John Dragonetti-- What started off as a personal journey to learn the basics of graphic design in 2008, has turned into a now flourishing graphic design business; putting out at least 3 different unique products per day. Saying graphic design is hard, is a massive understatement. Even the most experienced of designers have trouble time-to-time with even the simplest of projects. In the end though, we all do it for fun. Throughout the entirety of this piece, we will take you through the history of SMRD, day-to-day operations of the business, as well as the direction the business may be headed toward in the future.

As stated before, John Dragonetti started SmokeRacing Designs in mid 2008 with the simple intentions of making cars and other designs for personal use only. In the beginning, the designs were rough, and honestly rather ugly. Yes, time was put in, but the knowledge and skill wasn't yet developed. To skip the months of poor designing and continuance of learning, the larger amount of growth began to occur in the first couple months of 2009.

With the intentions of creating league cars for a now faded league, the cars that were driven were an early showcase for others as to what potential there was for others.

Shortly, people began to ask if cars could be made for them. Those basic requests, while simple, began to advance in terms of techniques and processes used; one of these techniques being the use of base scheme templates.

This practice gained much steam late into 2009 and early 2012 when Dragonetti, the lead designer, co-created a venture now known as OutlawGamerZ. Although the venture didn’t last long, it set the pace for the current framework that SMRD is based upon now. It expanded the number of requests being sent in, and challenged Dragonetti to search for others not only to help fulfill the requests, but almost automate the process by which products were being produced.

Through this process now, along with the slightly expanded staff, requests can be taken and finished in a greatly shorter amount of time. In time the since, the business has expanded to the point where even one request, no matter what it is, can normally be completed and distributed in an hour or less.

Looking into the future, there is room, and plans in fact, for more expansion. Through collaboration between Dragonetti, and business/design partner Wes Hicks, the chances are great that the number of products available will be immensely

expanded.

This wouldn’t only include the design of cars, cards, signatures, etc., but

would now include web development. Though the SMRD name has become more noticeable than before, the time will change when this becomes finalized. Through deliberation, the name will change to Paper Born Ideas.

“We just want to have fun with it. We will take it seriously, yes, but we want to do this mainly to have fun.”

Why, you may ask? The answer is simple. All creations begin on paper or in our case a napkin, as some rough drawing, and later develops into the digital product we all know.

In the end though, we expect success, but we do this for the simplicity of having fun.

Dragonetti in an interview was quoted as saying, “We just want to have fun with it. We will take it seriously, yes, but we want to do this mainly to have fun.”

This will not at all alter the way things happen at SMRD. If anything, it will speed up the process in which requests are taken, created, and completed.

A lot goes into creating one of the many products SMRD has to offer. Though products are completed much quicker than ever before, the demand has also increased. Let’s take a brief look at what goes on behind the scenes.

As said before, everything starts out as a drawing on a piece of paper. One recent example is a special scheme designed for Jeff Baki Jr. Seen above is the drawing that yielded the final product below.

The time it takes to produce a product such as this depends on the level of customization the customer wants. In the case of this project, the time it took from conceptual drawing to final product was nearly two hours. Previously, it would’ve taken around five or so hours,

but through years of fine tuning; the time it takes has gone dramatically down.

The future is bright for SMRD, and things will only get

better as time moves on. With Paper Born Ideas on the horizon,

everyone can look forward to having the level of products become better than before, the time of completion of products become even faster than it is now, as well as the amount of products that are available will expand.

My Take – With Eric MickeDriver Restrictions

Driver restrictions are a tricky thing because we are on the razor’s edge of a NASCAR copycat and an original league. If we were fully committed to being like NASCAR we wouldn’t be restricting anyone from running in any series. However what we must remember is that the OCRL has always been about the community of team owners and drivers who want equality and competition. The iRating limits on each division is perfectly set in my opinion. But the OCRL has always tried to keep competition level and when a guy comes in like Casey Malone did last season and blows the field away, OCRL administrators cannot ignore it. The OCRL is not a Pro-caliber league, and it is actually an Amateur league. What’s important for the league, regardless of iRating caps is that the OCRL administration keeps a balanced level of competition throughout all of its divisions. So don’t be surprised if we have more issues next season trying to keep competition balanced and showing the door to those who impact the league negatively.

