Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Jordan Modiano loves to race. He loves to go fast, whether it is in his pro stock full fender racing car at Albany Saratoga Speedway, Alpine skiing, down a mountain, or in the past on a dirt bike. That love is now outmatched by the love of his adolescent daughter, Rachel, who is on the autism spectrum. This Friday, Modiano will help host and compete in the fourth annual Chevy Dealers Autism Acceptance 60 Lap Pro Street Stock Race with $10,000 to win a fundraising event for two local charities.
I sat down with Jordan to talk about the race, his passion for speed, and how he wanted to find a way to inform more people about autism and how special his daughter and others like her are. Here is Jordan Modiano.
Here is Jordan Modiano.
All right, Jordan. Well, thank you for taking the time to sit down and meet with me.
I've known you over a decade now.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I've known you some time now.
[00:01:05] Speaker A: It's been a while, and I've always known you. Friday nights, Albany Saratoga Speedway.
Getting out of a vehicle, sometimes in.
[00:01:16] Speaker B: The winner's circle, sometimes in the winter circle. Not as often as we want, but yes, sometimes in the winter circle, sometimes.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: In the pit after ended earlier.
[00:01:24] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: But what brings us together today is racing and your daughter Rachel. Rachel. And your cause of autism awareness. And racing for autism at September 5th is a huge date.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: It is.
[00:01:43] Speaker A: For Albany Saratoga. So let's talk about the 5th and about, you know, Rachel and how your life changed. Not only with a child, as everything changes, the whole world changes and those moments and those are monthly up to it. And then what's been going on since Rachel, you know, entered your life?
[00:02:04] Speaker B: Well, all right. So simply put, since Rachel entered my life, life got better, and my learning curve about life, leadership, parenthood, all of it grew exponentially.
So she's my hero. I learned so much from her. But, yes, she's got autism. So back in, like, 20. 20, 2021, 2022, something like that, we decided that we would make the race car an autism awareness car.
And it was more of a tribute to Rachel and kind of just, hey, let's let people know.
What happened wasn't what I expected.
So between running the autism awareness car, I picked up more fans, but not only did I pick up more fans, the amount of people who would come over after the races and talk to me about autism, and they think they've got a niece or a nephew or a grandchild who has autism, but they're not sure and they don't know where to go and get help.
I realized that there's A lot of people who don't know where to get information, don't know what that information is. And I realized that some of the sources where information could be found or where services are provided are not for profits, and they needed money to be able to do more.
So I approached the track and said, let's do an autism race for our class. Our class is the pro stocks, where we're not the biggest class, we're not the modifieds. But I said, you know what? Let's do a big race for the pro stocks. And I think our first race was 2022.
We did one. It was probably one of the biggest paying races for the pro stocks that had been, that had happened any place. And we had a good turnout and we raised some good money. We picked the autism Society, the greater Hudson region, and Bring on the Spectrum as our two partners. And we raised the money for them. They, whatever we got, they split 50, 50. We did auction at the track, and it was pretty cool. And the guy who won it, Richie Crane, he was amazing because not only did he help sponsor the race, not only did he donate things for the auction, but he won the race. And then he donated his winnings right back to the auction, Right, right back to the charity. And we raised like $13,000 our first year for the autism Society at greater Hudson region and Bring on the Spectrum. And I was like, all right, we got to do this bigger and better. I need a big sponsor. Let's make it a $10,000 to win race. Let me be able to go get some real press, some TV exposure, some paper exposure, some radio exposure. So we approached the upstate Chevy dealers and they were like, yeah, we're in. You know, you're. You're helping people with autism. Everybody knows somebody. And the upstate Chevy dealers have been an amazing partner since then. They really support our efforts in everything that we do.
So in 2023 was our second year of doing it, and upstate Chevy dealers was in. We took it to a new level. And I will tell you, it almost killed me because I was doing it by myself. So I'm running my own business, Express employment professionals, by myself with two locations. And then we've got this amazing race with $10,000 to win, the charities involved and everything else and the drivers and the promotion. And it became another business to run. So I had two 60 to 70 hour a week businesses that I'm running up until the race. And it was a lot. I had said, I'm not doing it again.
