TULSA, Okla. — Unlike most other national racing series, several competitors on the American Sprint Car Series National Tour have full-time jobs outside of racing that keep them busy during the week.
For Seth Bergman, that job is operating Evergreen Coffee Co., a growing chain of coffee shops in the Tulsa area.
“We’ve got coffee, we’ve got alternatives to coffee we can do,” Bergman said regarding Evergreen’s offerings. “Any sort of Red Bull drinks, smoothies, frappes, we sell this stuff called Lotus. You’ve got to go there and just talk to the baristas and they can fill you in on all the secrets.”
Long before he ever dreamed of getting into the coffee business, the Washington native hit the road with the ASCS for the first time in 2009 after making his way through the karting, Mini Sprint and Limited Sprint ranks in the northwest. Following a rough rookie season in which he made just six feature starts in 20 attempts, Bergman returned to local sprint car competition in 2010.
The decision paid dividends, as Bergman was crowned the 2010 track champion in the 360 sprint car class at Grays Harbor Raceway before returning to the National Tour in 2011. The second go-round was a much bigger success, as Bergman became a regular visitor to victory lane in the years that followed, starting with his first triumph at Riverside Int’l Speedway in 2012.
“I was racing full-time with ASCS,” Bergman said. “My wife was traveling full-time with me and my daughter, we had a motorhome that we were living in.”
After seven years of living the RV life, Bergman decided to permanently relocate to Owasso, OK in 2018 to be right in the heart of 360 Sprint Car country. Shortly thereafter, Evergreen Coffee Co. was born.
“We’re both originally from the West Coast, and the coffee scene out there is a little different, and we were having a hard time finding coffee that we liked,” said the 21-time National Tour winner. “We just figured we would take a chance, start our own, and we did. And it just took off. It took off so much that it actually took me away from racing full time.”
Bergman maintained a limited schedule from 2019 until 2023, with this season marking his return to the championship chase. On the nights Bergman did unload, he was as competitive as always, scoring three National Tour victories and more than a dozen regional wins during his time as a part-timer.
Racing Helps With Coffee
His background as a sprint car racer is certainly unlike most other coffee shop owners, and he credits that difference as one of the reasons why the business was so successful so quickly.
“I try to run the business like I would a race team,” Bergman said. “Everything I’ve ever learned is from racing. Just very detail-oriented, organized, try to run really nice shops. It’s played a big part in our success for the coffee side of things.”
While Bergman’s wife, Hailey, primarily handles social media, marketing, and other day-to-day needs, Seth is tasked with handling the mechanical side of the business in between his busy racing schedule. Anytime a coffee grinder requires a trip to the work area, he’s the first on the scene.
“If there’s anything that needs to be worked on, or anything’s broken, fixing stuff, making sure things are going smoothly,” Bergman said. “Any new construction we’ve done, I’ve been a big part of it. We just got done with a remodel of one of our places. That was going on during Speedweek, so that was hard. I hired it out, but we still have to oversee things, make sure things are going right.”
While a sprint car team and a coffee shop are as different as two businesses can be, Bergman works to ensure that the two support each other as much as possible. The revenue from Evergreen allows the race team to operate at full strength each weekend, while the race car is an important marketing tool for the business, especially when the tour comes close to home.
“Me and my family, we own the race team, we own our coffee shops, and I don’t have a big headlining sponsor on the race team, so we just thought it would be cool to rep our own brand and have our coffee shops on the side of our car,” Bergman said. “It should be a big hit for us this weekend.”
Bergman’s next stop on the road to his first National championship will be Tulsa Speedway, located just a few miles away from his home and businesses. The current points leader will have two chances on Friday and Saturday night to park Evergreen’s fastest billboard in victory lane.
“All of our coffee shops are like five miles away from the racetrack basically, no more than 10 miles,” Bergman said. “I think the atmosphere will be good, there will be a lot of race fans, should be a good car count. We’ll have a lot of our employees and friends from home that will be out there, so it should be a cool weekend.”