MIKE’S WEATHER PAGE HITS THE TRACK

Bayley Currey To Spread Hurricane Awareness

BY JERRY BONKOWSKI

While other people are deathly afraid of hurricanes, Mike Boylan is literally drawn right into them.

The operative word in that sentence is “into,” as the 49-year-old Boylan, a native of the Tampa, Florida, area, takes storm chasing to a whole new level. While others may chase tornadoes, Boylan is one of the most astute and respected hurricane reporters in the world.

Typically behind the wheel of his tricked out pickup truck, full of radios and equipment, Boylan chases hurricanes from Florida to Texas. But that’s not all. Since 2004, he has produced one of the most accurate and well-read online blogs about hurricanes, simply named “Mike’s Weather Page.”

Boylan has become such a respected expert in hurricane prediction and reporting that folks from Fox, CNN, the Weather Channel, Weather.com and other major weather entities follow Boylan’s page religiously because he oftentimes gets information that they don’t. Even federal, state and local first responders follow the site, particularly when they’re in harm’s way as a hurricane approaches. One of Mike’s most prestigious awards was winning the 2021 Governor’s Hurricane Conference Tropical Meteorology Award. This top honor is usually reserved for top officials in Government agencies.

Boylan’s accuracy on the direction hurricanes will go and where they may potentially make landfall is almost legendary. He oftentimes makes somewhat controversial predictions, but more often than not, he winds up being right.

Now, you may wonder what reporting about hurricanes has to do with NASCAR racing. Countless NASCAR officials, team executives, drivers, crew chiefs, PR persons and media regularly follow Boylan for weather information that may impact NASCAR tracks in Daytona, Homestead-Miami, Atlanta, Talladega (where Boylan and his family camp in the infield for the October playoff race every year), Darlington, Charlotte, Richmond and Dover.

“To find out that the big dogs are fans and followers, it’s very humbling,” Boylan said.

Now, comes the next level: Boylan will see his website name and logo emblazoned on the hood of the No. 4 JD Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro, driven by Bayley Currey, in the Feb. 18 Beef, It’s What’s For Dinner 300 Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway.

It’s the first time he has sponsored a race car, but Boylan hopes additional opportunities will further spread the name and hurricanic gospel of Mike’s Weather Page.

The design for the car will emphasize hurricane preparedness and awareness, which is right in Boylan’s sweet spot.

“We’re going to have a meet-and-greet with fans, also talk storm awareness,” Boylan said. “Volusia County is going to give me a bunch of stuff to give away about storms and use this type of sponsorship as a good tool to prepare people. Yeah, a lot of them appreciate what I do. There is gonna be a lot of people happy to see the car.”

He’s become so proficient at knowing where to go and what to do to stay safe, especially when he’s in the eye of a hurricane, that his wife and two daughters don’t worry that much about him.

“My wife’s pretty level headed about it,” Boylan said. “She’s realized I’ll make smart decisions. Friends that are sitting there eating popcorn and watching (him chase a hurricane), they say, ‘I can’t believe you went down that road and it was in the water and we were so scared for you.’ And then I call Julie (his wife), and she’s like, ‘No, I went to bed early.’”

But there’s one other aspect of Boylan’s longtime love affair with racing: Since he was 12 years old, he’s been heavily involved in radio-controlled cars, miniature race cars that have their own culture, race events, eager fan base and give car owners a NASCAR-like feel of a need for speed.

Boylan is one of the top individuals in RC racing, including owning and promoting what is considered the sport’s version of the Daytona 500, the annual Snowbird Nationals, which by design is held two weeks before the real Daytona 500. This year’s Snowbird Nationals were run Jan. 31-Feb. 5.

But instead of needing a 2.5-mile high-banked superspeedway, the Snowbird Nationals were held inside a massive hotel ballroom at the Wyndham Orlando (Florida) Resort, just 50 miles from Daytona.

Boylan has even raced RC cars with a number of big names in NASCAR, most notably Hall of Famer Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards.

“Tony grew up racing RC cars,” Boylan said. “In the offseason, he would come to the Snowbirds to race a couple times. He loves this stuff. He always told everybody that RC was just as hard, if not harder, because you become part of the car.”