Points System

Next season the OCRL is

changing from a 43-1 points system to a 23-1 system with a 30-car maximum field. This is a step in the right direction because now our points system is based on our unique situation and not stolen from another source and just applied to ours. If we can manage a consistent field whether it’s 18, 20, 25, or 30 cars in each race the system will work just fine, and hopefully that’s what we can get. There are bound to be issues that arise but overall the change in points system, the bonus points, and the addition of drop weeks should make for a closer and more entertaining story in each division all season long.

Team Format

In a recent edition of the OCRL Race Report the guys talked about the OCRL’s decision

to allow teams a 5th entry for select races and also limiting each team to utilizing the same numbers in every division as opposed to teams/drivers being able to change from series to series. Sponsorships were also discussed at great length about how insane and out of hand the situation has gotten. Lastly a hot topic of late regarding team rules is the rule stating that a driver for one team cannot own and operate a competing team. So let’s start

from the top. The 5th entry for

select races is probably a non-story and a harmless move and if anything all team owners will praise that decision rather than fight it because it opens up some options throughout the season for tryouts and developments of new equipment and new drivers. The next issue is the limiting of the numbers teams can utilize. To be honest I’m not a fan of this move and I don’t think it’s necessary. I agree with the idea that once the season starts teams should not be allowed to change their numbers for the entirety of the season, and each team in the off season has first rights to the numbers used in the previous season. As far as numbers changing from series to series and whether it’s confusing or not, I don’t think it’s anything that couldn’t be handled with a little more attention paid by OCRL administrators and team owners alike. I say open up that rule and allow drivers and team the freedom to have different combinations of car numbers. Sponsorships are indeed insane. It is absolutely absurd that any team hog a ton of big name popular sponsors. When I first came into the OCRL you were limited to 2 or 3 sponsors per car maximum to use as primary sponsors that could not be used by any other driver or team. Back then I think it worked fairly well and a return to some sort of system like that could be called for. I personally think Cup

and Grand National teams should be limited to 3 primary sponsors per car (only counting 4) which no other team can use (unless otherwise agreed upon) and 2 associate sponsors per car that can be used as special one race

sponsors, or sponsors for the 5th entry which are also exclusive to that single team. Teams would have to use discretion and common sense to spread their sponsors across different cars and different series. There are surely enough companies out there that a system like this could work just fine. As for the final issue of drivers owning competing teams, I think this is a terrible rule. The way it’s been explained to me has made no sense for its existence. We should be a league of free enterprise and let drivers develop their own teams when they branch out while they still have a connection to a fully developed team that can help them. I honestly hope this rule is thrown out ASAP so people like myself and anyone else who has desires to eventually branch out on their own can do so in a way that presents more options for improvement.

Scheduling

The last topic for “My Take” discussion is the OCRL’s schedule. It’s always been pretty

cluttered and intense mostly utilizing more than half the days of the week for official events and then the rest for private team practices and test sessions. About mid-way through 2012b a schedule was announced that saw a more lenient and relaxed version of what we now know will happen for 2013a. The first draft of the schedule had the Grand National Series and Truck Series alternating on Thursdays (giving each series plenty of off weeks for exclusive teams/drivers to relax, as well as making it easier for teams/drivers to compete in all 3 top divisions). Meanwhile on Tuesdays the Modifieds would race on select Tuesdays throughout the season but also have plenty of off weeks which again gave a more relaxed week to the teams and drivers who compete in the majority of events. Then the OCRL admin panel made some changes which saw less off weeks between Modified races, more Truck races on Tuesdays as opposed to just 2 or 3 throughout a 6 month season, and again a heavier work load, but still less than the 2012b season. Then as more and more people saw the schedule and discussed it, it was decided by the OCRL admin panel to be “too confusing” and we are now back to the 4 official OCRL race days per week with teams and drivers being forced to take the other 3 days to

