
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, December 31, 1994                   TAG: 9501040023
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-8   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY  
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FINCASTLE                                LENGTH: Medium

RACER NOW A NATIONAL CHAMPION

After seven years on the sports car track, a Botetourt County race driver has won his first national championship.

Driving a 1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass that once belonged to actor Paul Newman, Philip B. "Flip" Groggins won the title in mid-October at the Valvoline Run Offs in the Sports Car Club of America's GT-1 Division, a division for sedans with big-bore cylinders.

The 45-mile race, sponsored by the Sports Car Club of America, was held at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course at Lexington, Ohio - one of eight divisional courses in the car club's race circuit.

Groggins, 38, first had to survive tough competition in the car club's Southeast Divisional Championship races, a series of six races held during the summer at Lexington, Ohio; Atlanta; Savannah, Ga.; and Indianapolis. He won four races and placed second in two others.

Sports car racing differs from traditional oval-track racing. It's done on courses resembling an open road, with turns, hills and straightaways.

Groggins won the first race he entered, seven years ago in Atlanta. He termed that a "remarkable" achievement.

"I got off to a good start, and it made me feel very good," he said. "I wish I could have won all of them since then."

Groggins acquired his interest in the sport through his father, Philip H. Groggins, who raced sports cars in the 1960s. Flip Groggins began touring race courses with him when he was 8 or 9 years old.

"My father was an active racer, and being on the race course with him got it in my blood," Groggins said.

At age 31, he took his first try at driving in a Sports Car Club of America Southeast Divisional Race at Atlanta. Since then he has competed in many races, mostly in the East Coast and Midwest.

Groggins' next competition will be a 12-hour endurance race at Sebring, Fla., in March.

In all of the races Groggins has the support of his crew - Scott McLearen, crew chief; Jack Harris, chief mechanic; and Bob Cash, transport driver and support mechanic.

Between races Groggins operates Groggins Plastics on U.S. 220 north of Fincastle, a business he and his father began in 1980.

by CNB