2005

February

The Saga Begins

Over a cold beer, two friends, Mark Badock and Cal Herdson, evaluate the state of Open Wheel racing. Each were former Sprint Car racers at Skagit Speedway (Mark's "4Q" is pictured), so understood the esculating costs involved with racing. They set forth to do something about it. A plan was devised to build the highest quality parts in the industry and deliver them to racers at the most reasonable price possible. The rest is the proverbial history of XXX detailed below.

September

Humble Beginnings

Like HP, Apple and Harley-Davidson; XXX was started in a garage. OK ... so we're not really like them. But, like them, we did start in a 644 sq/ft garage (the Sprint parts room) and 310 sq/ft shed (the 600 parts room).

October

XXX Website ... "It's Alive"

www.xxxraceco.com was registered Oct 2005, and the website building began shortly after. It took months to complete the initial site and has since become a plethora of information related to XXX for all to consume.

2006

February

The First Order

Just hours after the XXX webstore went live on February 21st, 2006, the Ramaker Racing team out of Montana placed the very first order. The order? Two 45 3/4" steering rods, and two top wing posts. Like 93.84% of orders since, this order left the very next day.

August

Tony Stewarts Wild Ride

The Kasey Kane Foundation charity race rolled into Skagit Speedway for the first time on a warm summer night in August of 2006. Tony was gassed up in a factory prepared Home Depot #20 XXX until a steering gear failure put him hard into the wall in his heat race. Tony walked away ... shaken "and" stirred. The car did not fare so well. The remaining pieces were auctioned off in the pits after race and on eBay the next week with all proceeds going to the Kasey Kane Foundation.

September

XXX Chassis #4 Wins A Championship

Foreshawdowing the potent performance of the XXX chassis, Travis Jacobson wins the Skagit Speedway 410 division championship. Amazingly, this was the first year the chassis was in production and this car was the 4th chassis ever built. Travis recorded 7 wins on his way to being crowned the champion, and this championship at the NW's premier race track opened a lot of eyes.

December

Rocket Chassis

Local to Washington and having one of the very best R&D departments in North America headed up by Ben Curtis, Rocket Chassis was hard to ignore. In the quest to have the highest quality and best performing product in the industry, XXX obtained Rocket Chassis. It facilitated the leveraging of 15 years of Rocket Chassis expertise to augment XXX capabilities, netting XXX a world class manufacturing and development ability unmatched in the industry. We still bounce ideas off of Ben today. Plus, the added bonus of acquiring perhaps the worst sounding stereo and cordless phone in existence for $110.

2007

January

Neighbors Now Hate The UPS Truck

With UPS trucks and semi-trailers invading the neighborhood daily, it was time to move the XXX world headquarters. After almost two years of struggling with a garage overflowing with parts and chassis housed all over the Puget Sound, it was with great relief when we moved into the 4,000sq/ft shop and 300sq/ft office in Sedro-Woolley. Even though the office was a block away from the fab shop and warehouse, it was still better than driving 20 miles to the Seattle docks at 5:00am in the morning to ship chassis.

February

Colton ... Who Would Have Guessed

Colton was one of the first XXX employees, initially hired as an apprentice welder. Defying the Vegas odds, he has grown from a crazy, irresponsible, hard racing teenager, into a crazy, semi-responsible, hard racing, valuable employee. Colton is now in charge of everything at XXX related to "Going Fast"; manufacturing, design, and tech. Even though early in his race career, Colton has already built a solid reputation as a driver to be respected no matter where and what he races. The Deming Speedway 600 Clay Cup Champion in 2009, Heath has won at every level he’s ever competed in, whether it be karting, micro sprints or sprint cars. When not hard on the gas at NW tracks, Colton is deep in the trees and water at NW golf courses (loosing to Mark).

March

Kaleb ... The First Salesman

Given the first sales person was Mark's wife, Kaleb is by default the first XXX Sales"man". Racing is in Kaleb's blood and he started announcing races in the WA area at the tender age of 12 ... no one seems to knows his age now, so we can't do the math for how long that is. However, we do know that Kaleb brought a level of customer service to XXX that we still uphold today. Most everyone that has ordered parts at XXX will know Kaleb as he prides himself on knowing customers on a personal level, not just as numbers in the order system. When not working Kaleb is sleeping at his desk, golfing, spending time with his wife and their "home mini zoo".

2009

January

The First Golden Driller (Of Many)

At the 24th annual Tulsa Shootout, Gary Taylor brought home Triple X Race Co's first Golden Driller. In the A-Class main event, Taylor took off on the start and in the words of ASCS press guru Lonnie Wheatley “decimated the field with a convincing wire-to-wire victory”. The car was a rush build at the shop in WA just getting done under the wire in time to make the trip to Tulsa. Given the time constraints, there was no paint or decals on the car. Some would argue the ugliest car to ever compete at the shootout, but it sure looked great besides the trophy girls and Golden Driller Trophy.

