Rooted in Racing: The Chernotik Family’s Close Bond in the Pursuit of Speed ​​- Mitchell Republic

ALEXANDRIA, SD — The Chernotik family has roots in motorsports.

It was in 2007 that Chuck Chernotik Jr.’s passion for racing became a reality when he competed in his first lawn mower race at Pukwana. He had bought a lawn mower from a friend and remembered how the first race went.

“I remember being passed about three times,” Chernotik Jr. said.

It symbolized the learning curve the Chernotiks had to go through to start a racing team, now known as Big Idea Racing. The team started as a single-mower operation with Chernotik Jr. as driver and his father, Chuck Chernotik Sr., as crew chief. The arrangement lasted until 2010, when Chuck Jr.’s younger brother Adam began racing lawn mowers.

Since we were still beginners in the racing world in the beginning, we learned a lot by trial and error with the settings of the mowers and checking every week that everything was holding together before going to the track. While other teams were playing with the mowers for fun and racing them, the Chernotiks had their two mowers in the garage, ready for race day.

The process was repeated when both Chuck Jr. and Adam began racing modified cars at both I-90 Speedway in Hartford and Wagner Speedway. What surprised them in both cases, however, was the willingness of the other race teams to lend a helping hand, showing just how close-knit the sport is.

“You might be competitive on the track, but once you get into the pits or off the racing surface, everyone helps each other out,” Chernotik Sr. said. “People helped us get started and helped us with technical things to get started and grow our program.”

“It’s a huge family,” he added. “We may not know every competitor on the course and their wives and children, but if something happens to one of them on the course, we’re there to help, or if something happens to one of the guys, they’re there to help us.”

The other competitors came to help the Chernotiks last year during a modified race at I-90 Speedway on June 17, when Chernotik Jr. was seriously injured in a crash.

He suffered a T2 fracture of his thoracic spine and a partial tear of the ligaments at the C5 and C6 vertebrae. Chernotik Jr. said doctors told him he was nearly paralyzed.

At the time, the other racing teams were helping the Chernotiks pack up their equipment and load their cars onto their trailers so they could leave the speedway as quickly as possible. The crash, and Adam Chernotik walking away within days of each other, put the family’s passion for racing into perspective.

“There were people who wanted to help here and there, but it was a huge wake-up call to have people who had never helped you before and wanted to step up,” said Adam Chernotik.

Much of racing is built around the respect that each competitor and team has for each other, and the trust that competitors can race safely around others and the track itself. Adam and Chuck Chernotik Jr. have come to trust each other to race cleanly as they battle for position.

“I know when my brother is on the outside of me,” Chernotik Jr. said. “I’m going to give him a little more room to race than the guy behind me.”

“There’s no one I trust more on the track than my brother,” said Adam Chernotik. “We know each other’s driving style inside and out and we’re not going to push on a particular issue that could potentially be damaging to either of us, let alone both of us.”

Their bond extends beyond the track, as Adam followed in his older brother’s footsteps when he started racing. Although Chernotik Jr. hasn’t been in a car since his crash, he still goes to the track to film Adam’s races for the love of racing and his family, and they sometimes call each other during work breaks to discuss new ideas on how to set up the car or how to corner.

Along with Chuck Chernotik Sr., the three have run the Big Idea Racing team largely on their own for 17 years, with outside contributions from others when needed. The decision to go racing was never influenced by the money involved, as each member’s passion fuels their competitive desire, along with the opportunity to race together.

“It brings you closer together (as a family),” Chernotik Sr. said. “I feel privileged that we get to do this, and it’s a reward for us to be so deep and close with my sons.”

At the height of their lawnmower racing careers, Adam and Chuck Chernotik Jr. both won at nearly every track they visited, from South Dakota all the way down south to Oklahoma and as far east as Wisconsin.

Since moving up to the modified car racing division, it has been a gradual climb back to competing for race wins. In 10 feature races this season, Adam Chernotik has four top-five finishes, with a season-best finish of fourth on June 1 at I-90 Speedway. He is seventh in the I-90 modified points standings and fifth in the Wagner points standings.

“This season has been very rewarding so far,” said Adam Chernotik. “I’m really starting to understand what the car needs and what I need from the car, and we’ve been getting more and more consistent top-five finishes.”

His goal for the remainder of the season, which runs until Labor Day, is to win his first feature race in a modified car. The last time Adam Chernotik won a race was in a lawnmower feature race in January 2020 at Iowa.

As for the future, the Chernotiks will continue racing as long as they have the desire to go to the track every week, motivated by a sign Chernotik Sr.’s wife made in one of their trailers. It reads:

“We’ve done so much, with so little, for so long, That now we can do it all WITH NOTHING!”

The sign pays homage to the early days when it was just a lawnmower and a toolbox. It symbolizes what Big Idea Racing is all about and how the Chernotiks spend their summers, while also being able to do something else.

“Racing is my passion in life,” Adam Chernotik said. “I put pretty much everything I have into it.”

“We don’t fish, we don’t camp, we don’t play baseball, we don’t play golf,” Chernotik Sr. said. “We race.”