Thu, 1 May 2008, 06:08 PM Can I Have Pepperoni And A Hemi, Please?

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2008 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Joe Mialki

When I was in high school, and yes I can remember that far back, my friends and I often had discussions about what type car we wanted. Did we want something that was really fast or did we want something that looked really cool. Were we trying to impress the guys with our speed or the girls with our looks? For example, my friend had a 1965 Plymouth that had a 426 cubic inch wedge engine that was very quick but it was also rather plain. It had the Belvedere I body style that was certainly function over form. We used to call it a "sleeper," because it was so plain and so fast. My other friend had a Pontiac GTO with all the trimmings. It was a red convertible and it had those neat little dual-tip exhausts. It was a show stopper and it was fast. Anyway, the battle often raged that if you could have either a fast car or a good looking car, which one would you choose? Fortunately for me, it was never a problem. And fortunately for Joe Mialki it's not a problem, either.

While Joe doesn't have a problem with his choice of cars, it wasn't always that way. "I was voted 'Most Likely Not to Succeed' in high school," he said. "All I did back then was work in the pizza shop." Well, for those of you back at Freeport High School, you should see Joe now. At one time he owned seven Italian restaurants in Florida and he still owns one, a very big and very successful one. "It's called Giuseppe's Steel City Pizza," Joe said. "We call it a pizza shop but it's much more than that." Indeed it is. Any place that seats over 300 people is more than a pizza shop. And any place that caters to some of the top NASCAR teams in the country is more than a pizza place. "The Richard Childress team, the Roush team and others all come to our place when they're in town. And whenever John Travolta is near us he stops by, too." That's a pretty nice clientele for a guy who wasn't supposed to make much of himself after high school. One of the reasons that Joe does so well is his attention to detail. "Everything that goes out of there we cook," he said. And by "we" he means himself, his wife, Julie, and his brother Andy and his wife, Judy. "I couldn't do what I do without their help. I was able to race last week at the points meet and this week at the national event because I was able to take two weeks off and then I'll go back and work for four weeks in a row." All of that so he can do two things that he loves almost as much as he loves cooking great Italian meals, drag racing and spending time with his family.

Since Joe was working in that pizza shop in high school until today he has loved drag racing. "I built a Super Pro Dodge Dart when I was in school. I was fifteen years old and had one of the neatest cars around." Joe raced that car for a number of years before stepping up to his first big car, a classic 1965 Plymouth. "I had that car for a while and it was a lot of fun, and it was an original hemi car." Then, when his daughter was born, he said that he went to the track, made it to the semi-finals and then came home and sold the car. "My wife and I knew that we had to spend time with the kids and take care of our business. Family and the business have always been our main priorities." As much as they put those two things at the fore front of their lives, Joe and Julie got a sudden dose of reality a few years ago. "Julie was diagnosed with cancer," Joe said. "They took a nine pound tumor out of her. Thank God she has been cancer free for five years now. When something like that happens it puts everything else you do into its proper perspective." Ironically, while Julie was in the hospital, she told Joe that it was time to go racing again. "She said that we needed to enjoy life, every day of it, and she encouraged me to go out and get a car and so I did."

Joe Mialki won Best Appearing Award

Joe, with the help of his son, Jo-Jo (Joseph III), actually set out to find his original '65 car. "He spent about a day on the computer and was able to track it down. The car was in California and was owned by Dave Rayborn, but he didn't want to sell it." So, the search was on for another car and that bought them to the current ride, a sweet, 1965 hemi-Plymouth that recently won the Best Appearing Car Award at the Summit Racing Southern Nationals. "It's an original car and we have the check that the original owner used to buy it," Joe said. "It has been a race car all of its life and that's what it will be as long as we own it." As you can imagine, '65 hemi cars are rare and valuable, but Joe insists that it's not for sale. "We've been offered a lot of money for it, but this will be my daughter's car in a few years. She's the apple of my eye and she loves it so it will be hers." Hey Joe, want to adopt an aging drag racing announcer, because I'd like to have a ride like that once in my life? "My son has a '64 car that he found in Oregon and we're going to take him out and get some grade points soon so he can race with me." His son, complete with a college degree from Florida State University, works in the family business and loves tracking down classic cars. "I sold two cars that I had, including a street rod and a truck, and bought the '64 car," Jo-Jo said. "I'm really looking forward to racing it with dad."

Joe and Julie

Joe's '65 car looks good because of two things, a design that Travis Hess, along with Joe's wife came up with, and a spectacular paint job that Bucky and Travis Hess did. "Every car that we have had started out blue and we've changed them all to orange or some shade of it. When my wife said that she wanted something that would be a show stopper I knew right away who was going to paint it. Bucky and Travis are absolutely the best." The car, which appears to change colors depending on how the sun is hitting it, features a new color from the folks at Sherwin-Williams paint. "It's called 'Planet Earth' and it has beautiful diamond flecks in it that give it a really special effect." It is beautiful and it's one of those cars that you have to see up close to fully appreciate. And while the car looks great, it also runs well. "Dennis Steward does our engines. I went to a points meet a few years ago and every SS/AH car in the country was there. I told my wife I'm not taking my car out there with all of those heavy hitters on the grounds." As fate would have it, Joe was parked right next to Dennis and the two struck up a conversation. "He couldn't have been nicer to me. We talked and ever since that day he has built all of my engines. He even moved down to Florida to be closer to us." The end result of Dennis's work is a car that can run in the low nine-second range and is a threat to win its class at every race Joe attends."

I don't often use the term, "classic success story," but that's what Joe Mialki is. From truly humble beginnings to his current situation, Joe has worked hard for everything he has. He also appreciates everything he has and that makes him even more special. "I have the love of my wife, her health and good children, so what more could I ask for?" He forgot to mention that he also has a thriving business and a car that's at home on the drag strip as it would be in a car show. Now if only the guys from my high school could see Joe's car they'd know that it's possible to have both a fast car and one that looks good. And if you're lucky, you can get a little pasta to go along with it.

For more information on the family's restaurant, check out their web site at www.giuseppessteelcitypizza.com.