I just can't. I don't have the bandwidth. I can't sustain it.
When the race was over, the upstate Chevy dealers came back to us and said, this is great. We want to do it again. I'm like, thank you. I love you, but I don't know how. And in some negotiations, they sponsored some more money and it allowed us to do some stuff. So one of the things we were able to do is we built our website, racers for the number4autism.com, and it allowed us to house a lot of information there. And that saved me a ton of time because between the phone calls that I was getting in the text messages and the Facebook messages and the comments with questions about the race, and I had no one place to put everything.
And yes, you can post it up on social media at different places, but then people have got to scroll forever to try and find something. Once we built the website, it cut down a ton of time.
And then the friend of mine said, why don't you start a not for profit? It was like, huh, What a good idea. So we did. We started Racers for Autism as a not for profit because, hey, I'm a racer. And we had a lot of racers supporting us, and we were doing this for autism.
And by the way, I drive the number four car, so it made sense too. So we started Races for Autism this past year, I think about three months ago, Races for Autism hired our first person. So we hired a special needs person. So we're actually doing what we've committed to do, helping the community and raising money. We've kept our two primary benefactors, the Autism Society, the greater Hutchinson region, and bring on the spectrum.
Might we add more in years to come? Absolutely. Are we looking to raise more money this year than we've ever done before? Absolutely. So that's the long and the short of where we are today. And Rachel is the driving force behind all of it. You know, people say to me, how'd this happen? I said, well, I drive the race car.
She drives everything else.
[00:07:29] Speaker A: What was your education, experience, your own awareness of autism before Rachel entered your life? Was it a word?
Was it. You know, you see people as a race car driver, you have fans and you do events and you're everywhere. I try, you know, I mean, you're at so many things, and car shows are populated and they're popular, and ton of traffic that come by and see you.
Where were you?
You know, what did you know of autism before it really became a part of you?
[00:08:04] Speaker B: I knew it was a thing. I didn't really know what it was.
I'M like everybody else who's removed from it.
And I knew it was out there, but I didn't know what it was. I didn't know what it really meant. I didn't know.
I didn't know the spectrum, you know, and there is, there truly is so much to learn. I don't think anybody can really say they know what autism is because autism is a spectrum.
The, the saying is, once you know one person with autism, you know one person with autism, because you put my daughter who has autism next to another kid with autism and their tendencies can be totally different. My daughter does have the ability to look you in the eye. My daughter does have the ability to communicate with you. My daughter will give you a hug. A lot of people won't do that.
You know, there are people who, with autism who are non verbal. There are people with autism who are savants and you can tell them a date in history and they'll tell you what day of the week it was. You know, so there, there's so, so many differences.
And you know, one of the things I learned is autism doesn't always just stand alone. It comes with other things. So my daughter struggles with anxiety, she's got adhd. Oh, and she's an adolescent, so that adds a whole other thing. So we've got the four A's going to. But she's amazing in so many ways because while autism has some things that limit her, there are also some things.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: That are amazing superpowers I've got within our family. You know, you have your Rachel, I have my Geno, and our family.
It changes everything.
But true. I think the life experience is, like you said, the joys outweigh because they're special people, but in the most positive, smiling, loving, special ways.
[00:10:03] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:10:04] Speaker A: Versus the label that you and I grew up with of special meant something else, 100%.
[00:10:11] Speaker B: I'll share a story because, you know, Rachel is very.
She's smart and she understands stuff. So she is away at sleepaway camp right now. This is the first time she's ever done a sleepaway camp for an extended period of time without somebody she knows. So I think last summer and even the summer before that, she had gone for one night or two nights to a sleepaway camp, and we sent her with a respite worker, somebody who we knew, who she knew, who she had a good relationship with, who had a phone and we could Facebook and call at any point in time. She's now at a sleepaway camp without a respiratory worker. Yes, it's a Camp for special needs. But we dropped her off on Sunday. We pick her up on Sunday.
