John Vogels is expecting the five days between the All Star Challenge and Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic to be "crazy busy".
The veteran sprintcar driver never misses a showing of either, but needs the week to prepare his own car and change the 360 engine of the Challenge to a 410 for the Classic.
And this is all after a long day's work running his business Vogels Motors.
"Hopefully I don't crash (at Simpson) and there isn't any repairs, because then I've got to swap the engine around and service the car and make sure there is a lot of spares for the Classic to be ready to go," Vogels said.
"I do it all after work, so it takes the week for me to do it myself.
"Then if you're on the Friday night (at Premier), we've still got to work Friday morning and then head to the track.
"It's crazy busy, but the Classic is great to be in and it looks like they've got plenty of cars nominated for it."
Saturday's All Star Challenge will mark the 52-year-old's season debut, after preparation was delayed.
"Work's been flat out and I haven't really got going yet," Vogels said. "I've been getting the car ready over Christmas time when we had a bit of time off.
"I changed the 360 engine and tuned her up a bit better, and I've freshened the 410 engine up a bit too, so I'm ready to go now."
A past winner of the All Star Challenge, Vogels said he loved racing at his home track of Simpson, where the $15,000 winners purse attracts a strong field.
"My named sponsor for the car is Mainline DynoLog Dynamometers, and they sponsor the show as well," he said. "So I like to be there for him.
"It's an expensive sport, and we have a lot of local sponsors. We thank all them for getting us up going again."
Despite going in with limited time in the car, Vogels said he would be out to win at Simpson.
"You've got to be there to win it, and anything can happen on the day," he said. "But first show I might be a little rusty for a heat, but then should come good."
Though Vogels hasn't yet had a chance to race on Premier Speedway's new surface ahead of the Classic, he's still had a front row seat at recent shows as he works with 21-year-old Wangaratta rookie Ash Cook.
"It's Ashley's first season, so I've been there helping him and his dad David with the car a bit," he said.
"That will help us going out there (Premier) for the first time; I've seen what's going on."
Vogels said making the A-Main at both the Challenge and Classic would be great achievements.
But asked what it was that's kept Vogels racing all these years though and it was family that proved the winner.
"All our family goes along; my wife and two kids, Naomi, Amy and Zoe, are always there," he said.
"And my brother Adrian is the crew chief, and all his kids come as well and sit up on the hill in their yellow shirts.
"So it's just a big family thing."
