Willie Mullins Backyard ARCA Race Shop: The Everyman's Hero Born From Donlavey Racing

So this car here, if everybody remembers Montreal with Robbie Gordon, that's this car. My first time setting up my stock car was at Juny Dun Levy shop. So a lot of the stuff I used to this day is still the same stuff from Dun Levy Racing. >> And Arca, I promise there's no Bondo in the nose this year. >> Yep. It is cleaned up. We made sure. >> We're in Fredericksburg, Virginia with Willie Mullins, the backyard race shop race team. >> Absolutely. You know, we're we're lucky to be in my parents' garage. You know, my parents still over live over here in the house. And during CO, if everybody remembers, we even had uh a little go-kart track that uh we ran, I think, eight straight weekends on during CO. You know, our pole sitting Daytona car comes out of is right here at this little shop. >> Well, let's go see it. >> Absolutely. >> What you'll show us of it anyway. >> Sure. Come on in. You know, just a little garage. You know, I've cleaned it up over the years. Just, you know, we got a little faster. Try to make it a little bit nicer. So, here, you know, is our Daytona car. Then we also have a customer's car we're working on over there. Many other race cars and motors and classic cars. That's my mom's Chevel and my mom's Monte Carlo. She actually had that uh 70 Chevel since she was in high school. >> So, why do you have Ford, Chevy, Toyota? What's the decision process behind >> the cheapest cars I can get? Honestly, you know, we race out of my own pocket, so it's whatever deals I can work. So, we fix pretty much anything and everything. This is a cement truck here. Um, it got the cab knocked off of it, wrecked it bad enough we had to put a motor in it. So, it's a pretty big job entailed. We do a lot of commercial work is mainly what we do. We do a lot for Ryder, GFL, Republic Waste Management. So, those are our main customers that we take care of. So, that's a little bit of how I pay for what we're doing every day. >> So, you're like the continuation of Don Levy's uh trash by day by night. What is cool by tying all this together. My first time setting up my stock car was at Juny Dun Levby shop. So I didn't know much about it since I was coming from drag racing. So Ken Bell down there invited me down there. We used a surface plate, worked on my road course car right there on that surface plate and that was 2004 or five right after they had just shut down. So it's crazy to see the ties. And then watching your video, I didn't realize that Trucksmore was a trash company that they built trash trucks and worked on them. And that's what we do here is we work on trash trucks here. So it's it's kind of a small world that it all came together and and they helped me get my start, too. >> Yeah. Like right at the same time they stopped you started and it never >> and it it it was crazy because Juny was there and we were talking and you know he offered me a lot of help. I bought a lot of equipment when they closed up. So, a lot of the stuff I use to this day is still the same stuff from Dun Levy Racing. If you look, we got a Dale Quarterly car right here. This was his dirt car he ran, I think, Springfield with last. And he was getting out of the dirt. He didn't want to run dirt anymore, so he gave me a hell of a deal on it. And it was one of those things. It's a good car. Uh, you know, my wife didn't know I was buying it till it showed up kind of thing. And, uh, she wasn't happy, but, you know, it's one of those cars. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. We had a couple little things we're going to do, too. We're either going to sell it or I'm going to run dirt with it. This So, this car is going to be a pretty cool story. This car was my third ever road course car we bought. Um, it's a Ford. You know, we ran it in Arca for three or four years. Andy Belmont sold it to me. So, this car here, if everybody remembers Montreal with Robbie Gordon. >> Yeah. >> When Robbie Gordon wrecked Marcus Ambrose. That's this car. >> Robbiey's car. Marcus Ambrose. >> This is Robbiey's car. >> Oh, really? >> This is the car that wrecked Marcus Ambrose right here. [clears throat] Harvick inside of Puit for fourth place. Puit shuts the door on him. Harvick gets him back and he gets Fellows. Big pile up down in turn two. Brad Coleman involved. Ron Hornady involved and up front Robbie Gordon by AMBROSE WHO GOES BACK ON HIM. So Robbie Gordon riding around next to Marcus Ambrose probably. And this is just speculation on my part, but I'm speculating that Robbie Gordon is saying, "Hey, the caution flag was out, so I'm the race leader >> even though I got hit and spun. There it is. Couldn't see that coming, could you? >> Kevin Harvick is going to go from worst to first. And Kevin Harvick's name will go on the winner's trophy in the inaugural NASCAR Bush Series race at