Reel Racing: Tommy Joe Martins — Driver, Team Owner & … Film Producer?

In most American sports, it is a combination of natural talent and perfected skill that enables the best participants to reach the highest levels of competition.

Paying for the most expensive baseball glove will not make anyone a better catcher. Nor will a top-of-the-line hoop help more basketballs to pass through it than a cheaper version. Certainly, no unknown newcomer can buy a chance to practice with an NFL team. The financial footing of an amateur player or those supporting them is mostly irrelevant to their future success.

There is one exception, and, of course, it is motorsports. 

The cries of nepotism are inevitable and, quite honestly, tiring. I have children, and I spend thousands each year for them to pursue their passions. If either of them wanted to race, I’d be willing to take them as far as my budget would allow. Most parents would do the same.

But while many race fans have long been vocal about their disdain for ride buyers with daddy’s money, those inside the garage stay notably quiet. That’s because they know that without said money, there might be fewer race teams in operation, which means fewer jobs and reduced opportunities.

However, there is one voice in the garage area speaking out about the financial imbalance. For around a decade now, Alpha Prime Racing owner and occasional driver Tommy Joe Martins has shared an extensive amount of his intimate knowledge surrounding the cost of racing. Martins has long cried foul, but not in the way you might think. 

Martins seems to lean in the direction that the so-called silver-spoon brigade of young drivers whose parents can support their careers are not only necessary but also welcome. I share this opinion, as every one who has the desire to race should be afforded the opportunity. The problem comes when the teams are required to use these drivers because it’s the only way to keep the lights on.

Martins has always worked to illuminate the darkness of the financial side of racing. For a long time, how much money you needed and where it came from wasn’t openly discussed.

Now, he has a new and rather unique presentation for fans to get a glimpse of what it’s like for the people involved and the complexity that comes with balancing money and talent. It is a short film that he produced called Underfunded.

The 24-minute drama opens with a cinematic scene that feels like an homage to Days of Thunder, and the story centers around a test day at a short track. The fictional characters could easily be replaced with names you may recognize, and I have to think there’s at least some personal experience woven into the script.

But the point here is not who the drivers are but rather the situation that they find themselves in.

There’s the grizzled veteran, accomplished but perhaps past his prime, along with a young hot shoe who seems to have a future of unlimited success there for the taking. Lastly, the newbie who barely knows how to drive a racecar but has parents who certainly know how to write a big check.

I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, as it really is worth the time for fans to give it a watch. If nothing else, it acts as a starting point for some dialogue about the current situation of pay-to-play drivers and the cost of putting one in the seat may not be limited to a dollar amount.

While Underfunded may or may not tell fans anything they didn’t already know, I must applaud Martins for this innovative presentation. Racecar drivers have done a lot of unique things, but I don’t recall any ever producing a movie.

It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering the source.