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The Flagship | flagshipnews.com | 01.28.16 | C5
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Below: Samuel Quarles, 10, TIDE Swimmer, participates in a 100 yd. butterfly race.
Navy family boy sets two more swimming records
Photo courtesy of Lt. Cmdr. Eric Quarles By Carrie Duffy | TIDE Swimming Public Relations Son of Lt. Cmdr. Eric and Amber Quarles, Samuel, 10, set two new Local Swimming Committe (LSC) Virginia Swimming records last weekend at the Ft. Eustis Aquatic Center in Newport News. // Samuel won and set a mark in the mens 10 and under: 100 yard fly and 100 yard intramural events. He swam a 1:03.64 in the 100 yard fly, breaking a 31 year old record from 1985. He swam a 1:05.65 in the 100 yard intramural, eclipsing a six-year old mark. // Samuel now holds three Short Course Yards Virginia Swimming LSC records and two in Long Course Meters. // TIDE Swim Team is a USA Swimming Silver Medal Club which ranks it as one of the top clubs in the country.
Spartyka Fight League hosts amateur mixed martial arts event
Joe Gibbs celebrates 25 years in NASCAR racing
By MC2 Kevin F. Johnson AIRLANT Public Affairs
Universal Uclick
Courtesy of NASCAR Jimmy Makar, left, Joe Gibbs and Bobby Labonte pose with the 2000 Cup championship trophy.
Joe Gibbs, the highly successful NFL coach who decided to go into NASCAR racing, is celebrating his 25th season as a NASCAR team owner. He’s the reigning championship car owner in the Sprint Cup Series, thanks to Kyle Busch, one of his four Cup drivers. Over the years, Gibbs has amassed 128 Sprint Cup wins and four championships, and 112 victories and one driver championship in the Xfinity Series. Gibbs had steadfastly maintained that wins, in the NFL and in NASCAR, are not the result of the right combination of X’s and O’s or the proper selection of race car parts. Instead, he believes races and football games are won by employing the right people and getting the most performance from them. Few people have had as much influence on Gibbs’ racing success as Jimmy Makar, who now goes by the title of senior vice president of racing operations at JGR, a position he’s held since 2005. In this position, he rarely even touches a race car, focusing instead on big-picture issues and making sure the team has the right people in place to continue building faster race cars. In the beginning, Makar wore many hats. Using the job titles and duties of today’s racing employees, he was crew chief, competition director and shop foreman, along with handing administrative duties, such as payroll. But that wasn’t uncommon back in 1991, when Makar went to work for Gibbs midway through the season and began preparing cars for the team’s debut. It all started for Makar and Gibbs with a meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina. They talked some about racing, but also about life in general, and some football. “It was a really interesting conversation,” Makar said. “We got through and I told my wife, ‘I can work for that guy.’
You could tell from talking to him he was a great people person and had a great focus on life and what was important. That was unique in the sport at that time.” Working out of a 15,000-square-foot rented shop in Charlotte with 15 employees, Makar began building a race team, starting with parts and pieces purchased from Rick Hendrick. A native of Cedar Knolls, New Jersey, Makar first came to NASCAR in 1977 with his father, Jim, brother, Bobby, and a secondhand race car they’d purchased from Roger Penske. With Jody Ridley at the wheel, they finished 14th at Atlanta Motor Speedway, impressing those in attendance that day, including many veterans in the garage. Then, after another driver, Kenny Brightbill, crashed the car at Dover, Jimmy was sent to Charlotte to help repair the car. He worked at the chassis shop with Banjo Matthews, and then helped Robert Gee hang the body. Gee, impressed with Makar’s work, offered him a job, and Makar moved to Charlotte. By 1991, he was working with Penske and was crew chief for Rusty Wallace when he struck his deal with Gibbs. At that time, Gibbs was still a full-time coach, and not the most knowledgeable of team owners. Makar recalls Gibbs’ first trip to the Daytona 500 and how the rookie owner didn’t realize until midway through Speedweeks that there was a chance his car might not make the starting field for the 500. Even though the team won the Daytona 500 on their second try, with Makar’s brother-in-law Dale Jarrett at the wheel, there were times when the future of Gibbs’ team was shaky. “At one point we got in financial difficulty,” Gibbs said. “I kind of put everything underneath Jimmy. I kid him now, telling him, ‘This is a fine mess
By Rick Minter
you got us into.’ He kept us going. He could have just let us go. When I reflect on that, I realize what a miracle it is that we’ve been here this long.” Makar said he, too, had his doubts in the beginning. “There were plenty of times when you wondered,” Makar said. “We had some successes – won the Daytona 500 in our second year. And we had some tough days too, trying to build the organization. When Dale [Jarrett] left and went over to Robert Yates’ team, I wondered, ‘Are we really going to make it here?’” But Makar and Gibbs hired Bobby Labonte to drive the No. 18, and everyone was relieved when the team began winning races on a regular basis. “Right about that period, I felt like we were here to stay,” Makar said. A key factor in the team’s survival was adding a second team. “We saw what Rick Hendrick was doing and what Jack Roush was doing,” Makar said. “We realized we had to go all in and grow or we wouldn’t survive as a single-car team.” Now Gibbs has four Cup teams, all of which made the Chase for the Sprint Cup in 2015. And Jimmy Makar is still there, helping steer an organization that now has approximately 550 employees. One of his main jobs is hiring the best engineers and innovators. “My thought process is I’ve got to hire people smarter than me and let them run with it,” Makar said. Makar still travels to about 25 races a year, and like many a former crew chief, he still catches himself thinking about how he’d handle things if he was still running a team. “I find myself second-guessing or preguessing crew chiefs’ decisions on race strategy and [chassis] setups,” Makar said. “But it’s kind of passed me by.”
Fans of mixed martial arts (MMA) can come out to support local fighters and Spartyka Nation on Jan. 29 at the Ted Constant Convocation Center in Norfolk, for Spartyka Fight League XXII. The fight will feature up to 20 bouts, including the 155-pound title between Damon Minor and Andres Encinales, both active-duty service members. The event, part of Spartyka Nation’s Friday Night Fights, supports local MMA fighters while raising awareness and support for those who have served in the armed forces, both past and present. “We’re going to do a tribute for the 12 Marines that were killed in the helicopter crash off the coast and we’re also hosting 80 wounded warriors at the event,” Founder and Owner of Spartyka Nation Chief Petty Officer Jimi Partyka said. “There’s a lot that’s going on, and it’s going to be a fun time.” Tickets for the event can be purchased at www. ynottix.com. Doors open at 6 p.m. with a 7 p.m. start time. Spartyka Nation also hosts warrior challenge runs, softball and basketball tournaments, and the Spartyka Wounded Warrior 5K, which now hosts events across the country, all with the common goal of raising awareness and support for those who have served. Partyka is active-duty Navy, has gone on five deployments, worked with the Navy’s Mobile Training Team and with the Maritime Civil Affairs and Secutiry Training Command providing military to military training in countries all over the world. For more information on Spartyka Nation and its events, visit www.spartykanation.com.
Flagship photo Spartyka Fight League will host its 22nd event, SFL XXII: Friday Night Fights, an amateur mixed martial arts event, on Jan. 29, 2016, at the Ted Constant Center in Norfolk.