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

DATE: THURSDAY, April 13, 1995                   TAG: 9504130031
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-6   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: M.J. DOUGHERTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

AFTER A MONTH BEHIND THE WHEEL, 14-YEAR-OLD BECOMING LEGEND LEGEND

If Peters keeps going at his current pace, the 14-year-old from Providence, N.C., will be able to fill a room with the trophies he has won driving Legends race cars.

Peters started racing Legends just a month ago. Since then, he has entered three races and has three victories.

And Saturday night, Peters will be trying to make it four-for-four as the Legends cars make their official debut at New River Valley Speedway.

"So far, I've been running real good and I like the track a lot," said Peters, who got a chance to get in a Legends car and take some practice laps during a trip to the speedway earlier this year. "I'm hoping I can do well, but you never know. I'm going to go in with a good attitude and confidence, and hopefully I'll get a good finish."

The Legends cars are 5/8-scale racing replicas of the vintage autos built of heavy-duty fiberglass. Peters drives a 1937 Chevrolet Flatback Sedan

The other body styles in the series are the 1937 Chevy Coupe, 1937 Ford Coupe, the 1937 Ford Flatback Sedan and the 1940 Ford Coupe.

Basically though, all of the cars are the same. They cost between $10,000 and $12,000, are powered by 1200 cc. Yamaha motorcycle engines, and maintenance is straightforward. They use the chassis from 1976-81 Toyota Celicas. A set of the special-sized tires will last all season. And the cars run on regular gasoline.

The Legends all run about the same speed around the track no matter how they are set up. Thus, the driver becomes the most important part of the race car. And that makes Peters' performance even more impressive.

At the 1/5-mile special inner-oval at Charlotte Motor Speedway, he won the Chargers Division. At Ace Speedway in Alamance, N.C., he won the feature race in the semi-pro division. And at South Boston Speedway last weekend, Peters qualified on the outside pole and led every lap of the 20-lap race.

"I've been lucky," said Peters. "It's been my mom and dad [Cindy and Tony Peters] and a few other people who've helped us out. We're real surprised. Our goal for the year was to get one top-10 finish. It looks so far we've been able to accomplish that [in each race]. We're tickled about how well we've been doing."

Of course, none of this should come as a surprise. In five years of Go Kart racing, Peters won more than 200 races. He also won six National titles and four Grand National crowns.

"The first time I got in it, I told my dad it felt like a big race car with power steering," Peters said about the transition from Go Karts to Legends. "The horsepower is something you have to get used to. The weight is something you have to get used to. In Go Karts, I could just throw them around. You can't do that in these cars."

Saturday's race is the first appearance for the Legends at New River Valley Speedway. It will count toward points in both the Tri-State (Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky) and Quad-State (Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina) regions. Other races are scheduled for June 17, July 8, Aug. 5 and 27, Sept. 12 and Oct. 21.