How a longtime racer, a championship racing family, and an unexpected change of plans helped create B&G Motorsports.
Grassroots racing rarely follows a clean plan.
Cars break. Money gets tight. Schedules change. Life happens.
For B&G Motorsports in Northern California, one of those unexpected turns helped create the team that exists today.
Roy Berlinghoff has spent most of his life around racing. He started racing motorcycles as a teenager before eventually moving into stock cars, competing in classes ranging from street stocks and pro stocks to modifieds and late models.
By the time B&G Motorsports came together, racing wasn't simply something Roy watched on the weekends. It had been woven through decades of his life.
Then, in 2025, everything changed.
Roy underwent open-heart surgery and was told he couldn't safely climb into and out of his race car while his sternum healed.
There was another problem: the race program didn't disappear just because Roy couldn't drive. There were sponsors to represent and commitments to fulfill.
Roy needed somebody else behind the wheel. That eventually led him to Eric Gannon.
Racing Runs in the Family
The Gannon name was hardly unfamiliar to Roy—or to racing around Shasta Speedway.
Eric grew up in a racing family. His father, Roger Gannon, accumulated numerous track championships during his career, while Eric and his brother Steven continued the family's involvement in both racing and fabrication.
The brothers developed the kind of mechanical knowledge that defines grassroots motorsports.
Eric has spent decades working in fabrication and can build far more than pieces of a race car. His work also extends into outlaw kart racing, where he builds karts and remains heavily involved during the stock-car offseason.
Roy had known the Gannon family for years, but he and Eric had only become closely acquainted more recently.
Putting Eric in the race car changed that. It also changed the direction of the program.
From Replacement Driver to Race Team
Eric proved quick. Very quick.
Roy is the first person willing to admit it.
What began as a solution to keep the car on track while Roy recovered developed into something bigger.
The partnership eventually became B&G Motorsports, with each man bringing a different strength to the operation.
Eric handles much of the racing and technical side. Roy handles much of what happens away from the steering wheel: sponsor relationships, proposals, promotion, logistics and the countless pieces necessary to keep a grassroots race team functioning.
It's a division of labor familiar to small racing programs everywhere.
One person makes the car fast. Someone still has to make sure there's enough behind it to get to the next race.
Building a Better Program
The team's first season together wasn't easy.
Their older Victory Circle chassis could still race, but the program was increasingly fighting newer equipment. Mechanical problems and DNFs added to the frustration.
Eventually, Roy and Eric reached the same conclusion: they needed another car.
When a newer LeftHander chassis became available, they jumped on the opportunity. Eric already had a dry-sump engine that could be refreshed for the car, giving B&G the foundation for its next chapter.
The new combination showed promise, but grassroots racing doesn't hand out easy seasons simply because you've upgraded the equipment.
B&G dealt with a clutch failure early in 2026. A major wreck later in the season forced the team to rebuild the front of the car.
Still, they kept working.
By the end of the season, Roy said the team had the car running well and was beginning to unlock what the newer package could do.
Their final event of 2026 is an open-comp race at Shasta Speedway on October 3. After that, attention turns toward 2027.
The Other Race Happens Away From the Track
For B&G Motorsports, preparing for next season has already started.
Roy has been building the team's 2027 sponsorship proposal and expects to begin pushing the program once the upcoming schedule is finalized.
It's work he knows well.
B&G carried roughly 10 sponsors during the 2026 season, and Roy handles much of the process himself—from assembling proposals to knocking on doors and maintaining relationships.
That part of grassroots racing doesn't always make the highlight reel.
Neither does repairing a wrecked race car after everyone else has gone home. Neither does spending the offseason chasing sponsorship dollars, building parts, preparing equipment and figuring out how to afford another year.
But that's racing, too. And those are exactly the stories worth telling.
More Than Race Day
There's another season beginning almost as soon as B&G's stock-car season ends.
Eric remains deeply involved with outlaw kart racing, meaning the work doesn't simply stop when the Super Late Model gets parked.
That's something Pitmark Racing Co. wants to follow.
Because grassroots motorsports isn't only the green flag on Saturday night.
It's fabrication shops. It's sponsor meetings. It's late nights repairing race cars. It's families who have spent generations at the same racetrack.
It's people like Roy and Eric finding a way to keep going when the original plan gets turned upside down.
B&G Motorsports exists because of one of those moments.
A car needed a driver. A driver climbed in. And somewhere along the way, two racers built a team.
The 2026 season may be winding down, but B&G's story isn't. Pitmark will be following along as the team prepares for 2027.
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