June 5, 2023

Birmingham, AL — Grand American Race Cars, a well-known race car manufacturer based out of Dolomite, AL, has been given its newest challenge, a late model specially built for road course racing. GARC, which is owned and operated by late model legend Augie Grill, has produced several types of race cars, ranging from late models to pro trucks. These machines have a track record of winning and winning often, with GARC having 11 Snowball Derby victories ranging all the way back to 1984.

Bobby and Roger Reuse are two brothers from Birmingham, AL, and they have made names for themselves in both the sports car and stock car worlds. Adventures in Racing, the Reuses’ race team, utilizes Grand American Race Cars as their chassis manufacturer for their late model operation. They threw GARC and Augie Grill a new challenge, that being building a late model specialized for road course competition.

On the technical side of things, a lot of pen had to be put to paper to reconfigure a late model for road racing. As Bobby Reuse helped explain to us, almost everything on a regular late model frame is offset to one side. The motor as well the center of the rear axle are not centered, and even the a-frames on the front of the car are different sizes. However, Augie Grill was able to redo everything to have the car be symmetrical, and therefore suited for the twists and turns of road racing.

“It’s a car we understand, and it’s a car we have backup parts for.” said Bobby Reuse. A road course late model is actually nothing new to the Reuse brothers, as they had raced similar cars before. “All the way back to 2005, even 2003 with Roger, we ran road racing late models with a couple of touring series. We did that all the way up until 2017, and we sold both of those cars to go run a Trans Am professional series.” The Reuse brothers eventually sold that car, as that type of racing requires more hands and more time invested than what they had at the time, but they are certainly ready to get back to it once again.

GARC ended up producing two of these machines, and the team had a test session at Barber Motorsports Park back in April. Roger Reuse told us, “Both of us got to run it, as well as Augie, who built the car. It was fast, it was a lot of fun to run, and the guy who built it went faster than both of us, so we gotta drive that thing a little harder!”

The Reuse brothers will be running with the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), a notable automobile club and sanctioning body. On top of racing at Barber Motorsports Park, the car will also see action at tracks such as Road America, Daytona International Speedway, Watkins Glen International, and Road Atlanta. When asked about the balance and differences between the circle track and club racing operations, Roger Reuse elaborated on the club racing aspect by saying, “It’s more of a laid back thing. You run a couple of times a day, so it’s not as constant. You have time where you can sit back and relax and work on the car.”

The Reuse brothers have also raced in several NASCAR races, in the divisions now known as the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series. They have ran at several road courses, with a majority of their Xfinity Series starts being with Mike Harmon Racing, now known as CHK Racing. In the Craftsman Truck Series, the Reuse brothers have ran with a few teams, but their most recent starts were with Jordan Anderson Racing and CMI Motorsports.

The Reuse brothers have a plethora of racing experience in stock cars and sports cars alike, and when you combine that with the expertise of Augie Grill and GARC, it will certainly be fun to watch what this new car can do. LRR wants to thank Bobby and Roger Reuse for taking the time to talk, and if you’d like to see the video we got of this discussion, a link will be posted below!