Tom Gee Jr. has been involved in racing almost
his entire life. He grew up sitting on the hill with
his family at Wisconsin International Raceway
in Kaukauna, WI. His family never missed a
race year in and out. Tom and his family
closely followed his aunt and uncles, Mike and
Patty Butz, race teams throughout the years. As
Mike and Patty expanded their race team and
competed in various traveling series, the Gee
family followed, touring all the short tracks of
the Midwest. Mike and Patty had many great
drivers over the years that Tom cheered on and
looked up to as childhood heroes... Tom
Laimon, Kevin Servais, Tom Carlson, Matt
Kenseth, Jason Schueler, Eddie Hoffman, Jeff
VanOudenhoven & Terry Baldry, to name a few,
were all great role models.
Tom acquired a passion for great short track racing watching all the stars
and cars of the ARTGO series, MARS series, ASA series and the hallowed
Dixieland 250 at WIR. Along with these great short track series, the Gee
family made a few treks each summer up to a racing hotspot in the U.P.
known as the NorwaySpeedway. The race track is located on the Dickenson
County Fairgrounds and became one of the family's favorite spots to watch
thrilling short track racing. Close family friend Greg Hansen was on the pit
crew in days of old for the legendary Bruce White in the orange and white #23
car at Norway. The two families would go to Norway together and cheer on
Bruce every summer.
As Tom entered his high school years he began to think more and more
about becoming a driver and not just a fan. He quit his high school football
team going into his senior year and gave up his starting varsity position to
work more hours at a local machine shop in order to save up the money to
purchase his first race vehicle. Tom bought an old mini-champ that Rick Lodl
competed in and converted it to a Wisconsin Sport Truck for Tom with help of
Sport Truck legend John Roeser. Both Tom and his dad were rookies in
every sense of the term. But like most teams, they struggled and learned
each week and slowly got better. They managed to earn the "Rookie of the
Year" honors that year at the awards banquet. After learning the ropes and
becoming a top notch Sport Truck Team in their 5 year endeavor, the team
was approached by their main sponsor Mikel Bushmaker of 5-Star Mortgage
with an offer to good to be true. CONTINUE READING