As a parent, I will tell you this is torture because you don't know, like, my kid's with a bunch of strangers.
You know, she's in good hands. We're talking to her every evening.
But here's the amazing part.
About two weeks ago, and we had this conversation multiple times. She's super excited for going to camp. And about two weeks ago, we're taking a walk one evening, and I said, so what do you think's gonna happen that first night when you're there? And she said to me, I'm gonna be scared. I'm gonna call you and I'm gonna tell you to come get me because I want to. Want to come home.
And I said, well, what do you want me to do?
She said, calm me down.
And you can't come get me because I have to figure out how to get through it, because I have to grow.
And as a dad, as a parent, as somebody who looks up to her, oh, my God.
All right.
She's already predicting how uncomfortable she's going to be, and she's right.
And she's predicting what she's going to want to happen.
She's right, and she knows that she's going to have to be uncomfortable.
If she's going to grow, she's going to have to do what she doesn't want to do. She's going to have to make me do what's even harder. It's like, as a parent, you want to go rescue your kid. You want to make them happy. You know, if she's melting down and crying and scared, you want to take that away. You want to comfort your child at the same point in time, you know, you have to put them through that to grow. And she gets it.
I know she likes doing those things, and she will love the fact that I'm sharing this because she wants to inspire other people.
When we were on TV last year, one of the hosts said, what's your favorite thing about the autism race? And Rachel said, throw in the green flag.
And they said, why?
And she goes, because it's really hard and it's really scary for me. And if I can do it, it shows other people they can do hard and scary things.
[00:12:59] Speaker A: I'm going to put a word in your mouth. I don't mean to, but I know.
To raise awareness for autism, how much of a difference has it made that you're sharing it in a different business community?
Because if you didn't have racing. Do you think you'd be at this level of impact if you were just express employment professionals and going to chamber mixers and now building the business? How, how much of an impact has racing made for.
For the cause and for autism?
[00:13:30] Speaker B: I think it. I think racing gave us the outlet. I think racing and I think upstate Chevy dealers really gave us the outlet, because when the upstate Chevy dealers came on board, they allowed us to put the biggest race any place in the world for our class of cars on stage.
That stage became.
Or for this year, that stage is the fourth annual upstate Chevy Dallas autism acceptance race. That's the stage.
Okay.
So I don't have that stage with anything else.
And racing is huge. I mean, NASCAR is one of the most watched and viewed sports there is.
So, yes, this is more local. It's dirt racing, but it's got a huge van. It's got a huge contingency. You've seen the race car. Everybody can associate with a race car. It's the autism car.
And I, I think the racing component, the car component has put it to another level.
[00:14:34] Speaker A: Excuse me talking about racing, but we got to, you know, I've been doing sports, you know, absolutely 24 plus years here, so there's a great book that I adore, and obviously it's got to be updated, but it's sports by the numbers.
And it's all about every number in sports goes from double zero, the Iceman, George Gervin, to 99.
Why number four?
[00:14:59] Speaker B: I have no idea.
I have no idea. As a kid, my parents got me playing soccer and I asked for number four. When I was a kid, I was never really good at soccer. I was okay, but I ended up liking sports that had motors.
I don't really know why number four, it's always just been my number.
Always.
No clue.
[00:15:21] Speaker A: And then auto racing, you said you went from soccer and then leaned into motors. So how, when, when did that journey begin?
[00:15:29] Speaker B: Oh, that journey began young. I mean, I got my first job, I think I was 12 or 13, at a gas station on Long island.
And I bought my first car. I think I was 13 years old. It was a 1972 Chevy Kingswood Estate station wagon. And I bought it just so I could take the engine apart and put it back together and see what it would do. I was always infatuated with cars, with things like that. As a kid, I was taking bicycles apart. We were building mini bikes and seeing how fast we can make them go.