prep. I’m sure everything will work out just fine, but when the league is relying on guys running more than one series full time to keep car counts up it’d be smart to make it less intense and more doable. Probably the worst part of the scheduling changes is that we’ve lost a road course race. The Truck series was set to head to Lime Rock Park but due to the changes the race was dropped. Road racing is an essential part of motorsports and a great interruption to the constant left turns on the ovals. Most of the races take place on similar 1.5 mile ovals, and we have gone up to now 4 plate races where the driver doesn’t get to do anything for himself. The decision to take the cup cars to Iowa was great but the originality needs to continue. By 2013b I think the Cup series should be racing on at least 4 road courses (The Glen, Sonoma, Road America and Montreal if released). The Nationwide cars however are probably the most fun and work the best of the stock cars on road courses. I would like to see this series be a little more different than the Cup series and include races at Road Atlanta, Mid-Ohio and Mosport with races at Montreal, Road America and the Glen. The Truck series needs to have 2 things happen. Thing 1, eventually include events at the Glen, Sonoma, Road America, and Lime Rock, or at least 1 or 2

of them. Thing 2, focus on flat tracks and short tracks. Make it its own series and bring it back to its roots with more short tracks. I’m not calling for an abrupt overhaul in one off season, but this is certainly something that could be rolled out by adding races season after season.

Who Could be Next?

Eric Micke- Although Scott Ickes and King Crossover Motorsports

could easily go out and win a 2nd consecutive championship, let’s assume a new driver will rise to the occasion. As much as I believe as a driver for JRM I have a great chance, as author I am going to take myself out of this discussion to focus on the guys we really need to look out for. First up is the 2012b champion of the truck series now with his own name as the title sponsor.

Chris Munger is a definite threat for the 2013a Sprint Cup championship. He’s backed by Thomas Morris and Pinnacle Racing who came on extremely strong from the middle of last season and all the way through to

the end. Munger who finished 4th in the standings last season is easy on his equipment and very consistent and with a full season under his belt I think he knows what he has to do in order to take his game to the next level. However to get to the Cup championship he’s going to have to go through his teammate and team owner Thomas Morris.

Morris finished 3rd in the standings and had a very consistent season while proving that when conditions are tough, he’s even tougher when he took

the win at the Coca-Cola 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He led his team on a surge to prominence in the OCRL and he is extremely capable of taking home the championship next season.

Jeff Baki Jr finished 2nd to Scott Ickes in the standings last season, and has never finished

worse than 2nd in the championship in his Sprint Cup career. Baki is a 3 time champion, and while he felt like he struggled for most of last season, he was able to make Ickes worry. There’s no doubt when everything is on the line, Baki brings his game to a first class level and if he can keep his JRM team improving and on an even playing field with the competition, he’ll likely be in contention when we get to Homestead.

Now that I’ve run through the list there’s still one question to be answered, who is going to be the 2013a OCRL Sprint Cup champion? The answer, in my opinion, comes from an unlikely team but has proven he’s got the experience, speed and talent to get the job done.

For O’Toole Motorsports, Ryan Rudy will become the 2013a OCRL Sprint Cup champion. Rudy came to the OCRL late last season but right off the bat was a factor for wins. He closed out the

season by winning the final 2 races and I don’t doubt for a minute that if he runs the full season Rudy will be the next OCRL champion.

New Rules Plague 2013, But for the Better?

Jeff Baki Jr. -Many drivers can recall last season's opening races in Daytona when the lane change rule was born. A lot of guys were affected by it throughout the season, but we can all admit that it's a rule that the league truly needs in place. For 2013, the OCRL Officials brought in, essentially, an overhaul of what once was the OCRL Rulebook, bringing it to a whole new era.

Perhaps the biggest change in the rulebook is the points structure. For several seasons now, we've used the 43:1 ratio, and in NASCAR, that works. However, this isn't NASCAR, and we surely don't get 43 drivers. OCRL capped the fields at 30, and allowed drivers to race in any series they wish for points, so long as their iRating didn't not exceed the maximum. The current points structure, 23:1, gives drivers who make every race the opportunity to make the most of their situation, and also hopes to provide for cleaner racing. Drivers who finish outside of the top 23 will be given just one point. A new feature in the points structure is bonus points for the front row starts, as well as bonus points for keeping your car clean,

something that could pay huge dividends when it's time to compete for the championship.

