listeners to listen to your radio show, Living It Loud. You get to interview some of the most fascinating people, and you ask such curious questions.
I'm not saying this in front of my podcast producer who might fire me and put you in charge of this podcast, but you do ask the most curious questions and you really, truly do.
Just. You get to meet some fascinating people on Living It Loud. So thank you to our listeners.
[00:47:57] Speaker B: Yes, yes.
[00:47:58] Speaker A: Listen to. Listen to Tammy show, too. And. And Tammy, thanks for being here.
[00:48:02] Speaker B: You're welcome. Thank you.
Precious soul the things I didn't know the things I didn't know about you oh, precious soul the things I didn't know the things I didn't know about you you, about you.
