INDIANAPOLIS — Everyone who competes at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has a story, but few of them are as amazing as Bozi Tatarevic’s.
Twenty-nine years ago, he was a 9-year-old refugee fleeing from a civil war in his homeland, in the country that used to be called Yugoslavia. He and his parents and his brother emigrated to North Carolina.
The culture was new, the setting was unfamiliar, the friends were few, and Tatarevic didn’t even speak English let alone have a Southern drawl.
The fourth-grader didn’t follow motorsports either.
But today Tatarevic, 38, is one of the most popular people in the IMSA paddock, where he works as a mechanic on the Vasser Sullivan GT Daytona Pro Lexus No. 14 driven by Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat.
Tatarevic doesn’t “just” turn wrenches. His enthusiasm for racing and penchant for explaining the sport has made him a social media star, with more than 29,100 followers on X, 17,500 subscribers to his YouTube channel, and 9,017 followers on Instagram.
He has also earned a spot on the pit crew of the NASCAR Legacy Motorsports team.
And although he has never taken a journalism class, his straight-forward way of explaining the ins and outs of racing has resulted in his byline appearing in “Road and Track,” “Car and Driver,” and numerous racing websites such as imsa.com and nascar.com. He has “motorsports consultant” on his résumé, too.
When SPEED SPORT caught up to him on the morning of the recent IMSA TireRack.com “Battle on the Bricks” race at IMS he was shoe-horning a quick behind-the-barricades tour of the Vasser Sullivan garage area to guests of the team’s primary sponsor, SealMaster, in between helping to make the final preparations to the car for the six-hour race.
Along with being one of the few racing mechanics who regularly gives tech talks, it’s safe to say he’s the only mechanic in the IMSA garage area whose career path to the Brickyard started in Sarajevo, the largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and then went through High Point, N.C., the home furnishings capital of the world.
Prior to immigrating to the United States Tatarevic’s father was a lawyer, but legal credentials and opportunities don’t translate easily across continents.
Luckily, he was also a car enthusiast, and he was able to find work in America as a mechanic. Both his sons followed in his footsteps and discovered they liked to work on cars too.
Some of the customers who brought their cars to the Tatarevics to work on raced them for fun, which turned out to be the crack in the door that introduced Bozi to motorsports.
After getting involved in the local racing scene he transitioned into the SRO Motorsports Group’s events and then got involved in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge series. He worked in tech first. He’s been a mechanic at Vasser Sullivan in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for four years now, which he says is “a great fit.”
What about his brother? “We still work on cars together at home in High Point, but he works in finance now,” Bozi explained.
Becoming a social media star grew out of his willingness and eagerness to describe and analyze the sport.
“I just enjoy sharing what I do,” he explains. “I personally always like to know the behind-the-scenes stories, and how something is made or why something is the way it is. I posted some technical stuff online, and people on the staff of NASCAR.com saw it and asked if I could do something for them. I don’t have any experience in writing or reporting, but I do have mentors who helped me [learn how to write articles].”
The ability to make connections and friends quickly is definitely one of his positive traits.
“The NASCAR pit crew position with Legacy came after connecting with their vice president of competition on social media,” he explained.
Some mechanics and engineers are tight-lipped, but Tatarevic is the opposite.
“I always want to share what happens in racing, because it helps the fans at home understand the sport, and encourages them to come to the races,” he said. “I think we can do a better job of simplifying things, and that will help fans or potential fans to get into it more.”
And one never knows where that could lead if they’re anything like Bozi Tatarevic.