Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 18, 1993 TAG: 9311200247
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG LESMERISES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Pull on your specially approved $200 racing helmet.
Now climb into your Winston Cup stock car or Indy car racer.
Wrong.
Climb into your 6-foot-long, 3-foot-wide chrome and fiberglass go-cart.
Tear around a packed dirt track at speeds reaching 85 mph while as many as 23 other drivers frantically maneuver for position in a race that will be over in five minutes.
Claim your trophy and load the family into your truck for the three-hour trip back home.
Just another relaxing weekend in the lives of brothers-in-law Tracy Divers and Randy Perdue.
Divers, who just moved to Franklin County, and Perdue, of Salem, have been competing in go-cart races across Virginia and in North Carolina for the past four years.
And do they go.
They go 90 miles down the road to Madison, N.C. They go to Amelia Motor Raceway, 40 miles outside Richmond. They go to Bedford County and to King George Raceway, 15 miles from the Maryland border.
And on the track, they go at speeds that seem unfathomable in cars just inches off the ground that appear to be molded to their bodies.
``Run over a BB in that thing, it'll shake your eyeteeth,'' said Perdue with a grin.
But take a glance in Perdue's workshop, and the 49 racing trophies appear to make it all worthwhile. And Divers has just as many at his home.
They have become dominant forces in a go-cart racing world they never really intended to get into. But since they're in, they may as well win.
It started in 1989, when Divers got a yard kart - the type of boxy racer that many may imagine when ``go-cart'' is mentioned - with ``little old knobby tires,'' as described by Perdue.
Perdue then decided to go out and get one for himself so they could piddle around together in a church parking lot.
Instead, he came across a racing kart for the price of a yard kart and piddle became pedal to the metal.
``We said we'd never race with it, just play with it,'' Perdue said. ``The next weekend, I was out racing.''
Divers got a couple of rides in Perdue's machine, and soon he had one of his own.
And a racing family was born.
Perdue said in his first race he was lapped twice, in his second race he was lapped once, in his third race he stayed on the lead lap, and in his fourth race - you guessed it - he won.
It was a sign of things to come.
In 1992, Divers entered 27 races, won 11 of them and was in the top five in all but three. Perdue won 14 of 26 races, and said he finished in the top five in just about all the others.
This year, their racing schedule was curtailed, but their love for the sport wasn't.
Divers was busy building his new home, and Perdue wasn't into racing on his own.
``We enjoy it, because we do it together,'' he said.
So Divers raced in only 14 events, with three wins, four seconds and a third. Perdue didn't have a win in nine attempts, but was second, third or fourth in every race.
``You've got to spend three or four hours every day [working on the cars] to run up front,'' Divers said.
And these guys were disappointed with staying in the top five while working on the motors only once a week.
Things look bleak for their competitors in 1994.
``Next year, we'll go ahead full bore,'' Perdue said.
That means not only racing, but building as well.
Most racers buy their motors. Divers and Perdue not only build their own motors, but motors for competitors as well.
``There was a guy in Bedford who was getting lapped every week,'' Perdue said. ``I sold him a motor; he's running second every week.''
Buying a motor is ``fine if you can afford it,'' Perdue said. ``But I enjoy it more to build my own, set it up myself and run with them.''
Someday, Divers and Perdue may be building motors out of something bigger than a workshop.
``I'd like to open up a kart shop in time,'' Divers said.
``If I could get into it and make it work, I'd get into it in a minute,'' Perdue said.
It just might work, as go-cart popularity expands. It is already a hit in Northern Virginia, where Perdue said six or seven go-cart shops are open.
And every motor Perdue and Divers sell has a P&D Racing sticker on it.
``If you run up front and have a sticker on the motor,'' Divers said, ``people will ask you to build a motor for them.''
Next season, there should be quite a few requests.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***