5/24/2013
Max Pozsgai
Turning Tragedy Into Triumph
LINCOLN — Nate Charron and Max Pozsgai share more than their passion for racing.
The two racers, who have been best friends since early childhood, became even closer after their dad’s passed away two years apart.
Pozsgai’s father, Laszlo, passed away four years ago, and Charron’s father, Greg, who passed away two years ago, forced the two racers to ban together in order to keep racing on the weekends.
“The hardest part about doing it by ourselves was just knowing that we didn’t have our father to help us out,” Nate Charron said. “We kind of had to re-learn everything. We had to do it ourselves, just surviving week-to-week. Keeping up the maintenance on the cars (was tough) and just mentally being able to do it (by ourselves).”
Nathan, who will run his first race of the season in the 305 Sprint Cars tonight at the Lincoln Speedway that will feature the Taylor Glass Topless Mods and the 305 Sprint Cars, says he is ready for his second season he has to endure without his father Greg.
“Tonight will be my first race this year,” Nate Charron said. “(Last year), we really didn’t run anything for points. We just ran whenever we wanted to go, so we kind of did it week-to-week and decided where to run and which car we wanted to run. This year, I would like to run in the top ten consistently.”
Pozsgai said tragedy forced the two racers to not only ban together, but also made them learn the tedious details it takes in order to put out a competitive car on a weekly basis.
“We have always been pretty much like brothers, and (our father’s death) kind of tied us together even closer,” Pozsgai said. “When you are close friends, you obviously get a little closer (after a tragedy like that). We have always been racing together. It put it more into our hands and forced us to take a more direct role. Now, I have to be the one ordering parts, trying to get sponsors, and everything that is involved with managing the race teams. You kind of take for granted when you just show up and drive.”
According to Nate, one aspect the two had to learn was the preparation.
“We basically had to figure out a schedule where I could work on the car,” Nate Charron said. “We worked on a car and got it ready (to race). We would make a list on what we needed to do, and went down the list and figured out everything. Now that I am funding my own racing out of my own pocket and I don’t have my dad to help pay for the little things, it has made it more difficult to race week-to-week. It has made us better people and better racers. It’s not just the fact that we went through everything together, but we have come out and said we are going to keep going and do it ourselves. It really helps just knowing we have each other to push each other along.”
In this together
After Pozsgai’s father passed away, Nate and his father Greg helped him to keep racing.
“When Max’s dad passed away, we really helped him out to keep on racing and my dad (Greg) really helped us,” Nate Charron said. “My father built his first engine when he was 14 years old, and really kind of guided us. If we needed anything, dad was just a phone call away.”
When Nate Charron’s dad died suddenly of a heart attack in his sleep, he no longer had that safety net.
“It kind of left us in shock,” Nate Charron said. “We didn’t really know what to do or what the next step was so we decided to do this together. We certainly learned the hard way, and last year was a bit of a struggle with the micro sprints. My father was the backbone to (our racing team), and we had to really stay up on our game in order to compete. When I lost my father I lost a lot of knowledge that we didn’t have.”
To compensate for that lack of knowledge, Pozsgai stepped up to be Charron’s crew chief.
“At first, it was kind of weird,” Charron said. “In a sense, I am usually working on his stuff while I am driving and working on my car. I couldn’t do it without him and he couldn’t do it without me. We kind of just had to learn together.”
The lack of financial backing and the 30 years of racing knowledge that made Greg Charron an indispensable part of their racing team didn’t deter Charron or Pozsgai.
“We didn’t want to quit, and we didn’t want to be satisfied and just be good enough,” Nate Charron said. “We want to be good enough to win races every night when we go to the track, and run up front consistently. We are finally getting to that point where we have been working together long enough that we can read each other’s mind with the next race.”
Article Credit: Lincoln Courier - Jason Blasco
Submitted By: Max Pozsgai
