3/1/2025
What An Honor
Moose Racing lives on in Indiana with Chase Stockon behind the wheel
By Joseph Terrell
Olympia, Wash:
As February in Florida starts to take shape, a team that had long been a staple of the USAC/CRA series is set to reappear in Volusia and Ocala with a new driver. Moose Racing, owned by Tom and Laurie Sertich, is set to make their return to the Non-Winged Sprint Car wars with Indiana's Chase Stockon taking care of the driving duties.
Tom and Laurie had moved to Princeton, Ind., from southern Calif., with all their equipment, following 2021, and over the next two years, they did not surface. Rumors abounded they were ready to reappear, and then finally last year at Kokomo's Smackdown, Moose Racing showed up with USAC/CRA veteran Cody Williams behind the wheel.
In 2025, they return to racing with the first order of business being hiring an accomplished Non-Wing Sprint Car driver, which they did in Chase Stockon.
"We ran smackdown with Cody Williams at the last minute," Tom Sertich said. "He was coming to promote his business to drivers, and we decided let's put him in it. Then we put Chase (Stockon) in it one night at Circle (City Raceway) to see if we are even in the ballpark.
"We kept hearing our engines had too much power for the tracks back here. In California, everything is hooked up and muddy - you need a lot of power. Back here is different. He (Chase) was really happy with how it handled and the power."
Tom and Laurie's eyes were always on Stockon, who they had met years and years ago and then gotten to know better through a common friend."We had a common friend in Bill Floyd. Bill had hired Chase to drive his Silver Crown car, and I was involved last year working on the Silver Crown car and getting to know Chase better."
Plus, they fit the schedule he was looking to run, as he focuses more on this kids while still racing Sprint Cars."Chase wasn't going to be able to run a full season due to commitment with his kids racing motorcycles," Sertich said. Laurie was admittedly the most forceful about getting Stockon in the car, though she admitted there was a little difference in opinion about what a limited schedule looked like."We wanted to do about 20 shows, and Chase was thinking more like 30," Laurie Sertich said. "I said you know that is more than a California season.!! The tentative schedule includes the likes of Knoxville, Eldora, Tri-State, which is close to our house ... only eight minutes away.
"We will see how it works and how funds are. Technically about 28 races so far but it could change. We could do more. We wanted to do the Louie Vermeil Classic @ Calistoga, to support The Hunt Family ,but Chase has a Silver Crown race that weekend."
Tom and Laurie both seemed to leave room for adding races, and if Stockon has success, don't be surprised if that happens.
The team will have four DRC chassis in the stable plus two Kistler engines. The Sertichs said they were lucky to have most of the equipment they had in California because their most recent driver - Austin Williams - "doesn't tear up much stuff. That was nice."
So how did a Southern California team that seemed to be forever linked with SCRA and the USAC/CRA end up in the Midwest? Well, it was a bit of good timing and destiny.
The Sertichs ended up in Indiana, because that had always been the plan in some way. It came to fruition during the summer of 2020 when the team came east to race and get some work done."During Covid, we came back to Engler Machine to get some work done. It was during Smackdown. We started to ask questions about what racing looked like in the area. She had always wanted to move back here, and I wasn't sure. When we were back at Engler's, we noticed the house across the street from Engler was for sale, "We had said we were going to move from California within five years of getting married, and that was 30 years ago. When we saw this house for sale, it was all I talked about when we got home," Laurie said, not knowing that Tom had bought the house when they returned to California.
And the beginnings of Moose Racing are almost completely aligned with the relationship of Tom and Laurie.
"We bought a car in the fall of 1992," Tom Sertich said. "That is why it has the number 92, and the car's nickname was Moose. In 1993, we got married on New Year's eve. We were just trying to race a little then, but back in the day with SCRA, you had to race five races to keep your number.
"I had raced four times in 1994 and got hurt at work and asked Glenn Carson to run the car for one race, and he was hired in 1995 and got rookie of the year."
From there, Moose Racing became entrenched in the Southern California racing scene. In the late 1990s, they employed drivers such as Casey Shuman, Mike English, and Mike Boat, who won the first SCRA race for the team in July of 1998. Ohio driver Rusty McClure occupied the seat until getting injured in 2000 and after a myriad of drivers turned the wheel, including Danny Sheridan ( who took the checkers in the First Greg Weld Memorial Event ) and Perris Speedway legend David Cardey.
In 2014, Cardey retired, and the team was looking for a young star. That year, the Moose ride was down to two drivers who have done well themselves - Jake Swanson and Dominic Scelzi. Yes, that Dominic Scelzi.
"During the PRI Show in Indy they had a meeting with Gary & Dominic. They had been thinking about getting him some non-winged experience and reached out. We also had Jake Swanson interested. It went down to the last minute and we decided to go with Jake because he had more non-winged experience and was local " Tom Sertich said about the 2014 decision, which would start the most successful run in the history of Moose Racing.
Swanson was with Tom and Laurie until the middle of 2018. He finished fourth in USAC/CRA points in 2015 and 2016. He followed that up with a third-place finish in 2017. Swanson not only scored top five finishes for the team in points, he also broke a six-year winless streak when he won at the now defunct Canyon Speedway in 2016. In 2017 Jake, The Moose Team combined with Matt Day claimed the USAC 360 Championship.
In 2018, Swanson left Moose Racing to pursue open opportunities with Team Arizona Racing that had more national aspirations at the time. They filled the void with the only driver Laurie would approve, and that was Austin Williams. Other drivers called, including both of Austin's brothers, but Tom said Laurie was adamant and plainly said, "I want Austin."
Austin rewarded Laurie with her selection by finishing second in points in 2019, missing the championship by 72 points and third in 2021. He won five races over the two seasons.
But it was after 2021 that Tom and Laurie decided to pack up shop and head back to their new home and Indiana. And with it came a big project that they recognized needed their full attention.
"We had to get this house remodeled and finished. When we get into racing, everything else is second and doesn't happen. We still have a lot to do with the house, but we were ready to get back racing. In a conversation with Dean Mills he kept telling us you can't just disappear like we did. He kept telling us we need to do a farewell tour." This words from Dean played in their minds for months ….
However, this doesn't mean 2025 is necessarily a farewell tour, just a reality that this is an expensive game, and nobody can be sure how long they will play it. But talking to the Sertichs, it is obvious they are junkies about this sport and would love to continue to be a part of it.
"We want to give back to our fans," Tom Sertich said. "We are not saying this is the last year, but we want to give back to our fans. If we can get some backing, you’ll see us at more tracks throughout the MIdwest.
Whether it’s a comeback or farewell tour, one thing for certain, Moose Racing is all in for 2025 and looking to make a mark in the midwest .
Submitted By: Laurie Sertich