Dave Bowman, who through his sponsorship and media work would also play a pivotal role in the survival and growth of the Outlaws, recruited Stephens to help with the filming of the excellent Hidden Heroes program that became a favorite among fans.
Pat Patterson, who produced the breakthrough Slick 50 TV series in 1992, also hired Stephens to help with the filming and production of the series.
Television coverage was a key component of the explosive growth of the Knoxville Nationals in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. With backing from Fram (arranged by Bowman), in the mid-1980s Diamond P Motorsports began producing tape-delayed coverage of the Saturday night portion of the Nationals. The coverage quickly caught on, and captured the attention of great numbers of racing fans.
Suddenly, Knoxville wasn‘t a faraway town in Iowa; now it was right here in our living room.
In July 1990, just weeks prior to the Nationals, Diamond P informed Johnson and Knoxville that they would not cover the event due to a scheduling conflict.
Johnson and Bowman quickly recruited Stephens to put together a last-minute coverage package, produced out of the familiar gray van and aired on PRIME Sports. It was a crucial moment for Knoxville — and sprint car racing — as they were able to maintain the momentum created by the previous coverage.
In due course, TNN stepped into the picture and the next chapter of the World of Outlaws was written on the cable network.
Stephens continued traveling the Outlaws schedule throughout the 1990s, producing highlights for a new generation of motorsports programs, including RPM 2nite on ESPN2 and TNN‘s Raceday. In addition, as TNN ramped up their live coverage, Stephens typically also ran a camera for the live production.
In 2004 Johnson sold the series to Boundless Motorsports, and during the transition Stephens elected to leave the series, taking his enormous library of footage with him.
He has continued to work hundreds of racing productions in the years since, including sprint cars, dirt late models, and nearly every type of motorsports known.
If you examine all of the networks that have come along (many of which are now gone) in motorsports television over the past three decades — PRIME Sports, ESPN, ESPN2, TNN, Versus, Outdoor Channel, SpeedVision, SPEED TV, and MAVTV, among others — you‘ll find that at one time or another, Stephens had a hand in the production of their content.
Today, hundreds of races are presented to fans through streaming networks. A number of dedicated people live on the road, creating those productions.
Without the pioneering work of Greg Stephens — creating and honing the concept of presenting short track racing on television and building an audience for that content — today‘s modern viewing landscape would look dramatically different.
He has enjoyed some well-earned recognition, including induction into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2019. Many of those who witnessed his career are quick to assert that, when it comes to the sport of sprint car racing, Stephens is one of the great unsung heroes of his generation.
Stephens‘ life and career have been defined by two primary characteristics: determination, and a fierce independent streak. Both have served him well.
The determination was first evident in his ability to teach himself how to operate a camera, and how to edit tape.
He went from basic, rudimentary skills to becoming proficient at both. It was also determination that fueled those lonely years of living on the road, often sleeping in his van, separated from his family for weeks — or months — at a time.
The second trait — fierce independence — was evident to anyone who worked with Greg through the years. He had a very clear idea of how to do things, and that‘s the way it was.
Getting him to change his mind on creative issues was a challenging proposition, to say the least. He was never hesitant to voice his opinion on how racing television should be produced.
It brings a smile as I reflect on the joy of those early days of our first meeting, all those years ago. Those were good times — good, good times — and anyone who was involved with sprint car racing during that era can probably relate to that sentiment.
As we sometimes talked about life and the path we‘ve each followed, Stephens was always quick to say that he wouldn‘t change a thing. Although the path was hard and filled with challenges and potholes, it was a joy. One probably has to travel the full length of the path to fully understand that.
Nostalgia is a funny thing, because it tends to filter out the unpleasant stuff and leave only the good memories glittering on the surface. Yes, there was unpleasant stuff; hardships and lack of sleep and loneliness. Arguments with officials and struggles to make people understand the value of what Greg was doing.
There was never enough time and never enough money.
Still, good stuff was there too. A beautiful sunny day, tooling that old van down the highway, with a full day off to explore the area. A round of golf with Kinser and Shuman. A visit to Disney World. The pure joy of seeing your footage aired on a big network, knowing that your work is lifting an entire sport — and an entire generation of racers — right before our eyes.
Those were good, good days.
Stephens has made countless friends along the way, particularly in the television production community. Not much has changed; he is still outspoken and does not hesitate to share his opinions.
The Ford van is long gone, and he‘s worn out another car or two since then. He still lives in Southern Illinois, and at age 72 thinks nothing of jumping in the car and driving to Florida to work a race or visit friends.
As recently as this past season, Stephens could still be found running a camera on the MAVTV productions of various motorsports events. Hired by his longtime friend, legendary MAVTV producer and director Scott McLemore, Stephens is often assigned Camera One, which is tasked with following the race leader at all times.
It‘s comical to witness the behind-the-scenes interplay. As he trains his lens on the leader, Stephens begins to look around at the action on the track. He‘ll see a good battle between a couple of cars, and begin following them. As McLemore looks to switch back to the race leader — Stephens‘ camera — he‘ll discover he‘s somewhere else.
“Dammit Greg!” he‘ll shout over the radio. “Quit freelancing on me!”
Freelancing. That‘s what Greg Stephens has always done best. And things have worked out exactly as they were supposed to.