932nd MXG commander honored guest at NHRA races

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Christopher Parr
  • 932nd Airlift Wing Public Affairs

The National Hot Rod Association held their Midwest Nationals Sept. 27-29 at the World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway Motorsports, Madison Illinois, with Lt. Col. William McLeod, 932nd Maintenance Group commander in attendance as an honored guest, Sept. 29, 2019.

McLeod was brought on stage during the opening ceremony and presented an NHRA challenge coin and waved to the cheering crowd. 

“It was certainly an honor to be invited to the NHRA as an honored guest,” said McLeod. “I always had interest in racing, but never the skills to drive that fast.”

McLeod toured the pit areas and was given some insight on the maintenance of the these high performance cars.

“I really enjoyed walking around to the different teams and being invited in to see how they assembled these cars and the hard work and dedication to the sport by not only the drivers, but the folks behind the scenes that were professional and knew how to work together as a team,” said McLeod.

McLeod took notice of the immaculate pit areas for each team and how they maintained such a high level of work area cleanliness and professionalism while on the road.

“I thought it was very interesting coming from a maintenance background and could tie many similarities to the hard working men and women in Air Force Maintenance today,” McLeod said.