This article first appeared in the February, 2014 edition of SportsCar Magazine. SCCA members can read the current and past editions of SportCar digitally here after logging into their account; To become an SCCA member and get SportsCar mailed to your home address monthly in addition to the digital editions, click here.
Mike Sauce, a Life in Tune
When on stage with his band First Rush, singing I have an addiction, Mike Sauce is not talking about your typical rock n’ roll tribulations of drugs, alcohol, and women; he’s singing about SCCA. Though the song and his list of SCCA Club Racing wins tell of his need for speed, one could argue his real addiction is music.
Sauce’s love for music was born out of sibling rivalry. His older brother had a bone disease and spent a lot of time in the hospital as a kid. When someone brought in a guitar for his brother to play to pass the time and find some cheer, Sauce was sure he could play the guitar better than his brother. For the most part, he taught himself to play, knowing that lessons would not teach him the soul he needed to perform the James Brown and Smokey Robinson music he loved.
“I took one lesson and decided I didn’t need to take lessons anymore, because they wanted me to learn music,” Sauce laughs. “I just wanted to shake my butt and get girls.”
He would eventually learn to read music the traditional way so he could teach others, but is lucky to be blessed with a natural ear and strumming talent. He played with friends in high school and reconnected with a former band mate in college when a new group was looking for a guitarist who could sing. The group became known as Rush in the summer of 1971.
While attending the University of Texas at Arlington as a pre-law student, Sauce and Rush played several times a week while he studied and worked.
“When you’re 19 or 20 years old, you stay out until 2 a.m., then go to school in the morning and work in the afternoon and you’re just fine,” Sauce recalls. “That’s what I did for years. I did what I had to do because I didn’t want my parents to have to pay for anything.”
He ended up 30 hours short of attending law school, but did score a recording contract with Polydor Records after submitting an original song in a contest. However, by then, there was a subtle change in the band’s name, which you may have guessed.
“We were playing in Dallas and we went down the street to see who was playing and it was a band called ‘Rush’ from Canada,” recalls Sauce. “We went in and talked to them. They said they’d been together a couple months and they had a record deal. At that time we’d been together a couple years. They made it stick and we didn’t, so we changed our name to “First Rush.”
After two years playing with heavy hitters like AC/DC, Fleetwood Mac, Ted Nugent, and Peter Frampton, First Rush dissolved along with the band’s record contract in 1979. Disillusioned with the music industry, Sauce kept playing locally. With the money he made from playing music he was able to open a shop, Sports Car Performance, in Arlington.
“I had a racecar shop where I kept my racecar, this little Triumph Spitfire,” Sauce says. “After the Polydor deal went sour and the band broke up, I just started going there and working on my racecar. I got to play with a local band at night and during the day I’d go to the shop and work on my car. After a while, friends started bringing me cars to fix, so I started fixing cars. One thing led to another and here I am with an 8,000sq-ft shop!”
And quite a unique shop it is, because there can’t be many equipped with a full recording studio, which is coming in handy now that four of the original five members of First Rush have reunited.
While serving on the SCCA Board of Directors for the Southwest Division, the topic was brought up of Sauce creating a song about SCCA. He’s since written a piece called I Have an Addiction, which you may have heard performed at 50th National Championship Runoffs at Road America in September 2013, where First Rush rocked the Friday night party. While Sauce didn’t compete at this year’s Runoffs, he has been to the big show some 25 times, finishing fourth in 1994 and 2008 in a Formula F, and getting on the podium in 2000.
You can find the song on the band’s Website, and you can buy their new album, It’s About Time, on iTunes, but you won’t hear many more songs about racing. First Rush’s latest material is about growing older and wiser.
“We’re some spiritual guys,” Sauce says. “We all have about 60 years of experience in this life, and when you do that, you know the answers to questions you’d never thought you’d know. Experience is such a great teacher. I was taught at a young age to respect my elders. I was always interested in talking to older people because they have such experience from their time on this earth. I’m getting to the age that I’m starting to understand things that I didn’t realize I understood. A lot of songs we write are about that.”
Expect to hear more new music from First Rush in 2014 as they head back to the recording studio over the holidays – and the next time you need to feed your addiction of soulful rock n’ roll, you may not need to look much farther than an SCCA Club Racing event.
Fast Facts
SCCA Region: Texas Region
Member since: 1974
Favorite Author: W. Milliken
Last Book Read: Racecar Vehicle Dynamics
Favorite Entertainer: Will Ferrell
Favorite Movie: Le Mans with Steve McQueen
Favorite TV Show: Big Bang Theory
Favorite Food: Meat and potatoes
Favorite Non-SCCA Activity: Playing in a rock band
First Car Owned: 1963 Ford Falcon
Favorite Car Owned: 1975 March FB ex Gilles Villenueve, James Hunt, Dorsey Schroeder
Current Daily Driver: 2006 F250 pickup
Favorite Race Driver: Harry Sauce because we learned to race together.
Most influential person in my life: Three people, my wife, my father, and my brother Harry. My father taught me the importance of integrity, honesty, and family. My brother was always my biggest fan and helped me meet the challenges of music, racing, and life in general. My wife has kept me grounded and has supported me through the last 25 years. Every year with her is a blessing.
Words by Erin Cechal
