New General Manager Cody Egner on Freedom Racing

Reis faces the daily challenge of balancing his time with running Freedom on the one hand and his business and personal concerns outside of motorsport on the other.

Realizing he needed help, Reis appointed his son-in-law and former racer Cody Egner to the newly created position of general manager in February.

Reis remains active in Freedom's business operations, including track preparation, facility maintenance and business strategy, and advises Egner on matters related to Freedom's racing programs.

In return, Egner Reis has taken a lot of the pressure and workload off his shoulders this season.

Egner has drawn up a limited eight-race schedule for 2024. Only the two-day Fall Classic on September 13 and 14 remains to be run before Freedom's season is over.

“I think Freedom has made really big progress this season, but we won’t see the bigger picture until the whole season is completed here,” said Egner.

Egner, 27, lives in Franklinville. He is a lifelong racing fan and currently crew chief for his uncle, Super Late Model racer Greg Oakes. Egner is employed by Fastenal Corp. as an employee development specialist.

Egner recently took the time to assess how Freedom's 2024 season will pan out.

In recent seasons Freedom has had to cancel a number of races due to weather, but this season there has only been one rain-out and the remaining races have been held in almost perfect weather, which has had a positive effect on attendance.

Freedom is a small racetrack with a grandstand capacity of about 1,000 spectators, Edger said. All of the races this season at Freedom have been held in front of nearly full grandstands.

“We were very lucky with the weather,” said Egner. “Unfortunately, August 2 was cancelled due to rain, but we were lucky. The weather was beautiful at all the other shows.”

Freedom's increased marketing and advertising campaigns also paid off tremendously, leading to an increase in spectator numbers at the racetrack.

“The weather is indeed a big contributor to good attendance,” Egner said. “But I have to give all the credit in the world to Kyle Windsor of the Redneck Race Chasers. He's been driving the marketing and we're being strategic about how we market on social media. We've done a little advertising in stores around town.”

“It hasn't been a huge amount so far, though, so we're not sure how that will play out. Kyle has done a really good job of strategically targeting our social media boost to certain crowds on certain nights. It seems to be working.”

Freedom's 2024 car counts have produced mixed results. There were a sufficient number of cars in the various major racing groups such as Super Late Models and Sprint Cars that appeared, averaging between 15 and 24 entries per night, depending on the class.

In the entry-level classes, however, the number of participants was low, with five or fewer cars per division.

“I try to do my due diligence to get cars,” Egner said. “I send messages to the first divisions and then our second or third tier support divisions for the night of the event. I try to message as many people in the area as I can. I basically looked at websites in the area that posted racers' points and try to get results. I like to see who competed this year and where and just send them a friendly message to make them aware that we're racing and what the prize money is.

“Then I tell them at the end that I hope they make it. I think that worked very well. On race night, I also try to go around and thank all the drivers who came to the race in Freedom every night.”

And what about the support classes?

“The support classes like the Mini Late Models, Bandits and RUSH Stocks are still growth classes and we are working on them,” he said.

Freedom has dealt with a rough track surface in spots this season, but Egner says he is working hard to find solutions that will result in a smoother track.

“I have to say I don't know much about track preparation, but I've tried to do some research,” Egner said. “A lot of it is due to lack of experience. I've been racing my whole professional life. I've never prepared a track or operated a bulldozer operator. It's all kind of a foreign language to me. But I've talked to some people in the area to find out what they can do to improve our surface. We meet before and after every race to try to make it a little bit better.

“I think we now have a good plan for track preparation. We'll see.”

Egner says the most important thing he learned in his first season as general manager is to better delegate responsibility to his fellow marshals.

“I learned a lot along the way,” said Egner. “I just tried to understand every piece of the puzzle and give my employees the trust they need to move forward and make decisions.”

“Maybe I tried to spread myself a little bit in the beginning. I was at the concession stand, in the infield, at the scoring tower and everywhere else. I was running around like crazy. Now I've settled in and just check in with my staff sporadically throughout the evening to see if they need anything and let them do their excellent work.”

Egner mentioned that his wife Rachel has been a great help to him this season and has contributed significantly.

The challenge in marketing Freedom often comes from the fact that the track is geographically set in a very small rural market. Living in a rural town himself, Egner feels he can empathize with the people in that area and better understand how to work with a predominantly rural fan base to successfully meet the challenge.