Kate Re Earns 2024 GNG’s Gift Sponsorship

Kate Re’s four-year Super Late Model career has been marked by its challenges. But when her father landed in the hospital this summer, the young racer faced a challenge with a gravity she had never faced before.

“It really set fire under our whole team, to go and catch our first win weekly,” Re said. “And I had to do it without the help of my dad, which was really hard for me.

“But my team rallied around me.”

Re’s perseverance through the chaos was rewarded Saturday night, as the Harrison, Me. hotshoe was named the 2024 recipient of GNG’s Gift, a memorial sponsorship granted in memory of late Maine racer Greg Peters.

With parents Rick and Karen at her side, Re and her fellow finalists were honored by Peters’ family at the 35th Annual NorthEast Motorsports Expo in Augusta, Me., a preseason gathering of competitors, vendors and fans to bridge the gap of the cold off-season.

The Peters family organized GNG’s Gift to carry forth the legacy of their patriarch, dubbed “Grand National Greg” for his larger-than-life appreciation for regional racing. A former driver, a mentor to family and friends alike, and an ardent cheerleader for local racers, Greg lost his battle with cancer in the summer of 2021. Now in its third year, GNG’s Gift has granted over $18,000 to New England racers in Greg’s memory. Saturday, the planned day of the presentation, would have been Greg’s 71st birthday.

Re took home a $5000.09 check for her racing expenses in the coming season, the nine cents paying homage to the car number run by Greg through most of his driving career.

Kate Re poses with Greg Peters’ family, daughter Heather Henckel, son John and wife Gail. (STS/Jeff Brown)

For a second year, three finalists were announced from a record number of applicants. Applicants are expected to reflect Greg’s core values: a family focus, an unbreakable work ethic, and a passionate dedication to success. In keeping with Greg’s approach to racing, on-track performance comes secondary to overall sportsmanship when evaluating the applicants.

John Peters, Greg’s son, has taken pains to be transparent about the selection process, something his family does not take lightly. Peters compared the scale of the process to an announcer preparing for a touring race.

“Imagine a 35-car starting field,” he said. “Going individually, car-by-car, learning all their stories and backgrounds. Then narrowing 35 to three. Doing 35 to one.

“There’s a big group of racers that are reaching out and submitting applications.”

Standouts still had to be selected, though. Zach Bowie, a veteran weekly racer from Maine, has a reputation for getting the most from his opportunities on a shoestring budget. Bowie picked up five feature wins in Oxford Plains Speedway’s Limited class in 2023, missing the track championship by only three points. Reilly Lanphear, the first finalist from the state of Vermont, has balanced college and career goals in the Carolinas with racing in the competitive American-Canadian Tour back home, along with supporting younger sister Peyton through her battle with lymphoma.

Zach Bowie and Reilly Lanphear were recognized as finalists along with Re. (STS/Jeff Brown)

Re was named a finalist one year ago. But in the personal growth she experienced in her twentieth year, she saw a foundation on which to build again.

From her go-karting roots, Re moved to the Pro All Stars Series’ Modifieds while she was still too young to run all the races. With three PASS Mod feature wins in two seasons, Re and her family began planning for a move to weekly Super Late Model competition in 2020. But the arrival of the COVID pandemic, and Maine’s strict limitations on sporting facilities, left Oxford’s weekly program in doubt for months, while the PASS touring schedule marched forward.

“So we were supposed to run weekly that year,” Re said. “The first PASS race came up before the weekly schedule came out, so my parents just decided that the best thing for me was, there was no better way to learn than with the guys that had the most respect.”

Re ran the entire PASS North schedule, plus select Oxford weekly shows once the track was permitted to operate. That August, she became the fourth woman ever to qualify for the Oxford 250, the first to do so without taking a provisional. “I think we ran almost 30-something races that year,” she recalled.

While Re returned to weekly competition in 2023, she still fielded her car for select PASS races as well. (STS/Jeff Brown)

A grinding crash at Thompson set Re’s team back to start 2021, but the family team rallied with three top tens, leading laps in two races. “We had some success on the PASS tour as well, with our first podium finish,” Re remembered. Her performances earned her a nod as a Kulwicki Driver Development Program finalist for 2022. “And then…we kind of struggled a little bit. Some more DNFs and rainouts than we actually finished races.” Early-season mishaps forced Re and her team to step back from full-time competition.

“And then this year, we went back racing weekly,” Re said. The team moved into a new shop in Oxford, acquiring a Distance-built car from car owner Lenny Thompson. “[We] found some success. Had some really terrible news over the summer, with almost losing my dad.”

Rick Re, who had been a guiding hand at every step of his daughter’s racing career, was suddenly fighting for his life in a hospital bed.

“He had to step out a couple races this year, wasn’t even able to put my window net up,” Re said. “And that was the first race without having him by my side, buckling me in. So that really took a toll on me mentally that day.”

But in the face of tragedy, racers press on. “We didn’t have the best finish, but all we wanted to do was come home in one piece,” said Re. “So that was really hard for me, but I really learned that day that he’s taught me to do everything I need to do on race day, to be able to do it by myself without him there.”

Rick was on the mend and back at the track on July 30, when Kate raced to her first Super Late Model win in a weekly feature at Oxford, joining Vanna Brackett as the only two women ever to win in the division.

