Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 7, 1990 TAG: 9004090242
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CHRIS BACHELDER SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD NEWS
DATELINE: DUBLIN - LENGTH: Long
Between securing sponsorship and preparing a car or two for weekly competition, the off season offers little rest from the rigors of racing. The success of the competitors this year at PCS - which kicks off its third season Saturday - will reflect their winter efforts.
Off-season events have Late Model Stock racer Stacy Compton feeling optimistic about the coming campaign.
Compton, from Hurt, ran a successful season at PCS last year, capturing third place in the points standings. This season, he is taking his act on the road.
"This year we're going a full season plus some," Compton said. "It's wide open. We'll run every week on Friday, Saturday and some Sunday races."
Last season he entered 23 races; this year, he has planned a dizzying 63-race schedule: Friday nights at Tri-County, alternating among South Boston, PCS and Orange County on Saturday nights, and Lonesome Pine in Coeburn on selected Sundays.
"We're getting ready for that first race," he said. "I'm looking forward to a great season."
Much of Compton's high hopes originate from the addition of Neal Perkins to his crew. Perkins, from Nathlie, joined Compton in the latter half of last season and Compton has been pleased with his work.
Over the winter, the two have been busy preparing two cars for competition. Compton drove the Camaro nine times late last year with some success. The other, a Lumina, is a new car owned by Raleigh, N.C., racing enthusiast Robert Fisher, a friend of Perkins.
"We're going with two cars and trying to get things going," Compton said. "There's always something to do. We try to take a couple of weeks and get back to our family life, but the winter is the time to do all the work.
"During the season, when you race every week, there's not much time to do the work on the cars."
Though Compton hasn't completely nailed down all of his sponsorships, he is confident he'll get them and have a strong season.
The winter wasn't as good to Wytheville's Boyd Sult.
Sult had a strong LMS season last year, finishing fifth in the standings. He also placed 25th in the Mid-Atlantic points division, which consists of more than 360 drivers from five states.
The Mid-Atlantic takes a driver's best 20 races at any tracks in the region to compile its standings.
The only PCS driver to top Sult in the Mid-Atlantic was Danny Willis, the LMS track champion, who finished 12th.
But Sult made his accomplishments with adequate sponsorship and crew, and these two assets have vanished.
Sult's No. 2 car figures to be sitting on blocks many weekend nights in 1990; the driver does not expect to run a full schedule.
"We had a good team and good sponsorship deal last year," Sult said. "It's hard to get money from sponsors and help is hard to find in this area.
"We've got two cars and not enough help to go racing. I can't come up with a crew. Everybody around here thinks they ought to get $20 an hour.
"It takes a lot of work and a lot of time to get racing. There's more to it than showing up on Saturday night and going around in circles."
While the off season's events may have dictated the fortunes of Compton and Sult, things are up in the air for Ronnie Thomas.
The Christiansburg driver, who finished second in the LMS standings a year ago, made the switch from a Chevrolet Camaro to a Ford Thunderbird over the winter, and the reviews are mixed.
Earlier this season in a qualifying race at Martinsville, Thomas, with his usual gusto, took his Thunderbird from 11th to first in just nine laps but blew the engine a few laps from the finish.
The engine can and will be fixed; the big problem for Thomas right now is lack of financial backing.
King Ford of Marion is paying for the upkeep of the Ford's engine - and Thomas appreciates that - but other help is slow in coming.
"I switched to Ford and I can't find any sponsors," Thomas said. "I'm just flabbergasted. I'm really worried.
"There are not that many Fords; you'd figure everyone would want to sponsor, but I guess they don't want to take a gamble.
"As it stands now, we will run according to how sponsorship money comes in. We have plans to run Pulaski County, Franklin County, Lonesome Pine, South Boston, Orange County, North Wilkesboro and Martinsville."
Thomas and crew rested up in December and since then have worked hard to get the Ford and the Chevy ready to run.
"Last year was probably the best year of racing in my life," Thomas said.
"With the purse money and sponsorship money, I paid my way in racing. I didn't make anything - but I didn't lose anything either, and I've always said I don't mind doing that.
"Right now, I'm ready to go racing, but we need bucks - either a group of minor sponsors or a major sponsor."
Thomas said he will race locally every week if he finds sponsorship in the area, but otherwise will be forced to race only selected events.
"For the first month, we'll go every weekend," he said. "Then we'll race as we can afford it. I can't go every week, every week, with no money and nothing to go with.
"For financial reasons, we may have to just run the bigger events to try to get money to put back into the operation."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB