Owner and Driver
Vince Sands

Vince Sands was born, raised, and currently resides in New Castle, PA. He has been married to his wife Lisa since 1992. They have no children other than two three seven very spoiled cats (more on the cats below).

Vince has had a passion for racing since he was a child. He got his first taste of racing as a crewman for a dirt purestock race car at Learnerville Speedway, Sarver PA. To best prepare for campaigning his own asphalt late model stock car he attended both the Cale Yarborough and Drivetech racing schools.

Vince is currently the National Sales Manager for Triad Boiler Systems, located in West Chicago, IL as well as a principal with Boilerroom Equipment, Inc., a manufacturer of engineered boiler products. Vince graduated from the United States Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, NY in 1992 with a BS in Marine Engineering and a US Coast Guard engineers licence for the operation of any steam or motor vessel of unlimited horsepower. Vince was presented his diploma by General Colin Powell, his single greatest honor to date. His time at sea has taken him around the world and he still maintains his rank of Lieutenant Commander in the US Naval Reserve as a shipboard engineering officer. He is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in the State of Pennsylvania and is working towards the completion of his MBA. While a 420 HP late model engine or 800+ HP Nextel Cup engine is impressive to some people, Vince has run 30,000 HP boilers and diesel engines on ships. Vince is proud that once again US News and World report ranked the Academy in the top 50 engineering schools in the United States. While at the Academy Vince played football as well as skippered a 47' sailboat for the sailing team. Vince attended New Castle Senior High School where he was on the football and track teams and was elected Class President.

In addition to his stock car, Vince enjoys many other activities. He collects and restores arcade pinball machines and video games with his current collection totalling 23 machines. Some of the more interesting ones are a 1958 United ball bowling machine that is over 16' long and uses minature bowling balls, a 1964 Gottlieb Worlds Fair pinball machine, and a cockpit Pole Position racing game. Vince also collects Lionel trains. His favorite way to relax is programming computers. He is an accomplished programmer and has created many different programs for companies over the years.

Favorite Drivers:

• Alan Kulwicki was perhaps the biggest inspiration to Vince. The 1992 Winston Cup champion Alan Kulwicki became the 1st Northerner and 1st college graduate (a mechanical engineer like Vince) to win the cup. Vince's half-Polish heratige also parallels Alan's Polish heritage. The last owner-driver to win a cup, Alan accomplished the feat with far fewer resources than many of his competitors. Alan's accomplishments always encouraged Vince to follow his own dreams and enter stock racing.
• Dale Earnhardt Sr was a big inspiration to Vince.
• Vince respects Robby Gordon's attempt to be an owner-driver. A one-car team with an owner-driver is a hard way to compete in today's huge-budget multi-car team cup series.
• Just as important to Vince are the drivers from all of racing with no sponsors and no budget that compete every week for the love of the sport.

OK, so lets talk cats. For over 10 years we only had two cats, brother and sister persian kittens. The male is fixed so no worries. Two years ago we took in a stray female kitten probably less than 8 weeks old. We took Cloe in rather than see her be euthanized, that made three cats in the house. All of the cats were indoor only so we never thought of having the new cat fixed. In February "Mrs One-Shot Wonder" snuck out of the house for a single night. That is how we now have seven cats.