BY Ali Hussainy
About a year ago I received a random message via Facebook from a Local Knowledge fan named David. David told me he was a fishing nut and a huge fan of the show and wanted to find some way we could work together with his NASCAR team, Starcom Racing. After a bunch of emails and couple of phone calls we hammered out plan to film a Local Knowledge episode around the NASCAR Monster Cup Championship weekend at the Homestead Miami Speedway. Let me preface this by saying, prior to this event I knew nothing about NASCAR and honestly had little interest. I have a few friends that are NASCAR junkies and they always told me “you have to go to a race to understand.”
Boy were they right… 44
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The first step in our plan was to come up with a custom wrap for the race car that was eye-catching and one of a kind. A quick call with our Director of Graphic Design, Derek Redwine, and he was off and running. Derek loves a new challenge and man, he knocked this one out of the park! Within a few days the concept for the Local Knowledge 00 Mahi race car was born. Dave and the Starcom team were awesome to work with and encouraged us to bring our family and Local Knowledge sponsors to the race. This led to a list of thirty VIPs, mostly NASCAR virgins, convening in Miami in mid-November for the big race. We had our close family on hand along with our friends from SeaVee boats, Evinrude, SeaDek, Yeti and Casa Vieja. Rush and I arrived on Thursday, a day early, so we could fish the annual Hot
Rods and Reels Charity Tournament hosted by drag racing legend Darrell Gwynn. This is a great event that pairs up local guides with NASCAR drivers and anglers who donate for the opportunity to fish with them.
As soon are we heard about the tourney, we knew we needed help if we were going to compete. A couple quick calls and we had our ringer! Bass angler and fellow Evinrude Pro Scott Martin jumped at the chance. Suddenly we went from bass zeros, to heroes!
