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Ready for Next Mission: U.S. Marine Casey Battey Eager to Race Vintage Class at Five Flags

By Chuck Corder

Casey Battey has quite the Friday planned.

Sometime that morning, after 8½ years that included two overseas deployments and a heroic rescue effort, Sgt. Battey will honorably walk away from the U.S. Marine Corps.

Later that evening, he will get his first taste of asphalt racing as part of the Southern Vintage Racing Association exhibition race at Five Flags Speedway.

Modifieds, Super Stocks, Sportsmen and Bombers will all share the marquee with the 1932 and ’34 Ford and Chevy trucks and coupes when the gates open at 5 p.m. Friday.

Admission is only $5, and free for children ages 5-under.

For Battey, it promises to be a bittersweet day of celebration, reflection and, hopefully, a gentle initiation to Pensacola’s high-banked oval.

“I haven’t gotten a clue,� Battey said of what he is anticipating come Friday. “I know asphalt is less forgiving, but I’ve never raced it before.�

The SVRA raced on dirt tracks in Florida and Alabama in this its first season.

Dirt, more specifically off road, is right up the 27-year-old Battey’s alley.

A native of Menifee, Calif., a town north of San Diego, Battey’s father competed in Baja events throughout California’s deserts.

Battey was still in diapers when his old man put him on a dirt bike.

“Our family vacations were going out to the desert for four or five days and riding dirt bikes,� said Battey, who raced motocross as a kid before eventually following in his father Baja footsteps once in high school.

When his enlistment brought him to the Pensacola area in 2010, Battey and his young family settled just a mile away from Southern Raceway in Milton.

“I wasn’t going to the dirt track at first,� he admitted, “but the windows at the house were vibrating so much, I said, ‘Heck, let’s go!’ �

Battey was a casual fan for a few months before he had enough of accepting an armchair crew chief’s role.

“I was done just sitting in the stands and talking crap,� he said.

A racetrack of any shape and variety isn’t the ideal place to find refuge.

With drivers’ tempers sometimes boiling hotter than the engines chortling underneath their hoods and beatin’ and bangin’ a natural byproduct, the sport is not always an adequate stress reliever.

It has been that for Battey, though.

As an avionics and electronics specialist in the Marines, Battey was tasked with reconnaissance and counter-terrorism missions.

In 2007, he spent 5 months in Iraq on the USS Bonhomme Richard.

After a brief trip home for more training, Battey was part of Medium Marine Helicopter Squadron 163 that provided air support and helped rescue Capt. Richard Phillips from a crew of Somali pirates.

The pirates hijacked the Merchant Vessel Maersk Alabama and took Phillips as its only hostage in one of the ship’s life boats.

The standoff lasted four days before Navy SEAL snipers subdued the pirates and Phillips was rescued in good condition.

(Tom Hanks will star as Phillips in a feature film this fall entitled “Captain Phillips� about the harrowing mission.)

While he loved serving and getting a chance to see the world — he has been to 17 countries and all but two continents — Battey is confident that it’s time to move on.

“I’m at a point in my life, at 27, that I can still start another career,� he said, “and to go on and do other things.�

That’s music to the ears of Megan Battey, his wife of eight years, and their daughters, 4-year-old Keeley and 2-year-old Lillian.

“Casey is someone that I kept bugging and bugging until he finally joined us,� said Christine Rovito, who helps with new membership to the SVRA among other responsibilities. “He’s as gung ho as it gets. If there’s a race, Casey wants to go.�

Battey loves promoting this new, albeit old class of 2,600-pound cars on 8-inch tires.

A novice to the class himself, Battey has received great support from his crew chief Mickey Hughes and sponsors Pro Comp Machine, Able Auto Repair and Savers Transmission.

“It’s basically like grabbing a bull by the horns and hanging on,� Battey said. “It’s the most unpredictable thing I’ve driven. At the same time, it’s so much fun. Everybody that races, it’s like a big family.�

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