Montreal. >> If you want to know my opinion, I won the race. So, um, I completed all the laps and if you've seen this happen before, guys get spun when they slow down. That's exactly what happened with Marcus. They spun me when I slowed down and they tell me I'm going to go back to 17th. It's not the way it is. It's happened many times. They set precedence before and we'll appeal it. We won this race. >> This this is a very very good 105 car. Um, you know, has a great story behind it. I'm going to probably road race it more in SECA or something like that. Um, but yeah, this was the infamous car. You know, a lot of pedigree with this car. Really good car. It picked me up a lot. And >> that's the race where he thought he won and did the donuts. >> Correct. and Harvick actually won the race, but Robbie was doing donuts and then Robbie got suspended that next week from the cup race, I believe. So, you know, this car was one of those cars that I'll always hold on to. This will be the last ever car I get rid of probably, but we're going to put it back in the camping world colors. And, you know, it's one of those neat stories that we got to have. >> How did you end up with it? >> So, long story short, I had this car here. I was Arca Racing. This was my car that I built that I was talking to you about earlier. We built at the body shop. And the car was okay, but it was a left-hand body and a lefthand chassis, and I honestly didn't know what I was doing when I built the car. So, Andy Belmont decided he was done in the Arca series, and he had this car. He bought it directly from Ford. Ford got it to him. Chad Mccumbi ran this car at Millville for a couple years. And then once Andy was done with it, it literally showed up in my driveway. Andy said, "You're buying this car." He said, "I know you're a road racer, and this is a great piece to have." And he dropped it off in the driveway. And I bought it from him that way. So, we went and ran Arca with it a couple years, had a good uh couple good finishes with it, and then we ran SECA some more. Um, and then I just haven't done anything with it probably in 10 years, I would think. So, you know, it's it's a really good piece. I didn't expect to do that. That's what's fun about doing these things. You never know what what people have or where things came from. >> You never know what you'll find. And And it's one of those things my my wife's like, "Oh, we need to sell that thing." I'm like, "No, this car we won't sell." Um, you can go up on the stairs and get a better shot. That's one of the the main history cars we have here in the garage. You know, it's painted up my purple. I've always loved purple and that's why we did that car that way. This is a cool shop. >> Thank you. It's >> my parents garage, you know. I I'm just blessed that they let me use it. >> Did this car have any remnants of Robbie Gordon Motorsports stuff in it when you got it? >> Well, it still says Robbie Gordon on the dash. All that still is the same. All the front suspension still says Robbie Gordon Racing on it. Um Robbie Gordon Motorsports, I think, is what it says. So, yeah, it's 100% the Robbie Gordon car that uh you know, he wrecked Marcus Ambrose with. Is there a hole under the seat in the floor pan? >> No, >> there isn't. >> No. >> No. Nothing like that. So, >> have you have you heard of those? >> I have not heard those stories. >> No. >> Um I might cut this out of the video, but supposedly one of the Mccclure guys told me this from off-road world. He people race with catheterss so they don't have to go to the bathroom. >> Oh, really? >> Well, he would do that in NASCAR, too. and he just run the tube out his leg of his fire suit and go on the floor or something. Yeah. And uh he said he came in for a pit stop once and >> um I may have been Larry Mccclure thought the car was leaking something so he goes down and like touches it and like tried to taste it and people are like no no don't do that. >> That's funny. So also we were talking earlier when we were talking about Juny Dunlevy. So these blue ring and pinions here, these center sections, these are all originally out of the number 90 cars. You know, these are came from Juny Dun Levy. Um I bought, you know, pieces and parts here and there from him. So we have a lot of the Juny Dun Levy things here and there. These old cans, these were handmade down here at Junies. You know, this [snorts] is how the ring and pinions would come in their big cases. They put them in squares so that in the trailer, I believe Ding said they they wouldn't roll around. So, >> you know, a little bit of everything. And then all the other current stuff, if you notice, says MWR on it. >> So, that's a lot of this stuff comes from Michael Walrip, you know, when the the teams get defunct, things like that. Um, you know, and that's how a little team like myself can survive is secondhand