As the daughters of Dirt Track Hall of Famer Charlie Swartz, we come from a long line of dirt track blood. While we have never been around the track as competitors, we have always been devoted to life at the track. Our grandfather was Audie Swartz (well known sprint driver from the 60s around the Indiana and Ohio region). Our brother Audie is a late model driver, innovative chassis builder/owner at Swartz Race Cars, and was inducted into the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame as a contributor to the sport. Our cousin Jim Stinson and his son, Cale, both wheel 410 sprints on a weekly basis. Shelley’s son is also an up and coming dirt late model racer, Lucas Crooks. Oh, you thought we were done? Nope! Our mom, Leslie, is the daughter of Dave Bailey who was also a dirt race car driver and car owner (best known for the #37 Bailey Brothers Racing car that was driven by Charlie Swartz, Junior Spencer, and David Pearson to name a few). He also built and owned Checkered Flag Speedway in Ashland, KY! To say we are proud of our family’s long history in racing is an understatement. It only feels fitting that we have finally found our place in the racing world as small business apparel owners.  

 

Our mission is to bring a modern twist on the old race style. Track life is about enjoying our time spent with family and friends, it’s a time that we can let go of our weekly stress and let loose. When are we the happiest? When we are in our comfort zone and feel confident. We want everyone to be confident knowing that you look your best while still being comfortable, cool, and able to get dirty!  Whether you’re sitting in the stands watching or getting down and dirty working on the car, you gotta feel your best. Why should we limit our feeling of looking on trend to Monday through Friday only?  Track days are the best days!  

 

Why name it Checkered Past Apparel? It’s one of those phrases that has multiple meanings. We both feel like it’s perfect for us in many ways including race life but also personal life.  Everyone has a checkered past - none of us are perfect - we know the only perfect human being to ever walk the Earth was Jesus Christ.  Knowing that, we can all say we have a checkered past, so why not own it and wear it? The more obvious reason is our long blood line of racers, they have collected a lot of checkered flags in their time and we have seen many checkered flags fly at many tracks across the country (and actually the world!). While we have had a lot of checkers in the past, we are still chasing checkers and living that dirt track life. So here we are trying to combine a few passions into one and enjoy life while we are at it!  We are also still full time workers with families, but this is something we hope can become even more full time for us.  

 

You may also see sneaks of a biblical reference in our apparel and we want to be sure to always share that reason with you.  You won’t see the full scripture anywhere, but it will be here forever and we will always be excited to talk about it too!  Shelley has found Romans 8:28 to be very special to her over the past few years as she’s grown as a woman, a mom, a daughter, a sister, and a friend.  Romans is a beautiful book of the Bible that is something everyone should read.  Hey, if you’ve not ever dove into the Bible, can we just recommend you start with that book? You won’t regret it!  It is a book that teaches us about God, who He is, and what He has done.  It also tells us about Jesus and what his death accomplished.  And, lastly, it tells us about ourselves and what we are like without Christ and who we become with Christ. You are so loved by the Lord and the opportunity for you and us to have a life everlasting is waiting for us - we just have to be willing to live it.  We are all in different areas in our walks with Christ, walk with us as we look at our checkered pasts with hope for the future. Go live that dirt life!   

 

In regard to our goals for our apparel, we plan to have multiple collection lines as we grow - including trendy fun pieces for you to wear, driver apparel lines, and a classic collection of our branding, along with fun accessories too.  If there’s something you’d like to see at the track or online that you can’t seem to find, be sure to let us know! We are always willing to hear what you want.    

 

Keep an eye out and help us grow too! Purchase from us, share our page, comment and like our social media posts, stop by and say hi if you see us, and be sure to tag us in all your pics at the track!