Stan Haynes has rock sports under his skin; a long-time supporter of both series and competitors, Stan shares life in a family-run business with us. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.
6:07 – I thought I was getting drafted to go die in Vietnam
11:24 – 57’ Chevy, I hot-rodded the heck out of it
15:52 – we still continue with Branik doing foundry work and ceating master tooling, molds, and dies making thousands of parts and a foundry and castings
19:50 – in starting a business you’re going to go through hard times, but be prepared and try to always have the attitude of don’t give up
28:49 – I started going to King of the Hammers in ’09 and two years later we’re racing
32:17 – I love free market, I love capitalism, it really enhances a business to be better.
41:52 – What a beautiful place of God’s Green Earth, everyone needs to experience the Rubicon, am I right?
Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:39.780] – Big Rich Klein
On this week’s episode, I have the pleasure to be talking with Stan Haynes. Stan owns and operates Branik Motorports, which is in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Branik Motor Sports specializes in race parts. They are a machine shop, fabrication shop, and they’re Ultra Four racers. Stan, it’s great to be talking to you today. I just want to say thank you for everything that you’ve done for the sport.
[00:02:10.200] – Stan Haynes
Rich, I sure do appreciate it. Thank you very much. I want to say Merry Christmas to you and everybody’s going to listen to us. I’m looking forward to this.
[00:02:18.590] – Big Rich Klein
Yeah, it’s going to be fun. So first question I have for you, it’s the easiest one for most people to answer, where were you born and raised?
[00:02:28.060] – Stan Haynes
I was born in a little town in Western Kentucky called Wickcliffe, Kentucky. I was raised the first seven, eight years of my life there. My dad left farming and headed north to Indiana and landed in Fort Wayne. And that’s pretty much where I’ve been ever since as far as being raised there. And now that’s where we’re at. And throwing down some pretty deep roots here in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
[00:02:57.330] – Big Rich Klein
Right. And he left farming and he went to Fort Wayne. And what did your dad do in Fort Wayne?
[00:03:04.480] – Stan Haynes
He ended up working at that time, International Harvester, started in a factory and worked his way through school there and ended up an engineer at Harvester and retired from there.
[00:03:18.250] – Big Rich Klein
Oh, excellent. Okay. What were those early years like for you? I don’t know if you remember a whole lot of Kentucky. That’s about the time I think I can start remembering things. It was about six or seven. Was it a tough move for you personally? Do you remember?
[00:03:35.380] – Stan Haynes
Oh, yeah, I remember a lot of that. Of course, my mom and dad being from Kentucky, we were back several times a year visiting relatives. All of my mom and dad’s side of the family are from there. We still go back and see relatives there and really have a real good bond with Western Kentucky and call that second home. But yeah, I remember quite a bit about it. I had a little bit of a transition coming up here as far as meeting new friends, but that didn’t take long. We’re good old Hoosiers now with a little bit of wild cat blood.
[00:04:19.190] – Big Rich Klein
There you go. Excellent. Those early years in school, would you consider yourself a good student? Or were you one of those guys that looked out the window just wanting to get outside?
[00:04:33.700] – Stan Haynes
I would say the latter there, for sure. School-wise, I was always focused on shop classes and took my first shop class in seventh grade as a foundry class. And ironically, that’s where I ended up most of my professional life in foundries and pattern making. And it was a weird coincidence in that being where we went. But school-wise, I’m an average student. Probably up now wish I paid a lot more attention in some of the things that would benefit what I do now. But I don’t have any regrets at all that way.
[00:05:25.630] – Big Rich Klein
Right. Okay. Did you have time to play sports or anything like that?
[00:05:31.100] – Stan Haynes
Oh, yeah. I played a lot of baseball, football, and played all the way into high school. And then right out of high school, I got pretty much three months out of high school. I was drafted into the army. So I didn’t have a good chance to go any farther with any sports there. But yeah, I played more baseball than anything.
[00:05:57.870] – Big Rich Klein
Okay. And you said that you got drafted. So that was pre-’72, ’71?
[00:06:07.710] – Stan Haynes
Yeah, I got drafted in ’71, three months out of high school. It was a shocking time there. I thought I was getting drafted to go die in Vietnam, and that didn’t happen. But thank God, and probably one of the most maturing things that I went through right out of high school and pretty much establishing work ethic. And it taught me a lot. It taught me a lot of stuff, some good, some bad. READ MORE