Drop weeks are something that the OCRL has been hesitant to bring in to the league, but they finally bit the bullet this season, allowing two drop races in the AMSOIL Xtreme Performance Series, and one race each in the CM Landscaping Truck Series and the Paint Helper All-American Series. The debate could go two ways here: It's not fair if the champion had fewer starts that other people... but on the other hand, we're not required to race, this isn't our job, and things outside of the racing league can and will occur for everyone at some point. Drop weeks give drivers the opportunity to have a mulligan or two, and maybe it will keep the championship battle tight as well.

Lastly, perhaps one of the most controversial rules the league has come by is iRating caps. For 2013, the OCRL took off the minimums for each series, and have warned drivers that if they prove they are unfit to driver a particular series, they will be removed from it. The caps have fluctuated a little bit, but alongside the caps is rule 2.1.1 and 2.1.5. These two rules pretty much state that if a driver is stinking up the show, they can be removed from the series, and

that's where the controversy starts. Is it right to remove a driver who consistently wins week in and week out? I guess if you're that driver it's unfair, but what about everyone else? Personally, it would get boring showing up and racing for second every week, and the admins won't appreciate it much either if car counts begin to drop.

Going into this new season, the competition seems to be pretty stiff, with many new contenders being thrown into mix. New rules or not, this season hopes to top last season, and if you ask me, that's going to be a tall order in itself, but it's definitely something that this league and its members are capable of doing. Good luck everyone, and don't forget to read the rulebook.

New Sponsorship

Brandon Wilkinson- As the 2012B off season comes to a close, there have been many team managers, and owners very busy this off-season. That goes for the league administrators as well. The league owners and admins have been busy at work this off-season working on sponsorship going into 2013 as well as other teams have. The owners and admins have done a job well done this off-season by scoring sponsorships for 3 of our 4 divisions of racing here at the OCRL. What was the “All American Series” is now sponsored by ‘Paint Helper’ and the series will now be known as the “Paint Helper All American Series.”

The truck season showed great racing last year and your champion Chris Munger will be involved with sponsoring The OCRL Truck series in 2013. The truck series is now known as the “C.M. Landscaping Truck Series.” Also, the nationwide series which brought a great points battle in 2012B by Alex Boffoli and Patrick O’Toole for the second position, takes on new sponsorship as well. The Nationwide series in 2013 will now be known as the “AmsOil Extreme Performance Series” So AmsOil on board for that series as

well.

As the 2012B off season comes to a close, still, a lot of work is being made for teams as well. We met with teams such as NSE racing, O’Toole Motorsports, Bombshell E3 Motorsports and Jr. Motorsports to talk about their new sponsorships going into 2013.

When talking to Robert Hill, we asked about their new sponsors going into 2013A season. When asked what sponsorship he is most fond and excited to have on board he said; “For the 2013a Season we have renewed our sponsorship agreement with Thrustmaster, we worked with them last season in the cup series and had them on board Mike Husby's #25 car in the RMP Cup Series and this season we will have them on all of our cars in all series in a bunch of races.”

After the testing at Daytona which was held by Scott Ickes we found Patrick O’Toole in the garage area; when checking out his cars, it was found that he did not have his sponsors on the car, so I caught up and asked him about his sponsor deals here in the 2013a season, and he had to say that; “well, for the 2013a season, we went to a paint shop a few days ago and they got my car painted red and yellow, which can only mean we have renewed our

sponsorship with Kellogg’s for the 44 and any other car that will be on board with me has the availability of that sponsor. We look forward to a great season with Kelloggs!”

After speaking with those two I found Brandon Wilkinson walking around the Bombshell E3 haulers where there he was currently taking tire pressures for the machine drove by Cody McCorkle that evening. Wilkinson caught my eye and came over, there was one question we all had for him, and that was, “What’s going on here with Bombshell E3 Motorsports in 2013a?”

When asked that, Wilkinson responded, “Well, you see, Andrew and I are excited for this season for many reasons, we have gotten a real sponsorship deal with Mr. Rooter to sponsor MY modified, which will be the 30, we also have many other sponsors on board such as Miller Lite for my truck, Cody has Speed Energy and Applebee’s on board with him as well, we look forward to spending a good season and representing these companies out on the track every single week on the track.” Wilkinson obviously excited to be back and racing in 2013a.

