Rich was born in Hammond, Indiana on January 4th, 1965. He
is the oldest of 3 sons born to his proud parents, Pat &
Gary Rish. He grew up in Lowell, Indiana. At the age of 12 he
got his first real job when he was hired by the local John Deere
dealer. He started out sweeping floors and running errands.
Soon he was working on the tractors and combines learning his
mechanical skills. As he progressed in the dealership he became
the shop foreman.At a pretty young age he developed an interest
in motor bikes and soon after that his interest changed to cars.
In fact, he tells that he bought and sold his first car at the
age of 14. This would become the number of his motor bike as
he raced around the area.
Rich attended and graduated from Lowell Sr. High. He was the
President of the Vocational Auto Club his senior year while participating
in the school's daily Vocational Auto Program. In the Spring
of '83 he and other students from all around Indiana met at the
Indiana State University in Terre Haute for a Trouble Shooting
Contest. Rich made his school proud by winning first place in
the contest. He received a large trophy for being the winner
that is still on display at the school.
A mutual friend introduced Rich to Diva, the gal that would
become his wife. They will celebrate their 25th anniversary on
July 29 of this 2009 year. Their marriage has produced three
children, starting with a daughter Carol Ann who was recently
married to Chuck Ripple. After Carol Ann, they were blessed with
two boys, Joe and Ben. Rich, Diva and the two boys reside in
the Rural Route area of Demotte. Rich works as an Automotive
Diagnostic Technician at Heinold & Feller Tire Store in Valparaiso
while Diva operates their family business, RaceStar Publications.com.
Back in 1982,Rich was looking for some auto parts and when
he saw an ad in the paper for what he was looking for he ended
up at the Kingma Farm where he met Mike who was also a classmate
in school. While they made their deal on the parts Rich became
more interested in the fact that Mike had a Street Stock that
he was racing at some local dirt tracks. Rich was impressed with
Mike's racing, but didn't know anything about stock cars. Rich
actually started his racing career by going drag racing. He built
a 1971 Camaro from the ground up and headded to the dragstrip.
His desire for drag racing didn’t last long and in 1987
he sold the car but kept the engine and built his first street
stock.
Since his race bike had been #14, he liked his chosen number
but wanted something different. He decided to put a 0 in front
of the 14 and he has raced this number throughout his car racing
career. He had some free paint given to him so the first race
car he had was painted black and blue. His first street stock
only lasted about half a season and he had it tore up so he built
his second car. His chosen paint scheme became yellow and white
and every car since the second one has been painted with these
colors. He raced at Crown Point and it was strictly a learning
situation.
In the middle of 1989 Rich bought a Hobby Stock chassis from
another buddy, Mike Gerner. He raced this division for the next
few years developing his driving skills. In 1990 he finished
12th in the points standing and followed that up with a 4th place
finish in 1991.
Then in 1992 he put together a championship year at Crown Point.
His statistics for the year shows 5 fast times, 6 trophy dash,
3 heat race and 2 feature wins. He accumulated more points than
any other division champion for the year and only had three race
nights where he didn’t win at least one stat. During his
racing career he has won the ‘Sportsmanship’ and ‘Best
Appearing Car’ awards several times.
In 1993 Rich wanted to move up to the Late Model division.
He made a deal with Dale Sorrels to buy his Hobby Stock and Dale
also bought a Late Model. At the time Dale was the co-owner of
Southlake Speedway in Crown Point and Rich raced both cars each
night. Rich
states that he won a lot of races in the Hobby Stock but struggled
in the Late Model. During the year Dale decided that Late Model
racing was too expensive so he sold the car. Rich quit driving
and went back to helping his friend Mike Kingma with his racing
through the ’95 season. During the winter Mike bought a
new Late Model so Rich bought his old one. He also raced other
cars for different owners in 1996. He had a lot of top five finishes
in his Late Model but never won an A Main Feature.
In 1997 Rich was involved in a serious racing accident at
Crown Point and he got his arm broke. He continued to race with
the cast on his arm and actually made the show in two Summer
National Late Model races with the cast on. In all he went to
five of these races and made the show all five times during the
year. He also did some flagging and some tech work for the Crown
Point track during his rehab period.
Diva has been very supportive of Rich’s racing over the
years. She was at the track every night since she served as a
scorer for eleven years. In 1997 Rich and Diva decided to start
RaceStar Publications. This business was originally a small newspaper
that they sold at local tracks. Since they had to pay out for
the printing and with rainouts hurting their profits, no one
wanting to buy week or two week old racing news they had to change
their way of doing business. Fortunately computers and the internet
were becoming very popular. They went online with www.racestarpublications.com
and they have had a fast growing racing website for the past
twelve years. On their website you will find race results from
many Midwestern tracks, track websites, classified ads, custom
novelties, T-shirts and plaques, driver’s stories, team
websites, racing trivia and much more.
For their business, Rich built a street legal Modified that
he took to various tracks as a pace car. He would also put it
on display for the race fans
to look at and ask questions about. The building of this car
was a long and technical job but Rich was really proud of his
finished project. A couple years ago the Modified was sold to
a guy in Texas who uses it for his business. Another highlight
for their business was getting to cover the Brickyard 400 at
Indy in 2000.
By
1998, Dale Sorrels had bought Shadyhill Speedway in Medaryville,
Indiana and he hired RaceStar for his official photography experts.
Rich and Diva both worked at this job until 2003 when they
decided to spend time with their son’s efforts at go-kart
racing. Joe did more racing and won a championship at the Lake
Village Speedway after
winning 30 heat races and 18 features. He and Rich made some
National races at Lowes Motor Speedway, Rockingham, South Bend
and other tracks in Illinois and Pennsylvania where they were
very pleased with their success. At one race in Illinois they
were going to race in the rain. Rich admits that he was totally
lost with rain tires and the needed setup. A man offered some
advice which Rich accepted very quickly. The man giving the advice
ended up being Danica Patrick’s father who certainly knew
what he was doing and Rich was very happy to receive his advice.
