A Trip Toward Success
Getting Involved With Dan Fisher Of Lone Star Racing
Story By: Cody Carney
Photos By: Brandon Bunch
When the phrase “two worlds collide” spews out in conversation, it usually is followed by an effect of great proportion. There’s even a sound to it… KAPLOW!!! To some, these effects could be devastating, as if life itself would cease to exist(not really). For Dan Fischer, it’s just his day by day life to make two things work. In his case, work and racing. By day, Dan is a family man and the owner and operator of Lone Star Racing. By night… well he’s the same guy. He’s a man that personifies Newton’s First Law of Motion. The dude is always moving and always doing something.
It all started for Dan when he partnered up with his folks back around 2007. As Dan jumped on board, his father maintained heavy involvement but wasn’t necessarily there on a daily basis. Today, although his parents are still involved, they spend most of their time traveling around and pretty much living in their rv, while maintaining communication just about every day. Originally, Dan and the company focused primarily on quad parts, but as time went on and the UTV already made its introduction, it seemed like a good fit to expand.
Dan: “Back in the day it was the Rhino. We would go to the drag races and see all the guys with their drag quads and all the guys with Rhinos, and we just kind of started talking about it, and before we knew it, we were involved in building parts for Rhinos. It was kind of a joke in the beginning but then I was blown away by how big it was. We had to get out of the one building we were at and ended up moving into our current building. Since then we’ve been more involved with the Polaris, the Can-Am, and just the industry itself.”
Getting more involved in the industry itself is no understatement. Dan eventually found himself behind the wheel and racing in his own car.
Dan: “I had a friend, Brian Bush who has been in the industry for a bit and had been doing some racing. I offered some extra support for a passenger seat to test the waters. The coolest part is the friends you meet in this industry—we started racing the California City Pure series in 2013. This is where I met Brandon Sims, Cody Nygren, and Kevin Shrive, and it all started. Even though we each have a slightly different version on what led to building BITD cars, one thing we can still all agree on was we all supported each other, and we all made it happen. Against my business partner who is my father, Tom Fisher, I decided to build a BITD car and my first race was the Mint 400. At the time, he did not approve, but it did not take long for him to see the pluses of me racing.”
Dan continued to race and make accomplishments both on and off the track. Soon enough, Lone Star Racing and Dan had begun gaining great renown. But Dan knows all too well he couldn’t have done it by himself.
Dan: “We have guys that have been here anywhere from ten to twenty plus years, so we do have a crew that has a lot of history, and all these guys mean the world to us. Yes, we butt heads, but at the same time, everyone’s goals are the same. We’re all trying to improve what we do and make life better here, so I’m very very fortunate.
The big advantage in my career is having the resources of my shop and not just equipment. The team here has so much knowledge and so many of them have off-road in their blood. We do get to try a lot, and yes, you can go backwards as fast as you can move forward. After anything we do, we work as a group and sort out the next step. I’m also very proud of my family which is the most important thing in my life. My wife Lauren and three children, Landon is 10, Sloane is 8, and Kellen is 5.
Work is what allows me to do so much and my wife is a big part of letting this happen. Work and racing does take a lot of time from family, and I do my very best to keep as much work out of home as we can. This is a family-owned company, and it is not just my family that makes it happen. My father Tom and I have worked together without killing each other for a long time. The time with my father is so important to my growth and who I have become. I am very lucky to have someone like him in my life and do not forget the true boss in this, and my biggest fan is his wife, Barbra. Last is Carlie Fisher, my younger sister. She is involved in the day to day and plays a huge part in making all this work.
Like I said, my family is the most important thing in my life and will do everything I can to pass on the same to my children. Being a father is definitely trial and error. I’m learning as I go, and I’m not going to push them into anything. I’ve never felt obligated that I had to do one thing to get another, I’m just going to kind of watch the kids grow and nurse them in the direction of what they want. If they want to get into racing or the family business, I’m all game.”