That was just what I was into. And, you know, as soon as I was driving. It was hot rods and making cars go faster and then street racing, then, you know, circle track racing. Riverhead, Long Island. Then I got into go kart racing.
And then a friend of mine was like, hey, we got to get into dirt car racing. I was like, it's dirty. I don't want to do that.
But we did it anyway, and it's fun. And I like speed, I like racing, I like competition, and it doesn't matter what I do. You know, if.
When I had my motorcycle, I was like, I'm purposely getting a Harley cruiser and not a sport bike because I'll be doing 160 down the thruway on a sport bike. You know, it's not, that's not what I need. I go skiing, I'm the guy who's whipping down the mountain with a scope, fly behind my neck, trying to go as fast as I can. Can I hit 100 miles an hour on skis? That's. I just, I have that need for speed. And I love racing. It's just, it's fun. The competition's amazing, and I think there's a camaraderie, you know? Yes, you put your helmet on, you get on the track, everybody's your enemy.
But as soon as you get off the track and everybody will help you fix your car when it's broken again.
[00:17:13] Speaker A: You talked about you grew up in Long Island. What brought you to truly upstate New York? The real upstate New York?
[00:17:21] Speaker B: My girlfriend back then, my wife now.
So we were living down in Long island and she was looking for a job.
We had some friends up here and they said Shen was hiring.
She said to me, what do you think? I was like, I don't care. I go anywhere and do anything.
So she interviewed, she got the job. She said, let's go.
And you know, we joke around is me getting off Long island probably saved lives because my road rage was not great.
[00:17:50] Speaker A: So you, you end up. Now, when did, when do you. When did you, you and your wife.
[00:17:54] Speaker B: You know, come to November 1999. So we've been here a while.
We've. We've been here a while. We've made it a home.
[00:18:02] Speaker A: Did you know anything about racing in 99 when you moved up here?
[00:18:04] Speaker B: Did you.
[00:18:05] Speaker A: Was that like part of the, okay, we gotta look at school districts, we've got to look at cost of homes, we gotta look at work. And then when did the. Realizing this was the mecca of dirt car racing in the northeast.
[00:18:19] Speaker B: So we came up here, I was at dirt car racing, and I had no Desire to do dirt car racing. What I had been doing down on Long island was I was doing very competitive go kart racing. So when we came up here, I was like, well, where can I do that? And there were some places to do it on dirt. There were one or two places to do it on asphalt. So we, we started doing some asphalt and then started traveling. We would go to Connecticut and going down to Poughkeepsie. We.
God, I went all the way down to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for, For races. So we went all over the place and we were doing highly competitive go kart racing. And then at some point in time, it's like, all right, let's, you know, let's go to cars.
I think it costs about the same.
I mean, the go karts were just different. I mean, you spend thousands on an engine that was running on alcohol and, you know, it was just crazy difference. Really, really crazy difference. Highly competitive, but also, you know, it was. It's expensive to do.
And the funny thing is, there are some go kart races that are still running nationally where you make more money than racing cars.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: When you decided to make that leap into, you know, full size racing and things like that, were you automatically drawn to pro stock or did you?
[00:19:33] Speaker B: Yeah, because again, I'm from the Long island area. So when we did four full size cars down at Riverhead, you want cars, to me that look like race cars, you know, and the modifieds that I'm used to were asphalt mods. They're very different.
So when. When I look at the modifieds, the sportsman, the limited sportsmans here, I didn't grow up with that. I didn't grow up looking at those as race cars. You know, the pro stocks, to me, they look like race cars. Even when we go out and we do a show, Did a show a few weeks ago where there were a couple of mods or sportsman cars and pro stocks, the pro stocks get all the attention because they look like a nascar. And that's what happens. And they become the big draw. And. And you've been there. You see kids climbing in and out of my car. I mean, they love it. They're like. And it's a real race car. It's just. I don't know. I like it. I like the full fender racing attraction.
