My name is Bob Coney Jr., laid back car salesman by day, semi-insane racing announcer by night, and lifelong race fan. As people who have listened to my calls at the racetrack or have read my columns know, I call them the way I see them. Every now and then it will tweak a few people off, but that's what happens if you're honest about what you see going on. My opinion is mine. Yours may be different, and that's fine. That's what makes America great. For those who don't know me, here's my background.
I am one of the many second generation race guys from around Sioux City. My dad, Bob Coney, was an old school 1950's hot rodder and manager of the old Sioux City Dragway through the 1960's. An outstanding drag racer himself, he also was a car owner who had many of the areas best drivers behind the wheel at local dirt tracks. I grew up with big block Chevy's in the driveway and race cars in the garage.
I started out my racing in Motocross from the mid 1970's to the early 1980's. I never made it to the touring professional level, but did win races around our five state region while knocking myself silly about every tenth race. I quit racing bikes when I headed to college, where I first started announcing sports. After three years of calling football and basketball at Wayne State University in Nebraska, I graduated and worked as Sports Director and Morning Show host at a Sioux City radio station. I was there when El Rasmussen first hired me to announce the races at Interstate Speedway in 1991. It's been seventeen seasons now, and I'm still behind the mic, having announced races at Interstate Speedway, Blackbird Bend Speedway, Tomahawk Speedway, Woodbury County Fairgrounds, Buena Vista Raceway, Sioux Speedway, and Park Jefferson Speedway. I've called over 3,000 feature races with over 900 different drivers. Everything from Sprint cars to Four Cylinders.
While continuing my announcing, I gave driving a shot from 1998 to 2000, primarily to give myself more insight into that part of the sport for my announcing. I caught on pretty quickly and had alot of fun. One of my more surreal experiences came on championship night at Interstate Speedway that first year. We always introduced drivers on championship night and had the cars and drivers lined up on the front stretch. I announced the lineup from the scorer's booth, ran down the grandstands and climbed into my car 12th on the grid, won the race, collected the trophy, ran back up the grandstands to the booth, and announced the rest of the features. I'm too old and fat for that much running. I ran in the NASCAR Charger division in 1999 and 2000 at Park Jefferson Speedway. My 2000 season went well with some wins and a second place in the season championship at Park Jefferson. My biggest and best paying wins were sweeping both nights of the Sioux County Fair in 2000. That busy summer of announcing or racing three and four times a week prompted me to sell all of my equipment at the end of the year and stick to announcing races.
So here we are, getting ready to start the 2008 racing season. I am announcing weekly at Raceway Park, doing the holiday specials at Sioux Speedway, filling in as needed at Buena Vista Raceway, and writing the column "From The Announcer" for Hawkeye Racing News. My spare time is spent watching races or working on my wife's "ProHornet" car. Thank God I've got a wife and kids who also love racing. My wife, Julie, even won the "ProHornet" championship at Interstate Speedway in 2006. Not too bad for a forty-something mother of two! As most of you know, having a family who supports what you're doing makes all the difference in the world.
So there it is! That's who I am and where I came from. My name is Bob Coney Jr. and racing is my sport.