Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 30, 1993 TAG: 9309300363
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
At that time, car racing was not as popular as it is now, and Cox, the son of a Botetourt County farmer, "had never laid eyes on a race track in my life."
But he was hooked. After watching his second race, he bought an old Packard and began racing at tracks all over Southwestern Virginia.
His friends were surprised, he said, because "I never did a lot of hot-rodding in my day."
There wasn't any money in it, he said, but there was plenty of excitement. He met driver Marvin Panch, and the owner of Bill Elliott's car. He also has a card signed by Richard Petty.
"I met some of the nicest people," he said.
Cox got his big break in 1968, when he was asked to drive a car in the Daytona 500. He quit his job, left home and said goodbye to his girlfriend, the sister of a fellow driver. Even though it had been love at first sight when he met her, he was willing to give up everything for his dream, he said.
But the deal fell through, and Cox went back home. He felt like a failure, he said, and sure that his girlfriend wouldn't want him any more, he never contacted her again.
He worked for Harvest Motors in Salem for a while, got married, earned his equivalency diploma, drove cars in his spare time and joined the Roanoke County Sheriff's Department.
Today, at 49, he works for the Botetourt County Sheriff's Department. He still spends a lot of his time driving around, but now, he does it in while serving legal documents.
Working for the department is something Cox wanted to do all his life, he said.
Former Sheriff Norman Sprinkle lived just down the road, Cox said, and "he was bigger than God to all of us."
Cox is proud of his career as a deputy sheriff, but when he talks about his racing career, he bursts into a smile. He can't begin to describe what attracts him to the sport.
All he knows is that when he's in a race car, he said, "I'm home. I feel like I belong."
Cox never kept track of how many races he's run but he thinks it's nearly 1,000.
This summer, he raced his last.
Nine years ago, Cox retired for personal reasons, and stayed away from racing for eight years.
Last year, he started driving again. "I just wanted to see if I could still do it."
But after a few races, he decided he was "just not getting the job done. I spent as much time going backward in that car as I did forward."
Quitting, he said, "was a disappointment. It really hurt. But it was for the good of the team."
Cox thinks personal problems may have caused him to lose his edge. Two years ago, he and his wife, whom he decribes as a "great friend," divorced.
Shortly afterward, his life was changed in another way. By a strange twist of fate, he rediscovered his old girlfriend. In all those years, he said, not a day went by that he didn't think of her.
She had married several times, and coincidentally, was working in law enforcement, too.
She lives in Botetourt County now, and the two have been trying to work out a relationship after all these years. They are friends, Cox said, but they have both changed a lot since they were teen-agers, and have pretty much had to start from scratch.
Although he is retiring from driving, Cox is not leaving racing completely. He has worked as an announcer at the Franklin County Speedway, and he will continue that.
He also will be in charge of public relations for his team, the Flying Thunderbirds, owned by Ed Farris.
Although Cox has no regrets about his life, "you give up a lot for racing," he said.
From his divorce and from losing and finding his first love, Cox has learned a valuable lesson that has changed his life.
"A race is just an event. People is what's important," he said. "I wish I had learned that years ago."
But Cox hasn't changed too much.
"If I win the lottery, I'll come back with two cars," he laughed. "One for me, and one for the guy who can do the job."
by CNB