[00:20:30] Speaker A: Again, your car stands out. You have the autism car.
What's it like for you as a race car driver and a parent with someone who's on the spectrum and people are drawn to that car.
And you'll hear, I love the car.
What's the thing in your mind?
We're gonna do the word association.
When you hear the word puzzle car.
Cause that symbol for autism is.
I think it should be as worldwide as Coca Cola is that symbol. But so many people are drawn to that symbol. But they may not associate it with autism, but they know that symbol means something. So when you hear that term puzzle with huzzle car, what's that do for you?
[00:21:18] Speaker B: Puts a smile on my face.
I do think most people know, because I've had the question people look at, it goes, that's autism, right?
Absolutely. They get it. They know. And I think when they see it, it's like message is getting delivered. And I know we're making an impact, and I know we're making an impact that travels beyond just the capital region because of everything that we do on social media and everything that we do, every place, it's out there. And I'm not the only autism car. There are other autism cars. There are other people who do it, but not a lot of people who are putting on a giant race for it. I mean, we do have, you know, the Friesen do their aim autism at Fonda Speedway, which is giant and huge. And I love the fact that I've got somebody of that caliber who also does something. It, in a way, it validates what I'm doing.
[00:22:18] Speaker A: How fortunate are you again? Because when we have that business hat on, whether it be for the Daily Gazette or for Express Employment Professional, and you're at the mixers and you're wearing the name tag and things like that, and like, hey, what do you do? What do you do when you're near the car and people are coming up and they see the autism awareness car and they see the puzzle pieces, the low. They know.
Is there any easier icebreaker when people want to come up and talk about autism to you?
[00:22:47] Speaker B: No, there's not.
But I don't even need an icebreaker at this point in time.
I feel so comfortable talking to people about it, sharing my experiences with it, enlightening people, because people don't know.
People ask me, what's one thing you would want out of a conversation? Or if you're on a podcast, if there's one thing you want an audience to know or to do, what's that one thing thing?
And I'm going to say, just think before you judge for a minute.
So at some point, you're going to see a kid having a meltdown, all right? And you're automatically going to think, parents aren't controlling the kid. The Kid misbehaved, something.
Just think for a minute, is the kid behaving poorly or is the kid having a really bad time and doesn't know how to handle this?
And that's hard to do even as a parent. I remember, you know, Rachel having a meltdown and, like, she's just behaving badly. No, she's not behaving badly. She's having a bad time and doesn't know how to handle it. And our job as a parent is to figure that out.
Our job as the rest of society is to show some understanding and some compassion and not make the parent feel horrible when they have to try and help that child work through whatever they're working through, because they don't have the mechanisms and the strategy and everything else to deal with whatever just happened. With that frustration, with that challenge, with the overwhelmingly load of information that's coming in, People don't understand.
One of the things with autism is their ability to censor information, isn't there?
So you and I are sitting here right now, and it's kind of relatively quiet, but if you really tune and listen, you can hear my breath. You can hear the refrigerator going. You can hear the coffee maker going. You can hear people next door. You can hear that. You can see a light flickering a little bit. For my daughter, all of that is at the same exact level.
All right? None of that is background noise. It's all coming into her at the same exact level. That can be overwhelming for a lot of people.
Now take that. Put her at a racetrack. Put her up on the flag stand at a racetrack. There's dust flying, there's fans cheering, there's somebody on the announcer. There's 40 cars coming by at 6,000 rpm.
Holy cow. She manages to figure out how to do all of that. And it's different for her than it is for us because it's all at the same exact level, brightness, etc. So I'd ask people, take a minute and say, you know what? Maybe they're struggling with something.
[00:25:34] Speaker A: What's the night gonna be like for the fans, for the people coming to support the race and support you and Rachel and everyone else has someone on the spectrum who cares about people on the spectrum. What's Friday night gonna be like?
