Despite employing some decidedly aggressive marketing and promotional techniques, Donald "Duck" Long has also worked hard to make his Duck X Productions events at South Georgia Motorsports Park welcoming and friendly affairs.

A big part of that has come through providing breakfast, lunch and dinner to thousands of Duck X competitors and sponsors over the years, led by the tireless efforts of his mother, Nancy, and father, Donald Sr. Since 2014, after Long met wife Stephanie, their contributions have been bolstered by those of her parents, Lona and Steve Sapp.

"We started out I think at No Mercy 3 and we brought smoked ribs and chicken up here in ice chests," Nancy Long recalls. "It was just some ice chests full of the meat that was already cooked. Then we picked up potato salad and things like that. As time went on we just evolved into doing a lot of it at home."

For this weekend's Sweet 16 race, with the help of Diane Allen, a friend who comes down from Canada to help prior to each event, Nancy says she prepared and cooked 200 pounds of Italian sausage, 100 pounds of chili, 100 pounds of lasagna, 100 pounds of meatloaf, 80 pounds of chicken and yellow rice, and 40 gallons of baked beans. It's enough to fill nine freezers at her house in Zephyrhills, FL, before everything is loaded into a rented reefer truck for the four-hour drive north to the track near Valdosta, GA.

Additionally, the refrigerated truck is filled with dozens of containers of store-bought tossed salad, potato salad, coleslaw and three-bean salad. There's also hundreds of eggs, with sausage and biscuits for breakfast, along with cases upon cases of bottled water and soft drinks.

"There's also sweet tea, unsweetened tea, tea made with artificial sweetener, and it’s all fresh brewed," Nancy says. 

"We also have homemade cupcakes. I make between 900 and 1,200 cupcakes for every race. It's a big job all around."
Once at the track, Donald Sr. takes over setting up the VIP tent, with help from Allen, Lona Sapp, and Norman Cross, a friend from Dade City, FL.

"Everyone is a volunteer. We’ve never had to ask anybody," he says. "All of our friends ask us if they can come help, so we bring them up and (Duck) gets them a place to stay and whatever they want to eat. Everybody has a good time like a big reunion."

Surprisingly, Lona Sapp is the only member of the group with professional food service experience as she serves as manager of It’s a Matter of Taste, a unique American, Greek and Cuban cuisine restaurant in Dade City.

"I had never been around racing before Donald and Stephanie got together and then we came to our first race at No Mercy in September of 2014 and really enjoyed it," Lona says. 

"When I'm here now I help out with serving food, or I help out at the racer's gate, just kind of anywhere they need me. The racers are awesome to be around and they’re great family people. It’s really been a great experience for me meeting them."

Meanwhile, her husband, a former Marine and retired building contractor, busies himself with supervising the construction of the Duck X "ark," the large spectator viewing stage that dominates the area between the SGMP burnout boxes. During events, he steps up to oversee security considerations.

"Basically, if (security) has to go and talk to somebody that might be a little aggressive I’ll go with them or just try to keep the peace with everybody and do things in a diplomatic way," Steve Sapp says. "Other than that, I just try to help out wherever I can."

There may be no question who has the last word at a Duck X event, but equally clear is that it's far from a one-man show. 

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