Hi my name is Jeff Barnes, 38 years old, and I live in Mokena, Illinois. It is a suburb of Chicago, about 25 miles to the southwest. I live about 20 minutes from Chicagoland Speedway. I have been married for almost 18 years to my wonderful wife Michelle. We have 4 kids, Rick 17, Cole 12, Justin 11 and Courteney 10. Can you tell we wanted a little girl? My wife and I are very blessed as our kids have been great children and we are very proud of all of them.
Our family attends Parkview Christian Church in Orland Park. It is a large church that is growing by leaps and bounds every year. We have been attending Parkview for about 5 years now.
I grew up in a small town on the south side of Chicago (Blue Island). I played baseball since the time I could walk and always wanted to make it big. I went to University of Illinois in the fall of 1989 and walked on to their baseball team. That didn’t work out as I didn’t concentrate enough on the classroom and I left school after one year. God had different plans and I thank him everyday for what happened next in my life. I went back home and got close to a wonderful woman (who later became my wife). Unfortunately, her father passed away in the fall of 1990. This drew us closer together, and was the reason I came to know the Lord. Again, God had a plan for me. We got married a year later and God has constantly been watching over us. We started our family and before we knew it, we have 4 wonderful kids. We moved into our “dream” home in 2003 in Mokena. I was the general contractor on the project and did a lot of the trim work, cabinets and little stuff along the way. That certainly was an experience!
I work as a regional manager for a privately owned school bus contractor in the Chicagoland area. I have worked for this company basically since I was 8 years old. My dad was a manager for one of their locations for over 25 years and I worked on and off at that location throughout my life. I now have 3 different location managers that report to me and I am their Technology Operations manager as well. I have been very lucky to work for a great company, owned by a great family that really understands the business well.
My hobbies are pretty much centered around my kids. I coach travel baseball (with Cole on my team), travel basketball (with Justin on my team) and help with my daughters teams. My wife and I previously owned and ran a private junior Olympic volleyball club that trained high school age athletes. I have coached football with both Cole and Justin, but thankfully they don’t play anymore. I love coaching and would love to find a way to do it full time. I am an avid fan of all Chicago Sports teams EXCEPT the Chicago White Sox, Go CUBBIES! I have been a Nascar fan since I can remember. Used to sit on the couch with my dad watching the races every weekend. My wife married me in spite of that and now is a huge nascar fan as well. Unfortunately she roots for the #24 team. I grew up being a Darrell Waltrip fan, then changed over to Mark Martin once Darrell retired. I also was a pretty big Indy car fan, and really liked Tony Stewart. When he came over to Nascar I changed over to him and have been a fan of him ever since. My wife and I have been to every race at Chicagoland and also attended races in Las Vegas, Michigan, Daytona, Indianapolis and Charlotte. We would love to retire and travel to see races at all the different tracks.
One thing people probably don’t know about me is that I am a Disney nut. Our family owns a Disney Vacation Club timeshare and try to travel to Disney World in Orlando at least once a year. There is just something about that place that I just love, wait, I love EVERYTHING about that place!!
I started sim racing back with the release of Nascar Racing 2003. I was IMMEDIATELY hooked. I started racing a bit more online with NR4 and was a member of the old Team Lightspeed forums. There was a post back in 2000 talking about a league for newbies, so they could learn together. Before we knew it, the FBRL (FenderBenders Racing League) was formed. I helped run that league until we closed our doors in 2008 due to lack of participation. I have never been the fastest racer and owe a ton of what I have learned to Jeff Russell and some of the other teammates at Excalibur Racing. Tom Ohara, Ross T, Paul Ezerski, Gary Truman and Joel McMillan to name a few. Some of our team practices were as spirited and hard as any race I had ever been in. Recently I raced in RacersCup series and WORL. Since Cole started racing I was looking for a more ‘friendly’ atmosphere to race in with him, and have found that at Christian Racing. I have to thank all the admins for doing everything they do for this league. All the members are so helpful from racing setups to computer issues and we really enjoy the racing and fellowship at CR. I have found my home for racing and fellowship and love every minute of the time spent with CR drivers.
Jeff Barnes