Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 4, 1995 TAG: 9505040116
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Bobby Labonte revealed to Father Dale Grubba, writing for Stock Car Racing magazine, that he had chemotherapy for a debilitating thyroid condition during the winter.
The illness was the reason David Green accompanied Labonte to the January tests at Daytona and shouldered some of the driving chores.
``I felt it in December and by the time I went to the doctor, my hands were trembling,'' Labonte told Grubba, whose article is in the June edition of the magazine. ``I was lucky to have Joe Gibbs as my car owner. He got me to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., where I had a doctor who drives a Legends car and understands racing.
``I told him I had to be ready to race by Feb.7. Other doctors would have said no way. The remedy was chemotherapy in the form of pills. The dosage was just below that requiring isolation. As it was, I had to limit my contact with people. It was most difficult when it included my son and wife. It was scary.''
Labonte was on his way to California on Wednesday and could not be reached for further comment. But the revelation of this off-season illness makes it all the more remarkable that Labonte is 11th in points and contending just about every week. His health has been abysmal. After quelling the thyroid problem, Labonte had double pneumonia in late March and early April and broke his shoulder at Darlington on March 26.
Schrader had a bout with Guillian-Barre Syndrome, which attacks the central nervous system. Just before Christmas, he was so weak he couldn't climb a flight of stairs. But he recovered after a stay in the hospital.
ONE MORE TIME FOR ELTON: Any Grand National driver who wants to get a taste of the full range of Winston Cup racing couldn't ask for a better three-race stretch than the one Elton Sawyer has tackled with the Hooters Ford Thunderbird.
Sawyer will be in the car for the third week in a row for the Save Mart 300 this weekend at Sears Point International Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., adding a road race to a Cup resume that includes Sunday's superspeedway race at Talladega, Ala., where he qualified 31st and finished 27th, and the April 23 short-track race at Martinsville, where he qualified ninth and finished 20th.
Sawyer is enjoying a rare opportunity afforded by a gap of almost a full month in the schedule for his regular series, the Grand National division.
The last Busch race was on April 15 at Hickory, N.C.; the next is May 13 in New Hampshire. A race scheduled for April 29 at Orange County Speedway in Rougemont, N.C., was canceled after the season started.
Sawyer has some road-racing experience in Grand National cars, including the race at Watkins Glen last year. But he's never raced at Sears Point.
``I've been looking at a lot of maps,'' he said. ``It's going to be exciting. But it's going to be pretty tough. I kind of know we'll be fighting an uphill battle.''
Memo: ***CORRECTION***