Re made her third start in the Oxford 250 in August, racing from 39th on the grid to 27th despite a pit road miscue. (Photo courtesy Tom Morris)

Re, who only turned 20 in December, ended the season sixth in points at Oxford, finishing 27th in the Oxford 250 for the third time.

Along the way, Re forged a professional bond with fellow Super Late Model racer Charlie Buxton, who took up duties behind the microphone for Re’s team. “Charlie’s been awesome on the radio with me,” she said. “He’s more not so much just a spotter, he’s a crew chief, he’s a driving coach. He’s someone I always go to on race day with questions, concerns. He’s always there to text message, or over the phone, talking about upcoming races, things we want to try.

“Charlie really clicked with us this year, and we’re looking forward to having him next year.”

Next year, for the Re team, looks to be a full Super Late Model season at Oxford, a competitive division where only one driver has scored multiple feature wins in the last two years. A limited slate of PASS touring shows at Oxford, including the Oxford 250, will round out the year.

GNG’s Gift will make at least some of that schedule possible.

Lanphear, who competes with her younger sister Peyton on the ACT Tour, has balanced her racing with supporting Peyton through her battle with lymphoma. (STS/Jeff Brown)

Bowie and Lanphear, as with last year’s non-winning finalists, were awarded $500 gift certificates to safety equipment provider HMS Motorsport. Maine racer Rusty Poland was named the inaugural winner of the Spirit Award, given to a racer who expressed the elder Peters’ passions while not making the top-three cut. Poland, who plans to race a combination of Super Late Model and 350 Supermodified races in 2024, won a package of trailer accessories from Winter Pit Products.

While Re’s tale is particularly poignant, Peters was quick to stress that the lessons learned, not the tragedy experienced, are what make an applicant stand out.

“A lot of people have dealt with adversity,” Peters said. “It’s not just about the fact that you’ve had it, that you went through it. Can you tell us about it, what you learned from it, what it means to you, and how you channeled that into something else?

“That’s what we got out of Kate. That’s what we got out of Reilly and Zach. And that’s what we’re looking for out of applicants. It’s not enough alone to have something happen or go wrong to you, because many of us have had unfortunate things happen. It’s in this particular process, can you articulate that and why it’s important to you?”

Bowie, a competitor at Oxford Plains Speedway, is planning to race with the PASS Mods, the series that produced inaugural GNG’s Gift winner Garrett Lamb and Re herself. (STS/Jeff Brown)

Communication is key, a takeaway that Peters stresses as he encourages applicants to try again, year after year. And much of that communication comes through social media, an explicit focus of the review process.

“I’m sure there are misconceptions,” he said. “It’s not about how good is your social, or how creative are you, or how good are your graphics? I just want to know that when you’re on there, you’re respectful with what you’re posting, what you’re commenting, what you’re liking. Because we’re no different than any other company or brand that you’re going to represent. And we can’t bring you into the fold to represent us if you’re not going to do that well.

“And I think that’s not going to be the case for just us. If these racers want to go find any sponsorship in the year 2024, it’s going to be in large part about that.”

Peters, who works for the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League, stepped away from his own driving last year. As he follows his father’s transition from competitor to supporter, Peters recognizes that, to a degree, GNG’s Gift is as much about educating developing racers as it is about providing financial aid.

“I do feel like I’ve been on a lot of sides of it,” he admitted. “I’ve been through the education portion of it, I’ve been in corporate America. I’ve been in brand marketing teams, I’ve had sponsorship meetings in the NFL. I’ve had race teams on Beetle Bug levels and Late Model levels. I’ve had zero money and good money.

Rusty Poland was named the inaugural Spirit Award winner. Poland will run a combination of Super Late Model and Supermodified races in 2024. (STS/Jeff Brown)

“So I’ve been on a lot of different sides of it, and I feel like I can help people who are trying to go through that sponsorship process, just based on what I’ve learned. Things I’ve heard, how I’ve experienced or perceived companies interacting, or how they look for certain things.

“And hopefully, that helps.”

When Peters and his family announced the formation of GNG’s Gift, they committed to a three-year program. Peters confirmed Saturday that they are striving for a fourth year, but are actively seeking contributions to make their charity possible.

“Whatever form it manifests itself, whether it’s individual people who want to reach out and donate, if it’s tracks and series who want to partner with us to put on some campaign, where they’re giving a portion of proceeds to us,” Peters said. “Or if there’s fundraising or auctions that we might be able to do that keep this going, or certain online initiatives. Whatever form it takes, we’ll do this as long as there’s sustained interest in it, both from applicants and then from donors financially who make it possible.”

For inaugural winner Garrett Lamb in 2022 and Bobby Timmons in 2023, GNG’s Gift was a welcome helping hand from one racing family to another.

Kate Re says it is the same story for her.

“GNG’s Gift is about family, and we do everything family,” Re said. “My mom’s good at photos, and my dad takes care of everything in the shop for me during the week, between setups, maintenance, everything like that. He’s always there, no matter what. We’ve skipped family dinners, family vacations just to go work on the race cars, to be at the shop together, and do everything like that.”

And with Saturday’s award, Re and her family are off to the races once again.

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Read more Short Track Scene:

• Ken Squier’s legacy reaches far beyond his broadcast career
• Doiron, Gerry take the long road to the Oxford 250 field
• Through charity, John Peters keeps father Greg’s legacy alive