GNCCRacing.com: Hey Austin, how did your race go this morning? And how has your season been going as a whole?
Austin Parks: Well, my season’s been kind of off to a rough start, and to be honest, today was some more of the same. First off, I switched from Can-Am to Polaris. Switching makes is always rough in general, and when you’re trying to race a pro class that makes it that much harder. Seems like we keep having minor issues. I’ve always been able to finish, but when you’re at this level even a minor problem can become a major issue….. You just can’t have any problems and still be able to compete. I think things are looking up though. I feel like I’m a pretty good sand rider too, so I’m looking forward to the next race!

Sorry to hear it’s been rough, and I hope you get all those kinks worked out! So did the racing come first for you, or were you a graphics guy who got into racing?
I started out riding here and there as I grew up. My dad always had ATVs around, and we’d go on riding trips and stuff. But I didn’t really race at all. We started up the graphics company when I was a senior in high school. But then I went to play college football for University of Indianapolis, and the riding had to be put aside for the time being. Then as I was going into my second year of college in 2011, our designer quit. I didn’t really know what was going on for the most part, but I had to jump in and take over. Unfortunately this meant that I had to leave school, and I never ended up going back. Even though running the company was a full-time job, this is when I really started to get into racing. I did a couple of races during high school and liked it, so that’s what I’ve been doing since I left college and began managing Spider Graphix.

That’s pretty cool that the company started when you were still in high school! Can you tell me a little more about how that happened?
Well, my family had opened up a motorsports shop, Parks Motorsports, in 2008. We noticed that there was a huge delay whenever we tried to order graphics for our sponsored riders, usually about 8 months out. I figured obviously there was a need for more graphics companies in this industry, especially locally. We decided to buy a printer and see if we could figure it out. The motorsport shop closed when we had the downturn in the economy and the motorsports industry, but Spider Graphix is still going strong. So I guess we made the right call.

Were you running the graphics company all by yourself at this point, or was your dad or somebody else involved as well?
When the designer quit my Mom came to me and asked if this was something I really wanted to do. I said “yes!” So, my buddy, Destin Holmes, Mom and I jumped in with both feet.

I generally think of Spider Graphix as an ATV-centered company, but you do other work, right?
Yeah, we do bikes, UTVs, trailer wraps, race cars, decals, apparel, logo design and color-change wraps, etc. We’ll pretty much do anything. But yes, it is ATVs that we are mostly known for. We are one of the biggest ATV graphics companies in the U.S. and I would say about 90% of our work comes from ATVs.

You mentioned while we were setting up the interview that you have a “triple alliance” thing going on with two other names well known to GNCC ATV racers, DeRisi racing and Tirespine. Is that a business partnership or just a co-sponsored race team, or is it something else entirely?
I guess the best way to think of it is kind of like a system of recommendations. We all have enough faith in the other company’s products that we use them ourselves, and send our customers to them. Like if a guy walks into my shop and asks if I know a good suspension guy, I recommend that they get in touch with DeRisi, or if they want to know about flat-prevention systems, I push them towards Tirespine. Then DeRisi and Tirespine both do the same for me, and most of our associated riders run Spider Graphix. I think it has really helped all three of our companies grow and get us all good publicity through our racers.

What are you hoping to accomplish with Spider Graphix over the next couple of years?
Obviously we want to grow more, but providing a better experience for our existing customers is what we are constantly seeking to do. There are only so many hours in the day to design custom graphic kits and they obviously take a lot more time to design than customers choosing from pre-designed kits. We have been really backed up this year which has been worse than we have any other year before due to the amount of orders received. I hate making people wait three and four weeks like we are right now. But on the flip side, I guess it is also a good sign that people like our products enough that they are willing to wait for awhile. Right now I’m training my wife to design, and hopefully by next year she’ll be all-in and able to start designing full-time. That should help with the backlog. This is my first year with two other designers plus me, but it obviously is still not enough to get things done as fast as I would like. An additional designer will definitely help us get through busy season.

Makes sense. Changing tack here though, how did you first get involved with GNCC Racing?
We started going to spectate at Ironman in 2007, since it’s a huge deal for people in our area, one of the biggest events of the year. It’s cool getting to see all the national racers and the big rigs. I raced Ironman in 2010 and 2011. In 2012 I started doing a couple of out of state GNCCs, here and there. Each year I hit a couple more, and by 2014 I was doing seven. Then we just decided to jump in for real and hit them all. That’s what we’ve been doing ever since.

Why did you decide to start racing 4x4s instead of sport quads? 
I used to ride my dad’s 4x4s now and then, and I always had a good time with it. So in 2015 I picked up a Can-Am and decided to give it a try. We had DeRisi do a lot of work on it to make it race-ready, and got it working well. Then we had MZM Performance make some products to armor it a little better and keep it together.

Your wife and your father also race alongside you in the series, right?
Yep, we all travel to the races together, I guess it’s a family outing every other weekend! My Mom often times has to stay back to take care of business though. It’s very much a family thing for us, probably half my stuff is in my dad’s garage right now (laughs).

Do you guys ever get competitive with each other, or is there enough of a variation in skill levels so that isn’t really a thing?
Yeah, our skill levels are pretty different. I run 4x4 pro, my dad races 4x4 B, ever since he won 4x4 C two years ago. Since I moved to the 4x4 pro class this year, he has actually taken the first part of the season off to help me out, which I really appreciate. Every time he’s been in the pits, it’s turned out that I needed him. But I still wish he was out there riding too, and hopefully he will be able to again soon. This is my wife’s third season racing GNCC. She races sport quads in the women’s class. She actually just got her first win this season, so she’s pretty stoked and loving it right now.