We believe our mission is critical to the reduction of suicide, substance abuse and stress-related anxiety among veterans, active-duty military and first responders who are largely suffering in silence with PTSD and other illnesses.
The roots of our organization go back to February 2019 when our founder, Jeff Goldsmith (609 racing) first realized the true need to connect veterans to off-road racing. Jeff was approached by Desert Vets Racing (DVR) of Ridgecrest, CA, to allow one of their participating veterans to co-drive for him at an off-road desert race. After only one race, DVR asked Jeff to help them grow their organization and he responded quickly to initiate the Southeast Chapter of DVR. Having achieved many milestones in a short period of time, the contributing individuals collectively agreed to re-organize and expand the mission to include first responders and rebrand our organization.
On Mission Motorsports was established in June 2021 to promote camaraderie and connectedness through adrenaline therapy for our nation’s first responders, active-duty military and veterans.
We race primarily with Competitive Off-Road Race Series. CORS has been and continues to be an incredible partner and is highly supportive of our mission. While, at times we race in other locations, our primary partner is CORS.
On Mission Motorsports drivers are responsible for the safety, maintenance, parts and accessories for their race cars.
2019
With only one team driver, we hosted two veteran participants at events in California.
2020
Despite the pandemic we not only increased the number of team drivers to three, we hosted 17 veteran participants at events in California and Georgia and were featured in Tactical Life and Coffee or Die magazines.
2021
We increased the number of team drivers to five hosted 15 veterans & active-duty and first responder participants at events in Missouri, Indiana and South Carolina.
2022
With two additional drivers, 25 heroes experienced adrenaline therapy and connectedness with us at 8 races in California, South Carolina and Georgia.
After the races, we stay connected to participants and their families. While our primary focus is promoting connectedness and (positive) adrenaline therapy during the events we host, we are also committed to helping participants with employment searches, financial struggles and dealing with PTSD and stress.
An invaluable resource to our organization is Veteran Services Officer (VSO) and author of, A Warrior’s Garden – Malachias Gaskin. Malachias makes himself available to talk one on one with anyone and provides crisis training and intervention coaching to our team drivers and board members.