At Rockingham he tells that Joe was hitting 82 miles an hour
on the straights. Ben raced for a short time but was probably
a little too young and lost interest in driving. He would like
to try racing again now that he is older.
Rich is an all around racing fan. He follows NASCAR, Indy
Cars and F-1 as well as the local racing that is still near and
dear to his heart. He tells that Tony Stewart is his favorite
racer, but not necessarily favorite person. During his personal
racing career he names Mike Kingma, Tony Tauber, Dave McDaniel
and Chris Arihood as his favorite competitors. Recently Rich
submitted an article to Circle Track Magazine with a tech tip,
and it was published by their editor.
Rich's two brothers, Bill and Jim have also been active in
racing. Bill did a lot of drag racing but recently sold his rail
dragster. Rich says “Jim will race anything”. His folks,
Pat and Gary have always been supportive of Rich with his racing.
Rich will tell you that his Dad is a very good mechanic also.
When he was a toddler,he used to take Rich to the local stock
car races.When the events were over they would go to the pits
to see the cars. Rich didn’t like this part and says he
was "afraid of them". Time has taken care of that problem!
After being out of the seat of a race car for several years,
Rich has once again regained the desire to race again. He got
a small chance for this to happen when he filled in for his buddy
Mike Kingma when Mike was unable to drive one night due to back
problems in 2007. Rich
went to Plymouth to fill in as the driver of the R & D Racing
I-MOD. Rich had never driven an I-MOD before and had only raced
on blacktop in a go-kart. He had a blast that night and did himself
and the car owners proud with his driving exhibition. After a
fast qualifying lap he started in the rear for the feature, got
spun out and lost a lap. He came back to take the checkered flag
in the third position but was credited with a 10th place finish
due to the lost lap.
When R & D Racing was looking for a driver starting the
2009 race season, Rich made a deal with the owners to become
their full time driver. Rich is really enjoying his new ride
and on the second race
night he won his heat and the feature. This was Rich’s first
feature win in more than 10 years so of course this was a very
big highlight in Rich’s racing career. Even with a fantastic
start to the 2009 season, Rich has once again taken off his helmet
to free up time for other family activities.
Time will tell how the rest of his racing career will go but
he is off to a great start and is looking towards his next race
wins.
Rich
Rish is a man with unlimited enthusiasm for life. He is very
personable and makes friends very easily so if you haven’t
met Rich, stop by and say hello to him. You’ll be glad you
did!
Getting
to Know…..
errands.
Soon he was working on the tractors and combines learning his
mechanical skills. As he progressed in the dealership he became
the shop foreman.At a pretty young age he developed an interest
in motor bikes and soon after that his interest changed to cars.
In fact, he tells that he bought and sold his first car at the
age of 14. This would become the number of his motor bike as
he raced around the area.
Then in 1992 he put together a championship year at Crown Point.
His statistics for the year shows 5 fast times, 6 trophy dash,
3 heat race and 2 feature wins. He accumulated more points than
any other division champion for the year and only had three race
nights where he didn’t win at least one stat. During his
racing career he has won the ‘Sportsmanship’ and ‘Best
Appearing Car’ awards several times. 
Rich
states that he won a lot of races in the Hobby Stock but struggled
in the Late Model. During the year Dale decided that Late Model
racing was too expensive so he sold the car. Rich quit driving
and went back to helping his friend Mike Kingma with his racing
through the ’95 season. During the winter Mike bought a
new Late Model so Rich bought his old one. He also raced other
cars for different owners in 1996. He had a lot of top five finishes
in his Late Model but never won an A Main Feature.
fans
to look at and ask questions about. The building of this car
was a long and technical job but Rich was really proud of his
finished project. A couple years ago the Modified was sold to
a guy in Texas who uses it for his business. Another highlight
for their business was getting to cover the Brickyard 400 at
Indy in 2000. 
By
1998, Dale Sorrels had bought Shadyhill Speedway in Medaryville,
Indiana and he hired RaceStar for his official photography experts.
after
winning 30 heat races and 18 features. He and Rich made some
National races at Lowes Motor Speedway, Rockingham, South Bend
and other tracks in Illinois and Pennsylvania where they were
very pleased with their success. At one race in Illinois they
were going to race in the rain. Rich admits that he was totally
lost with rain tires and the needed setup. A man offered some
advice which Rich accepted very quickly. The man giving the advice
ended up being Danica Patrick’s father who certainly knew
what he was doing and Rich was very happy to receive his advice.
At Rockingham he tells that Joe was hitting 82 miles an hour
on the straights. Ben raced for a short time but was probably
a little too young and lost interest in driving. He would like
to try racing again now that he is older.
Rich
went to Plymouth to fill in as the driver of the R & D Racing
I-MOD. Rich had never driven an I-MOD before and had only raced
on blacktop in a go-kart. He had a blast that night and did himself
and the car owners proud with his driving exhibition. After a
fast qualifying lap he started in the rear for the feature, got
spun out and lost a lap. He came back to take the checkered flag
in the third position but was credited with a 10th place finish
due to the lost lap.
race
night he won his heat and the feature. This was Rich’s first
feature win in more than 10 years so of course this was a very
big highlight in Rich’s racing career. Even with a fantastic
start to the 2009 season, Rich has once again taken off his helmet
to free up time for other family activities.
Rich
Rish is a man with unlimited enthusiasm for life. He is very
personable and makes friends very easily so if you haven’t
met Rich, stop by and say hello to him. You’ll be glad you
did!