On this weeks episode of the Rising Star, host Langley Austin dials up one of the nicest people in short track racing, Mike Ray. Ray works the souvenir booths at both Wake County Speedway in Raleigh, NC and Southern National Motorsports Park in Lucama, NC but this weekend he'll be going racing for the first time in 22 years.

He'll be driving a car that he bought from former Eastern North Carolina racer Bruce Martin. Ray spent 12 years paying off the car while it was on layaway and another five years after getting it in his posession to get the car ready to race. He'll make his first start in the Southern Ground Pounders on Friday night and talks about the journey to get his car ready and his excitement to get behind the wheel.