“Smokebuddy is a personal air filter. It gives people a place to exhale smoke when they’re smoking, and rather than a noxious cloud that can offend a lot of people, if you exhale through the Smokebuddy, only clean air comes out the other side. It’s used for vaping and cigarettes, and in the US, people use it a lot for medical cannabis too. 

“With Smokebuddy, we’re also becoming more and more sustainable. The original Smokebuddy was made from ABS plastic, and about four years in, we converted to a plant-based plastic, which is a little better for the environment. The new one is all-paper Smokebuddy: fully sustainable and a first for the tobacco industry.”

“Both! I have residence in Nevada, about an hour outside Vegas, and my home track is the Spring Mountain Motorsports Park.

“I always go to the trade show in Las Vegas too, and that’s our gamble. We usually spend about $25,000 on the trade show, which, hopefully, we get back in new clients. I found out, when I was in Las Vegas actually, that the ‘Welcome to Las Vegas’ sign was not trademarked. So we were able to include ‘Welcome to Fabulous Smokebuddy Las Vegas’ in my design without any copywrite infringement!

“On top of that, we made the ‘special guy.’ He has a little hat on, like a poker player, and some dice. And then on the top, we also have ‘Smokebuddy Cares.’ Every month we give a $1,000 donation to a different charity in the name of Smokebuddy Cares. That’s why he has angel wings and a little halo.”

“The ‘24’ has actually been my ice hockey number for the last 25 years. When I started playing hockey, the coach asked, ‘what number do you want?’ I was a fan of Jeff Gordon in NASCAR at the time and that was the only number I could think of. Now it’s perfect for the 24H SERIES!” 

“The gentleman who painted this one has a company called ‘Two Toe Paint Co.’ I asked him why, and on his right foot, he only has two toes because he had an accident with a lawn mower when he was five! He paints all of my helmets and does a great job. 

“On this helmet in particular, I gave him the artwork for the Las Vegas Smokebuddy and the artwork for Smokebuddy Cares, and I asked him to include ‘In Memory of Gene and Betty’ on the top for my mom and dad, who I wish were here to see the success of Smokebuddy. My dad got me into racing when I was a little kid, so he’d be really proud to see me here, being interviewed!”

“I love helmets, and I love buying them and getting them designed. When you put something on your head and go racing with it, it’s important to have a memory of why you did it that way. Some driver will do a special helmet for a special event. They’ll do a ‘24H’ or a ‘Le Mans’ helmet, for example, but I always paint my helmet after one of our products. This particular design I use for endurance racing, but I also have a different one for the Radical series. My ‘Radical’ race car is themed ‘Evil Buddy’, which is the opposite of Smokebuddy Cares. So, for my helmets, we have ‘good’ and we have ‘evil.’ We have heaven and we have hell!”