Billy Wroble

Born in Washington D.C. March 2 1971

Raised in Indian Head Maryland

Joined the Air Force Dec 1990

Retired 2011

How I got into racing

I have always been a motor head and loved everything about cars.  After high school I worked in a couple of mechanic shops in southern Maryland and was having a great time.  I decided that I was going to join the Air Force and learn how to fix airplanes.  My first 4 years in the Air Force kept me fairly busy with training and moving.  I left Maryland to live in Fort Worth TX working on the B-52 and KC-135 as a fuel systems mechanic.  In 1992 I went to Tacoma Washington and worked on the C-141 fuel systems.  In 1994 I cross trained into an aircraft hydraulics mechanic and was stationed at Shaw AFB in Sumter SC working on F-16s and A-10s.  This is where I first caught the racing bug.  Living in my new home  one Saturday afternoon I heard what others may mistake as thunder in the distance but I knew was horsepower.  This was at a time before internet and cell phones so I got in my truck and followed the noise.  Finally after snaking my way through the countryside I came up on Sumter Speedway just as the racing was over for the night.  Needless to say I knew my way and was back the following Saturday and every Saturday after. I showed the place to some of my Air Force buddys and we soon had a dedicated group leaving for the track every Saturday.  We would park in the infield and watch the races from the bed of our pick-ups. After the first week of going to the races I knew this was for me and put a car trailer on lay away the following Monday.  I eventually took a part time job at a local body shop that was also into racing and began to follow them out to the track helping when I could.  It was not until years working for them that I expressed an interest in an old street stock chassis behind the body shop and was given the green light to use it.  I instantly began accumulating parts and overhauled an engine in my kitchen getting ready to go racing.  Just as I was getting ready to go racing military duty called and I went to Saudi Arabia for 4 months.  When I got back my personal life was turned upside down, I became a single parent of three little ones and racing was put on hold.  I traded my car trailer for a van and put my race car motor in it.  I couldn’t return to my part time job at the body shop and didn’t have much opportunity to go to the races.  Finally around 2000 I was ready to go racing again.  I found another car trailer and was using it to make the extra cash needed to go racing.  Then the Air Force decided they needed me in New Jersey and I moved to McGuire AFB  in October of 2001 and worked on the KC-10.  Needless to say this was a very busy time for the Air Force and I was assigned to my first deployment the following February and multiple ones after that.  I made a few trips to the local tracks in New Jersey but did not have the time or resources to go racing.  In 2004 I took a job in the Air Force administering maintenance training to people newly assigned to McGuire AFB.  This offered a little more stability and I began chasing the racing again.  I went to Potomac speedway where my brother was racing in a new enduro class called the “Junk Cars”.  This was the last race of the season but I was hooked in a BAD way.  I bought my first Monte Carlo on ebay for $61.00 and had it ready for the following season.  We would tow down once a month visit with family and go racing, what a good time.  I was finally living the dream!  When New Egypt Speedway finally introduced an entry level division I got the necessary safety equipment and went racing in New Jersey.  I was having more fun because now my car could race enduros and with a Saturday night support division.  I really had no idea what I was doing and was not always competitive but was there every event just the same.  After two years of this Kenny Guyer decided that he was going to let me help him build me a car.  We worked on it all winter and it made its debut in 2009 and I am still racing it today.