Petroff receives Mike Swims Award
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Long-time Dirt Late Model sponsor and supporter Ed Petroff of Caseyville, Ill., whose Petroff Towing has adorned the sides of several Hall of Fame cars, on Friday night received the Mike Swims Award of Excellence. | Complete PRI coverage
The 60-year-old Petroff received the honor during the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series banquet at Lucas Oil Stadium. The award, honoring the late promoter of the Hav-A-Tampa Dirt Racing Series and Lucas Oil tour supporter Mike Swims, is presented annually to an honoree who's gone above and beyond the call of duty in the racing industry to make a lasting impact on the lives of racers, crews, and fans.
“We’ve had our ups and downs, but we’ve also had experiences that’s just truly been awesome," Lucas Oil Series director Rick Schwallie said during Friday's banquet. "After Tri-City this July, we went back to Ed’s shop in St. Louis and he opened the door, threw us the keys and said, ‘Have at it guys.’ We’ve had that experience a few times with Ed.
“In conversation with Ed, I kind of shared with him an idea that I had for Florence Speedway for the North-South 100, running an impound lot for tires. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but we purchased 25 tires that week. We tried an experiment where we didn’t cut them, we didn’t sipe them. It proved to work very well. Ed was the guy that was behind the scenes, wanted no credit. But he helped pay for all those tires. Without Ed, there’s a lot of this that wouldn’t have been accomplished this year."
Long associated with drivers including six-time World 100 winner Billy Moyer and four-time UMP DIRTcar Summernationals champion Shannon Babb, Petroff has spread his sponsorship among an array of drivers, teams and series over three decades. Whispered stories abound of tacit sponsorship and support he’s provided for the betterment of the sport as a whole.
National touring drivers Brian Shirley, Don O’Neal, Josh Richards, Scott Bloomquist and Dale McDowell are among other standouts whose cars have been adorned with Petroff Towing decals.
His 2002 sponsorship of Moyer, Babb and O’Neal — all piloting yellow-and-red cars — came to be known as the Petroff Posse with the trio accumulating more than 50 special event victories among them in ’02 alone.
