In a sport increasingly dominated by six-figure payouts, professional teams, and social media highlight reels, it’s easy to forget who truly keeps drag racing alive.
It isn’t the professional racers.
It’s the local racer.
It’s the bracket racer who works a full-time job Monday through Friday before spending all week preparing for a Saturday race. It’s the junior dragster family hauling their child to the track every weekend. It’s the footbrake racer chasing a track championship. It’s the racer who wins three rounds, loses in fourth, loads up, and heads home without anyone outside their local track ever knowing they were there.
There are far more of those racers than there are professionals.
And that’s exactly why The Fat Rabbit and Sticks Show exists.
What began as a simple race report has grown into one of the most recognizable grassroots drag racing shows in the Carolinas, but according to Tom Thompson and Rusty Maddox, the mission hasn’t changed.
The goal is simple: give local racers a voice.
It Started With a Race Report
Long before there was a live show, there was the Fat Rabbit Race Report.
Tom Thompson spent years compiling local race results and posting them online, primarily covering action from Ware Shoals Dragway while trying to keep up with racing around the region.
Then one evening, Rusty Maddox stopped by Tom’s shop.
The conversation eventually turned toward the race reports.
Why not go live?
It wasn’t a business plan. It wasn’t a carefully crafted media strategy. It was simply two racers deciding to talk about the sport they loved.
“We were definitely not professional,” Maddox laughed while reflecting on those early days.
The pair began hosting live shows centered around local racing, discussing results, interviewing winners, and highlighting racers from the tracks they knew best.
At first, the focus remained close to home.
Greer.
Ware Shoals.
The racers they saw every weekend.
The racers they competed against.
The racers whose stories often went untold.
Growing Without Forgetting Where They Came From
As the audience grew, so did the show.
What started as a local discussion gradually expanded to include coverage from tracks such as Shady Side, Mooresville, Farmington, and other facilities throughout the region.
The show’s guest list began expanding as well.
Over time, The Fat Rabbit and Sticks Show welcomed major names from the sportsman racing world, including racers such as Luke Bogacki, Tyler Bohannon following his million-dollar race victory, and multiple-time champion Kevin Brannon.
For a show that started in a small shop talking about local race results, those moments represented major milestones.
Yet despite the growth, neither Thompson nor Maddox wants to lose sight of what built their audience in the first place.
“We don’t want to get away from the grassroots,” Maddox explained.
That philosophy surfaced repeatedly throughout the conversation.
While many media outlets focus almost exclusively on the biggest races and highest-profile competitors, Fat Rabbit and Sticks continues to prioritize local racers and local tracks.
Because they understand something many people forget.
Grassroots racers are the sport.
The Racers Who Keep the Sport Alive
Professional drag racing may grab headlines, but grassroots racers fill the pits every weekend across America.
They’re the ones paying entry fees.
They’re the ones supporting local tracks.
They’re the ones introducing their children to the sport.
They’re the ones helping fellow competitors fix broken race cars at midnight.
And in many cases, they’re the ones racing for decades without ever receiving much recognition outside their local racing community.
That reality became one of the driving forces behind the show.
Maddox spoke passionately about wanting racers to receive their moment in the spotlight.
Not because they’re seeking fame.
Because recognition matters.
A racer who wins a local race deserves to have their accomplishment celebrated.
A junior dragster racer deserves recognition.
A footbrake racer deserves recognition.
A local track champion deserves recognition.
The Fat Rabbit and Sticks Show was built to provide exactly that.
Giving Back Instead of Taking
Perhaps the most unique aspect of the show isn’t the interviews.
It isn’t the livestreams.
It isn’t even the growing audience.
It’s what they do with the support they receive.
As sponsors began joining the program, Thompson and Maddox made a conscious decision.
Rather than pocketing the money, they would reinvest it into grassroots racing.
Sponsor dollars have funded reaction-time awards, burnout contests, racer bonuses, and special programs designed to reward competitors.
One of their most ambitious projects is The Fat Rabbit and Sticks Show Triple Crown Throw down Team Challenge.
The concept is simple.
Teams consisting of a dragster or door car racer, a footbrake racer, and a junior dragster or sportsman racer compete throughout the season, accumulating points while Fat Rabbit and Sticks tracks the standings independently.
At season’s end, sponsor-funded payouts reward the top-performing teams.
It’s another example of the show’s commitment to the racers who support it.
Not just covering racing.
Contributing to it.
More Than a Show
Ask Thompson and Maddox where they hope the show will be in five years and the answer isn’t complicated.
They want to continue growing.
They want to help promote races.
They want to help tracks.
They want to bring more attention to racers.
Most importantly, they want to continue serving the grassroots racing community that supported them from the beginning.
In an era where everyone seems to be chasing bigger audiences, larger payouts, and national attention, The Fat Rabbit and Sticks Show has built something different.
They’ve built a community.
A place where local racers matter.
A place where grassroots racing still takes center stage.
Because at the end of the day, there may be professional racers on television.
There may be million-dollar races drawing national attention.
There may be famous names known throughout the sport.
But there are far more racers spending their weekends at local tracks across America.
Far more racers chasing win lights than championships.
Far more racers doing it simply because they love the sport.
And those racers deserve a place to be celebrated too.
That’s what The Fat Rabbit and Sticks Show is all about.
And racers…. are our families
