The Best On Car Prank: RECKONING’S “SPEEDY” STEVE VOLLBRECHT on TEAMMATE BRIAN ANDERSON
I don’t know how many of you have had the pleasure of chatting with or spending any amount of time around Reckoning’s “Speedy” Steve Vollbrecht, but, I highly recommend it if you get the chance. Vollbrecht has an impish sense of humor and a love of mischievousness and practical jokes that is almost unparalleled amongst people who aren’t currently attending junior high.
One of Vollbrecht’s favorite targets is his teammate Brian Anderson. When Vollbrecht stops over at Anderson’s house (where Anderson builds his cars), he’ll often disappear into the recesses of Anderson’s backyard with a paint brush, spray paint can or, if Anderson has left it out and accessible, an acetyline torch and go to work on Anderson’s cars.
Before Third Night this year, Vollbrecht managed to sneak the phrase, “I Sit When I Pee” onto the driver’s side of Anderson’s car. Third Night was, you’ll recall, the night that Speed Channel came out and filmed the night’s races. And sure enough, if you look closely on TV, you’ll see that “I Sit When I Pee” on the side of Anderson’s car.
However, what makes this prank so good is that it didn’t end simply with Vollbrecht embarrassing Anderson in front of nearly 10,000 fans in the stands and hundreds of thousands more on cable television.
On the Thursday after Third Night’s race, the Chicagoland Speedway campus was going to have a car show. The two demo teams that made it to the finals the previous night of racing—Reckoning and Stranglehold—would be rewarded by being the two teams to represent the TDA at the event. Still completely unaware that Vollbrecht had monkeyed with his car at all, Anderson put the “I Sit When I Pee” car onto a trailer and brought it to the event. Only then, after numerous giggling kids asked him why he sat down to pee, did Anderson learn of Vollbrecht’s handiwork.
“It was really weird,” Anderson confesses. “I’m talking about the demos and these kids keep asking me why I have to sit down to pee. I didn’t even have to look. I just knew it was Speedy.”
Now that’s a good prank.