| Rodney
Wills may not have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth,
but he was more than compensated for it by being able to grow
up behind the wheel. At eight years old he started driving heavy
equipment on his uncle’s farm. Flouting child labor laws,
his uncle would put him to work; he would get him started and
jump off the tractor, and have Rodney cut and plow fields. The
uncle found Rodney a willing employee. Now, while he did not
engage in any tractor races, the seed had been planted (literally);
the passion for driving already raced through his veins.
Later on in Alabama, Rodney would drive his
father’s old pickup truck. As young teen-agers sometimes
do, he would sneak the truck out to splash in the mud on the
local country back roads. Rodney did not limit himself to
four-wheel rides, however. Motorcycles were always apart of
family life and Rodney had started riding at age five. Racing
came at age six on the dirt oval flat track at Talladega.
Trail riding was an everyday thing in the backyard woods and
local mountains.
Magazines would introduce Rodney to skateboarding
and then BMX in 1977. Normal by today standards but then in
rural Alabama, Rodney was way ahead of his peers. Just like
his hobbies, his life went in the order of Art, Music, and
Cars. His passions led him to the California College of Arts
and Crafts after two years at the Atlanta College of Arts
and Crafts. After achieving a bachelors degree of art in graphic
design, Rodney went on to work ten years in the snow, skate
and surf industry through his art, working for the famous
O’Neill wetsuit company. Next came music as the art
director for the car audio speaker manufacturer Image Dynamics.
That led to Rodney starting the import car culture lifestyle
magazine, TMRm’zine. This magazine put the “lifestyle”
label on the import market that has now grown to enormous
proportions in the automotive industry.
At the beginning of 1996 is when Rodney’s
lifelong passion for driving and racing focused on rally racing.
TMRm’zine in 1997 became one of the few U.S. magazines
to cover the rally scene. His enthusiasm soon would become
more than the editorial pursuit of rallying in 1998. With
the editorship of Car Audio and Electronics magazine with
the Primedia Publishing Group, his art, music and cars continue
his life-thread combination from 2000 to 2003, with rally
fueling the passion.
After a week long sabbatical at the 2001
WRC Rally of Great Britain and upon the return home the formation
of a seven car team known as the Gravel Crew began. With the
Gravel Crew motto “convert to dirt” the Gravel
Crew’s purpose is to promote the sport of rally racing
in the USA as the next automotive movement for the extreme
sport lifestyle — specifically geared to the now mainstream
automotive youth market as a way to stand out from the crowd
and take a new stance on driving. With 2002 as the starting
point date and a goal of 2007 to have the Gravel Crew name
synonymous with the sport of rally racing at a national level. 2003 brought on new shift back to motorsports
as Rodney has stepped into a new job title as associate publisher
for RACER magazine — the premier motorsports title in
the USA; a part of Haymarket Media with several worldwide
authentic motorsports titles. |
