BRAD VIRGA

21 May

Brad Virga uses the Rex Hutchison Sprint Racing Engines in his Sprint programs and has obviously had incredible success. Whether its his Funny Car or Sprint Car His Success is Rex Hutchison Racing Engines concern, Its job one.
Congratulations to Brad and the remarkable achievement by the team.

BRAD VIRGA

NOT JUST A RACER

Today when we hear the name Virga, we think of the racer who straps up in a sprint car, suites up for a supermodified or lead foots a funny car. But who is he really?

Where does a person get the drive to strive an obtain lofty accomplishments?

Where does a person get the drive to compete?

Where does a person get the burning desire to win? … And why does this philosophy permeate their entire personality?

Winning does not come easily nor should it.

Brad Verga, a man with a passion.

Brad Virga had always wanted to succeed in all his endeavors. As a young boy growing up he was influenced by many things. He had heroes and mentors but he also had desire. Throughout history that one thing has driven many men, desire.

Don Virga and Sal Lee Virga were a typical all American family living in Fair Oaks California. Don grew up with the ambition to become a professional baseball player and would play in the minor leagues for the Boston Red Sox. One day he met high school sweetheart Sal Lee Jones. was married and they settled in the quaint little area of Sacramento called Fair Oaks. It was a lovely area with upscale homes. Don and Sal Lee would decide to start their family in this comfortable setting of leafy neighborhoods.

They had three children Mike, who was the firstborn and the love of children brought Brad and the youngest Dawn. Mike VIrga would excel in sports and Dawn was, of course, a popular cheerleader. Mike was the eldest being a senior in high school as a great athlete and brother Brad would be a freshman. Brad played Pop Warner football and little league. Dawn a beautiful and gregarious young lady who was outgoing and would enjoy cheerleading. A tight nit family all the Virga children had many friends and were ambitious.

The Virga children were instilled with the work ethics by both parents. They saw their father up early who was now supporting his family working at a local bread company. Mom working hard raising the children and making a warm and positive home for the family.

Brad as his brother and sister would look for work and find odd jobs in the summer. Brad would work at a local market bagging groceries and clerking eventually. This little store will be a place he will meet new people and eventually develop long term friends that will evolve into something bigger in his life.

Brad had many small jobs but like most young boys he wanted to work at the local auto supply. He also worked at the local feed store and remembers enjoying driving the forklifts moving pallets of food for the somewhat rural area that was frequented by the local farmers.

Brad would meet a friend who was older that will influence his decisions of life named Rich Gillespie. Rich had hotrods and as Brad recalls one of the happiest guys he knew. This was to have an impact on him setting his ideas of how he wanted to live his life.

Rich would show up to work in his souped-up Duster which was a local hotrod most in the area knew. One day Brad saw him pull a vacuum out of the back of his car and ask him what was that for. Rich told Brad he had a job cleaning the local area businesses and that seemed like a cool way to earn some money. Rich drove a hotrod and then worked in the evening. He was a jovial and fun guy who Brad wanted to be like.

Rich was self-employed and that also fascinated Brad. Rich took a liking to Brad and soon both were working together in his small business. Being an entrepreneur will become a quintessential piece to the puzzle of life for Brad. Rich seemed to call his work hours and was happy. This will be the foundation Brad Verga will want to emulate, happy, hot-rodding and working as an entrepreneur.

The Bansemer’s.

Jim Bansemer was a high school friend and his father Ken Bansemer was a local home builder. Jim and Brad will become very close friends and even staying at the Bansemer home over several nights a week at a time. Brad’s mother thought her son had moved in there and the Bansemer family would develop a fond relationship with this hard-working young man. As it will turn out this will be an important relationship that will propel the young Brad Verga to fulfill his dreams. Jim and Brad would become local icons cruising the new shopping mall that was a popular cruise place for the kids. Brad would soon start working for Ken, Jim’s father cleaning the building sites. This will play a major role in the foundation of Brad.

One day Brad ask the home builder who cleans his building where the sales office was as well as other businesses that rent space from Ken Bansemer. Brad would go to work in the evenings cleaning the building and from his early work ethic would perform to a high level because of his personal pride. The Bansemer family knew Brad, knew his work ethic and that he was extremely trustworthy another important trait given all the Verga children by both parents. Work hard, be kind, above all be the most responsible and trusted employee you can be.

These codified elements that had been ingrained by his father and mother will be the hallmark for his life long success.

While working at the Bansemer complex he met the home builders secretary Barbara who took a liking to him and would teach Brad about how to bid jobs, even writing some of his first proposals for the work. This will also be a pivotal point in the evolution of young Brad’s early business career. Brad will now toss his vacuum in the back of his car emulating his pal Rich in what now seems apropos.

At this time Brad will meet a young beautiful and ambitious young lady named Sandy Lehto. He met her while cleaning an office she worked as a property manager. Sandy and Brad started dating and someday will be linked together in marriage and start a family. However, this young entrepreneur will also become a race car driver racing on the fastest quarter-mile dirt track in America, West Capital Speedway in Sacramento California.

Brad also met other businessmen being exposed to potentially more customers for his services. He would soon decide this is where he would stake his fortune and formed at the time a small company he called, ‘Clean Care Janitorial’. It was a critical time and a faithful decision that will become one of the largest and most trusted businesses in the local area.

Because of his early relationship with respected home builder Ken Bansemer, he found other builders to work for while being diligent and eager to perform his services to the highest levels of professional workmanship. This was imparted by his parents and ingrained in all the children. Honesty, integrity and a powerful work ethic that still remains with him today some 40 years later.

