Roderick, Campi and the Burbas Go Trophy Hunting

Casey Roderick wasn’t supposed to be in the Snowflake 100 last month, much less with Anthony Campi Racing nor in Victory Lane together at Five Flags Speedway, and here they are preparing to contest an untold number of Super Late Model races together in 2023.

It’s fascinating how things work out sometimes.

Roderick is one of the most admired drivers in the discipline, but he had come to an impasse of sorts, struggling somewhat to get a fully prepared car onto the track once a month or so.

After his departure from Ronnie Sanders Racing in 2019, Roderick bought a FURY chassis to operate under his own banner but struggled to find the help needed to take time off their respective jobs to compete against the biggest teams in the discipline.

Roderick, who no one will question as a driver, was suddenly needing to serve as his own crew chief, hauler driver and tire specialist. He would have spotted for himself if it were conceivably possible. The point is that it wasn’t sustainable, and Roderick needed help.

He found it last year with the Burba family and Platinum Express. The team, who have housed Late Models for two decades and won the Snowball Derby with Travis Braden in 2019, maintained the car and provided the experienced help needed on select weekends.

But he was still flat exhausted at the track.

Meanwhile, Anthony Campi was left without a driver when Giovanni Ruggiero joined Donnie Wilson Motorsports. The deal between himself and Roderick was extremely last-minute and they won the whole thing.

“I think that obviously helped a bunch,” Campi said. “You know, that was a one-off thing just because things changed from my end and we had to put something together and that switched the light to what else could we do together.

“That’s how we got here, put together a little bit of a schedule, so we’ll keep grinding and trying to have fun.”

When Roderick won with Campi in the Snowflake, it was just with the in-house ACR team and not Platinum Express, but it started the conversation of what if they all joined forces together?

“I mean it takes everyone to make it happen,” Roderick said. “Everyone is so, so close and the competition is really tough these days. You have to be on your A-Game to do well.

“Anthony, his program has been really good the last several years, and I don’t think I’ve had to this extent, this level of team and people working on these things. I’m used to getting out of the car after one round of practice, thrashing to make adjustments and get back out there, and just weaing myself out.

“So, to just focus on driving and letting (Anthony) know what I need in the car to go fast, I’m just now getting used to the whole deal.”

This conversation took place after the open test on Thursday and over dinner outside the Campi hauler, something that blew Roderick’s mind, because he hasn’t had time to just enjoy being at the race track given all the tasks he needed to accomplish.

For Campi, it’s also refreshing to be paired with a veteran driver as opposed to a young development prospect, the bread and butter of his business the past half-decade. He is grateful to each of his clients, including Katie Hettinger this season, but Roderick and Team Platinum represents a turn-key opportunity to immediately win every race they enter.

“This is super fun,” Campi said. “I mean, it’s just brought back some fun knowing what we’re capable of together, but still serious because it’s a lot of pressure to perform.

“Casey and I have been friends for a long time and we’ve always talked about doing this, kind of joking, but never thinking it could actually happen. So that’s why it’s fun. I’m trying to enjoy it but embrace the pressure and perform like everyone expects us to.”

Taking a bite of his burger, and realizing he forget to specifically mention it on the record, Roderick says ‘make sure you thank Team Platinum and the Burbas because we couldn’t do this without them.’

And to that point, Campi hammered the point home.

“Platinum is playing the biggest role in getting us here,” he said. “Myna, Bill and the whole family, they just love and enjoy racing. They want to be here but are doing it in a different way than they used to.

“A little less stress for them, little bit less stress for Casey and more fun for me, but we have to perform now too.”