There was one more man I was on the search for, and that was the big man. I went over to the Jr. Motorsports hauler, looking

for Jeff Baki Jr. I find Jake Finch walking around with his sprained ankle, out of action for this test, then coming out of the changing room with water bottle in hand came Jeff Baki Jr. He was happy about the results of his testing. As I came up to him, he smiled; he knew what was coming so I just asked, “What’s on board for Jr. Motorsports in 2013a sponsorship wise?”

He replied; “For the Cup Series, I'm proud to say all four cars are fully funded. We have GoDaddy.com and DHL behind Eric Micke and his #5 team this season. For 2013, I'm back in my famous #88, which means Jake Finch returns back to his #8 car. His car is fully funded by Advocare, and has additional support from Pepsi Co. and CM Landscaping, which will appear on the car in five races this season. I'd like to welcome our new driver, Larry Scott Jr., to the team. He and Rheem have had a strong partnership as he's come up through the ranks, and they have backed his Sprint Cup Series efforts 100% this season. Our Nationwide Series isn't as solidified as we'd like it to be as we approach the season, but I can say that Pepsi Co. and my other Cup sponsors have stepped up and allowed me to defend the Nationwide Series Championship and run full-time.”

This OCRL off season is coming to an end but as you can see it is coming into 2013a in a big way. Teams are ready, but on

November 11th, will Daytona be ready for the stars and cars of TheOCRL???

Debunking the Rumors

--The OCRL reporters finally caught up with Eric Micke during what's supposed to be the off season to get the latest about the rumors linking him and Bombshell E3 Motorsports and the merger talks that have gone on.

"We ended the race at Homestead, and that ended our season. The next day we stuck around and ran the CORT opener with great success and then we got to work on solidifying plans for 2013a. The deal with BE3M is that the team is made up of what used to be my own team and what used to be my brother Andrew's own team. We merged a while back and the team is still functioning with mostly Andrew at the helm. I wasn't happy with the choices that were made for the team throughout the season so I stepped into the offices and started trying to make things happen, because if my name is going to be a part of something, it damn sure better be something worth talking about. We spoke to Brandon Wilkinson of NextGen Motorsports about a merger to improve and strengthen the team. Through those talks we found that Patrick O'Toole and O'Toole Motorsports were willing to negotiate a merger also. The plan was to bring these teams and people together to create a solid an competitive team for the 2013a season. A lot of these talks were happening in the last 3 weeks of the season and I ended up telling

Andrew and Brandon that it'd have to wait until the season was over because I needed to focus on my efforts and duty at JRM. By the time the season was over, Patrick had pulled out of the negotiations and the decision was made to make the deal with Brandon and NextGen. Since that time I have been distant from the specifics and only vaguely know for sure what is happening with the team. But I have definitely made it known to the guys running the show that performance needs to be better, cars need to be kept in one piece, and they need to work together to find something or someone who can really impact the team in a positive manner."

Micke was then asked about the recent controversy about his involvement at all with BE3M and how it is affected by the OCRL's rulebook.

"The situation hasn't changed since the 2012a season, so I don't know what exactly the problem is. I understand we have a rule in place prohibiting drivers owning competing teams but my situation has been made clear, and it's a stupid rule if I do say so myself, and the reasons for it are pretty unnecessary as well. The fact is I was approached by Jeff (Baki Jr, JRM team owner) and almost given an ultimatum of dropping any involvement with the team and racing for him, or having to leave JRM. This was all because there were apparently some complaints from other owners or drivers out there. These people never came to me, and to

my knowledge never went to any other BE3M personnel to find out what the situation was. Clearly any complaint or comment about the situation was ill-informed and quite unnecessary. That all being said, my commitments are with JRM and the #5 team and the goal is to bring home race wins and championships for that team. Anyone willing to question that is doing so on the basis of nothing."

This has been a busy off season for Micke as he's competed in the iRacing Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta and also competing in the CORT Trading Paints Indycar Championship with 2 wins, a 2nd place and the points lead heading into the Indianapolis 250, on 11/5/2012.