parts, you know, uh, Chulu Performance, SRRI, you know, that's where you can get that stuff at to to be able to compete in the series and still be competitive, you know. Has it been harder for you to get parts since the next gen stopped the trickle down flow or is there >> 100% 100% because your steering boxes here you could get a good used steering box before they got rid of cup car the current the old cup car for 500 bucks you know 8 to1 box now a good 8 to1 box is $1,500 so it's tripled in price it's really hurt there you know for used parts uh transmissions are the same way because all the Exfinity and truck teams now have gobbled up what was good and they're using them up for their cycles in their life. So that's the struggle we have is is being able to get good used parts. >> I wonder how what the next phase of that'll be once they go through their inventory of hoarded parts. Are they going to start ordering new stuff or >> they will, but it it's going to be, you know, like I was talking to the ring and the competition gear and the problem with that is then you got to buy 50 ring and pinions for somebody to make them. you got to buy such big batches that it's hard for, you know, somebody like myself to get new parts. So, we're going to get even recycled more parts than, you know, longer. It's hard to get, you know, stuff at an economical price. So, that's when we have to decide since we don't have a sponsor when's enough is enough of, you know, spending this money. And that's why, you know, the Menard's company in Menards is important to our series because it keeps all of us, you know, racing in a good series that that's competitive. So, we we can't wait to continue to do that. [music] >> What other kind of stuff do you have from Don Levies in here? You said there was a bunch of >> So, what we do too also just kind of So, each cart here is a car. Um, so this cart is the Ford short track car. That cart is the the Toyota uh short track car. This is my road course cart. Super Speedway Ford, Super Speedway Chevrolet, you know, um, a little bit of everything. It's one of those things that we try to be organized like the big teams so that we can function as close to a big team as we can. I got two packed in at one point >> and >> Oh, yes. The signature We we have >> stop addon >> expand a little bit. Right. So this is my parts room. Everything's in here. You know, I I say we we got enough stuff we can build just about another car or two at least. My wife does not like walking back here cuz she thinks all this junk. I think it's not, but you know how it works. >> Trailing arms, everything you know that we need. A lot of this stuff, as you know, when you go down to Moresville, I try to go was trying to go to auctions, buy a lot of parts at auctions, things like that. So, most of these upper control arms all came from Juny shop when they closed up. They had hundreds of them. And then he just kept loading the pickup truck full of them. So, that's where all the the if you see these black older upper control arms, those are all came from the Juny shop. Um, this cart, if you noticed, he Ding had a lot of these mail carts down there. This is was their tear down carts, and that's where this came from. Ding taught me a lot on just organizing and getting things, you know, put together so that we could, you know, function as a halfway decent little team. >> We didn't even think this was a shipping container. This is cool. >> It's just, it came to me one day. I was like, you know what? Let's just put a shipping container. And it started off all piled in here. And then I painted it one day and cleaned it up and I was just trying to organize. Um, and if you see these red carts in the shop, all these came out of DEI. That's when DEI closed up. So, we got a lot of their carts. You know, some of them are, you can even see, I'll show you in the back. Um, they're still Dan Lornhart Incorporated. Um, and then like when Andy Belmont closed up his scale cabinet, radio cabinet, I bought that from him. Everything component-wise was recycled from another team. That's how we are where we are is just trying to find deals. Um, you know, same thing with Ubolts. When uh Brad uh when Rous had that big auction four, five, six years ago, I think Ubolts, hub caps, wheel spacers. Um, our Motorsports just had auction. >> I mean, bought too many lead rail spacers. You know, it's just one of those things when you can get a deal on it, I I buy it. If you look right here, like I said, these are original DEI tearown parts. You know, they came from the team. We obviously re renamed them as for chassis 65. So, a lot of people know, if you've seen the YouTube videos, that 65 car started his life out at out at Rous Yates. um or excuse me, Robert Yates and that's Dale Jun Dale Jarrett's uh outside Pole City car. This is my limited here as we were talking about Ding. So