March

Alan Hired To Kick XXX CNC Into High Gear

XXX had a CNC need to be filled, and that need was satisfied with the hiring of CNC guru Alan Larson. With his wealth of machining knowledge, Alan brought the XXX CNC program to the next level, turning out the best CNC parts in the industry. Alan also brought tons of industry and management experience to the table, and oversaw XXX operations until late 2012. He has since moved on to other ventures where he is a key player in those companies successes, but we still have the privilege of working closely with his race team.

April

Office, Fab and Warehouse Consolidation (AKA ... Another Move)

Having outgrown the warehouse and office space in Sedro Woolley (and wanting to be closer to civilization), XXX moved to a larger 6,000 sq/ft warehouse and 980 sq/ft of office space in Burlington. The move had the added benefit of the office and warehouse being co-located. The office staff loved it as that was the end of their forced daily exercise routine (the end of the 1,000 ft walk to the warehouse). The shipping and fab guys, not so much. The biggest loser in the move? The now deceased 3-wheeled XXX forklift. Someone thought it would be a good idea to drive it over a 1 mile long 25 degree hill.

2010

February

The Phone Call That Changed It All In PA

It's not very often that you can pinpoint the start of an era, but with the sale of cars to The Premier Autoworks Racing team driven by Brian Montieth, I think it's safe to say the XXX Posse Land dominance began. Brian won right out of the box, and continues to win to this day. Behind him followed a plethora of PA's finest drivers making the switch to XXX. All of us at XXX would like to thank the teams former chassis manufacturer’s bad service that prompted the call to XXX.

April

First WoO Trophy In The Case

From the time the first XXX chassis rolled onto the race track it had experienced success on every level but one. The only win remaining to fill the XXX Trophy Case – A World of Outlaws feature win. That spot in the XXX Trophy Case was filled, thanks to Jac Haudenschild and the Carnahan Motorsports R19 team. April 16, 2010 at Paducah Speedway in Kentucky, Jac took the lead early in the feature, then endured multiple double file restarts to claim victory over the World of Outlaws.

August

It Takes $$$$ To Be World Class

By 2010, XXX had grown as large as the two principles could fund, and with the on track success of TeamXXX racers, the demand for product was constantly expanding. There was numerous parties interested in partnering, but it was DCD Investments LLC that had the best interest of the company and employees at heart. Their capital investment expanded inventory to better serve customers, but more than that, their years of industry experience and business savy kept building momentum. Plus, they are just plain nice guys to work with.

2011

May

Doug vs The Bridge

During an Outlaws A-Main, Steve Kinser made contact with Doug Esh on the super high speed backstretch at Williams Grove, sending Esh into a wild series of flips ending when he slammed into the (famed) pedestrian bridge. The stunned crowd silently looked on and hoped for the best as safety personal tended to Esh’s mangled car. Esh emerged from the wreckage uninjured and walked away. His XXX Chassis was severely bent up but the driver’s compartment remained completely intact allowing Esh to safely make it through the spectacular accident. The pedestrian bridge also sustained some serious damage. The way we see it ... Esh "1", Bridge "0".

June

Cal Moves On

After countless hours of hard work, an era comes to an end at XXX. Cal put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears into building XXX, but the time had come to part ways. XXX would not be what it is today without the contributions of Cal, and on a somber day in May, everyone wished him all the best with his future endeavous.

2013

January

Full Circle

XXX hired Shawna Tompkins as the General Manager the split second we heard she was leaving Speedmart. Shawna (possibly better known in racing circles as Shawna Wilksey) was a 3 time champion in mini sprints from 1987-1989 and a 3 time Northern Sprint Tour champion in her sprint car career that went from 1990-2004. Shawna was the former owner of Rocket Chassis (ironically we purchased it from her in 2006), and former owner of Speedmart. So she knows racing and racing parts better than anyone else in the country. Her car racing career has ended, but she has not finished racing, now instead running marathons with husband Joe (yeah ... like 26 miles of running). Undoubtable the fittest person to ever enter the XXX front door, she has also whipped the whole darn place into shape.

October

Winning Never Gets Old

The signature season of a sprint car legend was the narrative for Triple X in 2013. Fred Rahmer put on the performance of a lifetime in his farewell tour in Central PA, winning the Williams Grove National open in October. This is in addition to winning the Jack Gunn Memorial and track titles for The Grove, Lincoln Speedway and the Central PA 410 point series. All in his frist season with an XXX chassis and Sell Racing. This magnificent season definitively proved all the message board goobers wrong.