Bill Mazza will have a small subdivision of twenty-four homes and at 28 Brad was wanting to settle into his first home and propose to Bill that he clean the home sites for 23 of these homes. Brad then asked if he could buy one of Bill’s new homes in his project

A racing family.

Brad had been hot-rodding and racing race cars and decided on the corner lot so he could get his race cars into the side yard. Brad was now a proud homeowner.

Brad was also a racer and Sandy’s father was a local legend racing midgets and was known as ‘Wild Bill Leto’. Wild Bill was an inspiration to Brad. Brad laments, “That guy could drive the wheels off that little racer” and that’s what he wanted to do as well.

Brad will strap up and would go headlong into the racing deciding to race SuperMofifieds on the legendary track known throughout the country as West Capital Speedway. Sacramento had a long affair with racing starting in 1906 when the first dirt race in America happened at the California State Fairgrounds on the mile horse racing track. The legendary Barney Oldfield came from the midwest to take on the best as he was known for racing anything even planes and trains. He finished 4th in that race and of course, the rest is history.

Brad was competing in the biggest show in the country where 120-150 cars showed up for a race facilitating only twenty cars for the show. West Capital Speedway was known as the ‘Action Track’ for good reason. This was an extremely dangerous time for racing as drivers were considered expendable. Many men were permanently injured and killed at this track and throughout the country. There were few safety inspections, safety fuel cells or even safety fire suites. Truly a harrowing and certainly a life-threatening proposition that took many lives. As we look back it was an era of carnage. Brad was undaunted by that and strap in to see how he would stack up against the best short track racers in the country vying to make the twenty car show. These we very serious times and making the show at Capital Speedway would propel you to even running Indianapolis as some who did, like the Vuckovich’s, Parnelli Jones, Freddy Agabasham and others who set foot on the highly dangerous track. It was a career builder for those who were lucky enough to have survived.

Brad raced against many legends as he made the show regularly He was racing on the very track the like the late Jimmy Gordan who perished in one of the most spectacular fireballs crashes ever seen on the Sacramento mile. Jimmy was slated to drive the Indianapolis 500 for JC Agajanian. Brad strapped up with many legends like Gary Paterson, Jimmy Boyd, and the Anderson brothers among others.

Brad had to be tough and fearless if he wanted to be the best and to do that he needed to risk his life weekly to prove to himself and his contemporaries he was worthy to be on this hallowed track with them.

Brad was a big statuesque man and was what he had to be, a tough hard-nosed racer taking nothing from anyone on the track, not even the legendary late Gary Paterson. Brad was a real racer, a front-row Joe as known back then and handed the moniker ‘Bad Brad Virga’.

Bad Brad Virga would race SuperModifieds with the best and as sprint cars became the quickest way around the track he bought the famous 1c race car from Jack Gordon, father of the late Jimmy Gordon.

At this time racers are being killed at an alarming rate and in 1964 Congress threatened to stop all forms of racing. It was only then and quite reluctantly the drivers and owners would even consider anything to do regarding safety. This was considered being fearful if you even mentioned safety it would be a career-ending thought if voiced. So even after the Congress demanded some form of safety for these drivers it was a meek effort on the part of car owners and believe it or not even these tough and fearless drivers. Racing SuperModifieds and later sprint cars were and still is considered the most dangerous sport allowable by law in this country.

Bad Brad Virga achieve much success in this harrowing sport as his wife’s father had. Poor Sandy lived through many nights watching her father, Wild Bill Leto and now her husband Bad Brag Virga risk their very existence for a pittance when compare to the overall risk.

Brad had married and honeymooned in stunning Hawaii. He had now been exposed to other pleasures in life and that would remain in his mind, his lovely wife and his new family. Fortunately, Bad Brad was a survivor albeit banged up pretty well several times.

Bad Brad Virga would soften his outlook on the racing as to where he wanted to end up in life. Many of his friends were severely injured and some killed. Bad Brad Virga had a burgeoning family and the thought of him being killed weighed heavy on his decision to hang it up. For the sake of his family, Bad Brad Virga would decide his family was more important. Although he would periodically strap up in those death traps his young family would touch his heart and eventually he will fully retire from this life-threating job he once held so dearly. Dearly enough to risk his very existence.

Brad Virga the businessman.

Brad started as a businessman when he was very young at the local market where he met people who would be life long associates. From there he would have opportunities to work for car dealers and grew his business into a thriving ever-expanding concern. As he had before, diligently working even after a full night of racing. This would pay off with a growing trust from other businesses using his services. Car dealers like Gary Ormsby who also was a racer hired him which led to others seeking his work. He was trusted with the keys and respected enough to land some of the biggest opportunities at the local auto mall.

Now Clean Care Janitorial has 35 employees but that’s not to say he doesn’t work. Anyone who has a business will tell you that you never really stop working. Today Brad enjoys his family and is afforded the comforts his many years of work has allowed him.

Brad and wife Sandy take time to enjoy life now. His son is starting to run the business but dad is still there every day making sure it’s all running smoothly.

Like a renaissance man, he continues to evolve with new interests as in the family’s growing real estate enterprises. The future is paced by the same ethics Don and Sal Lee instilled with all their children. It’s no surprise these newest ventures are built methodically as his first.

Brad will continue to write new chapters in his life with family and business, after all, he is a renaissance man. A man who would fit in 500 years ago as he does today.