Mike Weller and Matt McElwrath took their love for car racing to the next level when they formed St. Louis Street Racing club six years ago, primarily to coordinate racing events around the area.
Weller grew up in Alton and McElwrath in St. Louis - but both were exposed to racing at an early age - so their continued interest was only natural.
"It's always been a passion for me - and I've always wanted to race anything I could get my hands on," Weller said. " So don't let me borrow your car," he added with a laugh.
Now with more than 2,000 members, STLSR has fast vehicles of every kind - automobiles, trucks, 4-wheelers and motorcycles.
"Most are streetcars that you wouldn't necessarily expect to be fast, but they are," Weller said.
Weller's own car is a prototype Ford Focus with a turbo-charged engine, and McElwrath drives a Chevrolet, full-sized, long bed pickup truck with a super charger.
"That's one of the things that I really like - that you can drive a car that looks like an average street car," Weller said.
Club-related events are happening every weekend in September. The month started with Midnight Madness at Gateway International Raceway in Madison (click here to see photo slideshow), which has become the biggest annual moneymaker at the raceway, drawing as many as 5,000 people. Sept. 1 featured drag racing and "drifting," (a sort of angled sideways sliding). People came from all over the country just to "drift" at Midnight Madness.
"Watching a really good drifter will give you goose bumps," Weller said. "It's neat to do - the whole time you feel like you're going to wreck."
On Sept. 9, Adrenaline Motorsports of St. Peters, Mo. is sponsoring an annual open house, bringing about 400 members together for fun and friendship, as well as giving their cars a spin on the Dyno machine.
Sept. 16 will mark the second annual STLSR Bar-B-Q in St. Charles, Mo., where the club shows its appreciation to members and sponsors.
"It's great to see everybody come together - people can meet new members and old members they haven't had the chance to talk to before," Weller said. "It's good for morale and there's no racing involved - just comradery."
Pur Performance will hold an open house Sept. 23 - also in St. Charles. Weller said the club's own merchandise line will be available, including shirts, hats, hoodies and other items.
"Our clothing line has a lot of clever sayings on the back of the shirts, and they've been pretty popular," Weller said. "They have been spotted all over the country; people have appeared on nationally syndicated television shows with our shirts on, and we have drag racing champions who wear our shirts."
STLSR is the largest automotive enthusiast club in St. Louis, according to Weller, due in large part to the fact that it started out underground, which sometimes adds to the attraction.
"Now we've teamed up with Gateway International and police departments, and it's nice to be mainstream because we are able to put on events at the track and have our own racing class on Tuesday evenings at Gateway," Weller said. "We have the track that we can race on several days a week so there's no need to do it on the streets."
On Sept. 30, an event that is near and dear to the hearts of STLSR members is the Brian Klocke Memorial Show at Hooters in St. Charles. The car show is held in honor of Klocke, who was killed while riding his motorcycle to work on Sept. 30, 2004. The event will raise funds for Klocke's daughter's trust fund.
STLSR has members of all ages from teen-agers to adults. And yes, the club includes females, too.
"The percentage is probably 75 to 25; male to female," Weller said. "But I see the number of women interested in racing growing. It's interesting, because women tend to have a little dif
"That's one of the things that I really like - that you can drive a car that looks like an average street car," Weller said.
Pur Performance will hold an open house Sept. 23 - also in St. Charles. Weller said the club's own merchandise line will be available, including shirts, hats, hoodies and other items.
STLSR has members of all ages from teen-agers to adults. And yes, the club includes females, too.