[00:25:52] Speaker B: All right, so first, and I'm going to call in some favors. It's going to be great weather. It's not going to be too hot, not too cold. It's not going to be a threat of rain any place. It's going to the Forecast for two weeks out is going to be amazing. All right. Calling in some favors to see how that goes.
Then it's just going to be exciting, informative.
When you show up at the track, you'll see the autism society, you'll see bring on this spectrum, you'll see the Saratoga county sheriff's department and some others all set up in the grassy area. There's going to be a ton of amazing items that people can bid on for auction.
We've got the Ace hardware distribution center has given us a $900 Weber grill that's going to be there. Crane's outdoor power equipment's got a blower. They've got other stuff. I told you, we hired a special needs person. She's been out hunting stuff. She's got giveaways from tractor supplies. He's got from all star wine and liquor. I mean, we have so much stuff that people can bid on and win. So we're telling people, bring lots of cash, lots and lots of. Because there's going to be, I mean, so many things. And we've told everybody nothing under the value of $75.
I think we've got a lot of things worth more than 500.
She's just told me she's working on a offshore fishing trip for two people or a fly fishing trip for two people that's valued over 400. So we're gonna have a lot of that.
We're also going to have an auction or donations for the pole position.
So every driver who's Pre registered by August 29th is going to have an envelope or something at the table and to have their name on. It'll be sealed envelope or just an end. We can put something in and fans can stuff those envelopes with cash.
So if your driver is whoever and you want to help your driver's odds of sitting on the pole put cash in their envelope. We're going to stop that at about 6:30pm At 7:00pm we're going to announce who's on the poll. And it's all just based on that. So the drivers who are registered by the 29th, whichever one has the largest donations in their name, that person's on the pole. Here's the cool part. All that money goes to charity.
So all the money for all the drivers all going to charity, then somewhere in there we're doing drivers meet and greet. So all the drivers come out, they take pictures with the fans, they sign autographs.
Last year they all signed the show car. We'll see if we do that again. This Year, including. Rachel signed the show car. I actually had a special piece made just in case it ever got wrecked. I wanted to keep that piece again.
And then it's race night. So there'll be a full card of action of racing.
Pro stocks are the main stage that night. Absolutely.
When the feature time comes out, all the drivers who make the show will pull out onto the front stretch, nose into the stands, shut their cars off, get out, and they'll be introduced one by one. They'll wave to the fans. I believe they're all going to have shirts and other stuff they're throwing out to the fans. So the fans get some, get some interaction.
Rachel, my daughter, will then do the drivers. Start your engines. And the reason it's drivers, it's not gentlemen, we do have Roxanne Roy. She's coming from Canada. She's registered to race. We've got quite a few Canadians coming. Hopefully she makes the main event and then it's 60 laps.
It's 60 laps. Just got confirmation last night that green flag laps only. So in years past, we've done where up to halfway, yellow flag laps will count. They're not counting. So it's 60 green flag laps. Green flag laps of racing. Wow. Oh, good. And. Oh my God, how'd I forget this?
So we have a guest driver coming.
So Keith McGee, he is the first ever US Air Force disabled veteran to drive in NASCAR. So he's a part time craftsmanship driver. He drives up in.
Oh, he lives up in Alaska and he's coming in to race our race. Phil Defiglio from Michael's Automotive is donating a car for him to use. We got to figure out what size seat he needs.
But yeah. And lucid reality. They helped set this up and it's pretty cool. We've got a NASCAR driver coming to race with us.
[00:30:22] Speaker A: Does number four have to win?
[00:30:25] Speaker B: No, don't care. Number four already won.
If I don't even make the race, I mean, obviously I want to make the race. There's going to be a lot of competition. There's going to be a lot of people there.
I want to make my race for my daughter. All right? I want to be in the race for her. Like to not make it.
I'll be sad. She'll be sad. So I want to make the race.
I want to finish the race. I finished it last year. The car got destroyed during the race. I finished it, but I don't need to win. I already won.
[00:30:57] Speaker A: Thank you so much.
[00:30:58] Speaker B: Thank you for having me.
