Rick Martin never had grand ambitions when it came to racing. After watching his dad compete for 21 years, the sport was just something he wanted to try.
“Me and one of my friends bought a $50 car and went out there,” Martin said. “The other cars went by us so fast, I thought to myself, ‘I ain’t never gonna go that fast, I’m going to just quit now.’
“But I just kept at it, kept at it, and I guess it was the challenge that I enjoyed.”
Martin has kept at it for 50 years and amassed one of the most impressive resumes of any driver in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series.
In his 50th season last year, he won his eighth championship at Massachusetts’ Seekonk Speedway.
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Martin won four races in the the NASCAR Home Track’s Chaz’s Auto Body Sports Truck division last season. Unlike other local short tracks, Seekonk’s championships are awarded much like the NASCAR Cup Series. The top four in points on championship night race against one another, and the highest finisher of those four takes home the title.
Martin won the last race of the season for his third straight Sport Truck title.
“I’ve never had not one problem with the truck,” he said. “Nothing. Just sometimes things just go as planned, sometimes they don’t.
“There’s a lot of stress. You can do great, but just one little thing — you got a flat tire running over a nail or something — and it’s all over. It’s a lot of pressure running for points at the end. It was running good. I felt good about it. I looked at it like it wasn’t going to change my life any if I won or I didn’t win it. There was so many sponsors and stuff that were behind me that I like to do it for them and the crew. The only payback I really get to give to the crew is when we win it.”
In addition to his championship, just before the final race of the season, Martin was inducted into the Seekonk Wall of Fame.
In November, he was inducted into the New England Auto Racers Hall of Fame. The Hall said of Martin: “Over a 40-year plus career Martin has raced across New England in all sorts of different cars, but he stands out as one of the greatest ever to race at Seekonk (Mass.) Speedway… Martin also was known as one of the best fabricators in New England.”
In addition to his three Truck division championships, Martin also has four track titles in Seekonk’s Pro Stock division.
“It was me and Paul Newman got inducted in,” Martin said of the Hall of Fame. ‘So just to be in the same sentence with him. … In between that week, we went and raced up in Connecticut, and we won the race up there, so it was like a banner month, really.”
Racing hasn’t all been smooth sailing for Martin over the last five decades. He’s seen the sport change so much. He’s been through slumps. He’s changed cars, teams and crews several times. He’s seen all the highs and lows of motorsports.
“There’s just so much work these days,” he said. “Years ago, you got a junkyard car. When you bought it, every gas station you looked in there was an old race car in there. You painted numbers and put a roll cage in it, you had a race car. Now there’s a lot involved. A lot of work, a lot of hours, and a lot of money.”
He’s considered retiring more than once, including in 1990, when he blew the motor on his car and said, “I was done with it.”
Before he could give up, a new team asked Martin to drive its car.
“I ended up jumping in their car and we won the next week,” Martin said. “And then I ended up driving their car for a year. We won the championship the next year in ’92, and then that went on for a while.”
Ten years later came another small slump. In the time since, Martin’s changed teams again several times.
“I’ve done this my whole life as this is my job. If I went out and made a thousand dollars, that was my pay for the week. It was getting too expensive.”
Now Martin is with Ed Silva and Silva Motorsport, with Brightman Lumber as a sponsor, who have been with him for his last three championships.
While Martin has always wanted to race in quality equipment that gave him a chance to win, he’s never raced for himself. The victories and championships are always shared with the people who helped him get there.
“It’s a good time. I enjoyed more seeing him,” Martin said. “Ed’s been to the races his whole life, and he never thought about being an owner, never mind having me drive for him, and this is like the best part of his life right now.
“I do it for the people that help me like that. I mean, one more win to me… ain’t gonna change my life, but to these guys seeing them, I don’t pay nobody to work on a car, so that’s what they get out of it, they wanna help and they enjoy it.”
Given all the accolades he received last year, it’s only natural for Martin to think back on all he’s accomplished as a race car driver. He’s starting to give himself time to look back over the last 50 years.
“Over the years, it’s like I’d win a race, and I’d be back in the garage Sunday waiting for the next race and just never even had time to celebrate a win or think about it,” he said. “I always said, someday I’ll retire and I’ll sit on the rocking chair and I’ll go over everything.
“Lately, it’s been people coming along, saying, ‘Oh, you remember this race? I remember watching you when I was a kid,’ and this and that. To me, talking about it now, that’s all the payback. The people that come up and say, ‘Oh, I’ve been cheering for you. Now, I’m here with my son cheering for you.\””
Fifty years of racing wasn’t enough for Martin. He and his team have already built the truck he’ll race at Seekonk this season. They put in new motors and new bodies, plus fresh lettering.
Seekonk will begin racing on May 4. To Martin, Year 51 can’t come soon enough.
“We just go to have fun,” Martin said. “I mean, we’ll go there, we set up. We’ve got our tables, our tent, and our chairs, and we eat better than they do at most restaurants at the track. We’re always bringing something, lobster rolls or something. We just make a good time, and I enjoy it.
“I’d just like to thank everybody along the way that’s kept me going, cause can’t nobody do this by themselves. I’ve got a great team that works on the truck. They’re there every week with me.”
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