Ding did all the brake lines when this car was built probably about 8 years ago. He was that was his little side business after Juny closed up that he uh did all the brake lines for all the late model teams down there. >> There's an argument between the Virginia Racer that Langley and Dominion Run versus what Limited are in North Carolina. They're not the same. >> Yeah. So, Langley Speedway and Dominion Raceway have their own class of limited. It's a 604 8-in tire coney shock. You know, uh Spencer was actually talking about this uh on his Dale Junior uh video that he said he wishes there was a class that was 8-in tires, 604 motor, and a spec shock. Well, Virginia racer and Dominion, you know, uh Langley, they have it right here. So, if you wanted to get into a cheaper class, I don't want to say it's cheap. >> Cheaper is relative to the sport. how fast you want to go. Right. So, >> we went last year, uh, we went back to Minnesota for my birthday and we went to my local dirt track and we were with a guy that I went to high school with and he was running his super stock that he runs for my brother and he was works for my brother and he was telling me that my brother borrowed him $10,000 to buy a race ready complete car and he spends $165 a week to go to the racetrack. And I realized being in Virginia in the North Carolina area for so long, how out of touch we are to reality because our level of local racing here is not local racing across the rest of the country. The money that's spent in a three-state region here is not indicative of the rest of the country. And I tell people, oh, we we run limited sometimes because we only spend $1,500 a weekend. And then I realized that if you say that to the average person that we only spend $1,500 a weekend to go play with our race car, they look at you like you have nine heads. That is a ton of money. And that's just for tires, fuel, getting there. Like that's just the consumables. And you're not buying a race ready car for 10,000. You probably maybe could get a U car race ready for 10,000 in our region. >> Well, I bought this car. You know, less motor trans was 10. >> Yeah. You you got a deal. >> I got a deal. Robert helped me out, you know, and it was it's an older car. We just cleaned it up this year finally. >> So, like I was saying, this is originally built this Ford right here was built at Robert Yates Racing for Dale Jarrett. Um, this car set on the outside pole in uh 2004 or five if I remember. Uh, this was a UPS car and then I got it in 2000. When was that, Dina? 201 >> 2013 I think we bought it. 2013 and 2014. It had steel body on it. Before I had it, Grant Infinger had it. So, Grant drove this car and then we got it and I've run it ever since. Um, you know, we sat on the pole with it two years ago. We finished second with this car. Um, it's had a lot of good finishes. I've finished top 10 three or four of the times also that we've run it. So, really good car. You know, hopefully we can get another poll and the elusive victory at Daytona would be pretty cool. Is this one a Pinto this year? Is that >> No, we're not going to do it up as the Pinto. This This will be the unname unbranded car because uh as you can see through the whole shop, we don't have any factory support since there's a lot of different cars here. So, uh you know, unless somebody wants to come on board and make us a Ford team or a Chevrolet or Toyota, we're just going to stick with whatever we can get cheap. I did have um I did have donkeys made to match the Mustang to put a donkey there instead, but I can't get it covered right. I got to get vinyl to cover the and then put the donkey in the front cuz Ford doesn't like us. So, I might as well keep pissing them off. This was our first Ford Mustang we ran. I think it was 3 years ago. So, that might have been why we got in trouble right there. Um, you know, Ford was not happy. We were not representing the brand correctly with the Maky and you know the decals. >> This engine hoist looks very >> so >> hardcore. >> Yes. I will I'll give you another history lesson. This I was told my dad got this from a farm. I believe it was in the family the farm was they used to move milking machines with it. I'm not sure exactly where the story was, but that's why it originally started moving milking machines. And this thing has probably pulled thousands of motors between my dad used to run super stock and then my brother ran uh you know local bracket racing, drag racing, and then I ran drag racing and stock cars. And so this thing has moved hundreds if not thousands of motors in its life. >> It looks like it can move hundreds of motors at once. I've never I've never seen an engine hoist this hardcore looking. This thing will pick up I had my bulldozer motor out and picked up my bulldozer motor and we all know how heavy diesels are. So, it'll pick up the world if you needed it to.…