ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, July 20, 1996 TAG: 9607220026
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: racing
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: CHAD WILLIS
This year's televised Late Model Stock race from the New River Valley Speedway took on a new flavor last month when Roanoke's CBS affiliate, WDBJ (Channel 7), announced it would team with an additional sponsor - one that would make the race the richest ever at the Radford track.
Margie Burgess, promotional manager for WDBJ, announced June 28 the Kroger Co. would be coming on board as a co-sponsor and the July 27 race will be renamed the Kroger/WDBJ-7 250.
"This is our first venture into a motorsports event," Archie Fralin of Kroger said in a prepared release. "We realize that it is one of the most popular sporting events in this area."
The addition of Kroger to the sponsor lineup means that this year's televised race will feature the largest winner's purse in the three-year history of the race and the largest Saturday night purse in Virginia. Late Model Stock drivers will compete for a total purse of $28,000, with $15,000 going to the winner.
"That's a pretty hefty chunk of cash," said Rodney "Six Pack" Cundiff, winner of last fall's WDBJ-7 250. "That kind of payday could more than make a racer's season."
In addition to the winner's purse, $1,000 will be paid to the leader at the halfway point and $500 will go to the pole sitter. The two sponsors will also pay $50 to each pole sitter in the Pure and Mini Stock divisions. The Limited Sportsman class will not compete next week because a large number of the division's drivers have expressed a desire to compete in the Late Model race.
Kroger's involvement and the possibility of a $16,500 payday has attracted more of the area's top Late Model drivers to the July 27 event. The NRV Speedway has already received commitments from Busch series driver Chris Diamond, J.D. Gibbs (son of former Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs) and Elliot Sadler, a two-time runner-up in the NRV Speedway's fall race. Greg Marlowe, Jay Fogelman, Richard Landreth, David Hyder, Bobby Radford and Michael Rich, a two-time winner of the WDBJ-7 250, will also join the speedway's regulars in pursuit of the big payday.
The Kroger/WDBJ-7 250 will be the sixth race televised from the NRV Speedway by WDBJ. The live telecast will begin at 9 p.m. with Mike Stevens anchoring the broadcast. Robin Reed will join Stevens in the booth with Patrick Evans handling trackside features and interviews.
"Mike and Robin worked together on our Salem Avalanche broadcast earlier this year and did a great job," WDBJ vice president of news and programming Jim Shaver said. "They'll probably be teamed together on the remainder of our live sports coverage this year."
Shaver said the station is completing testing this weekend on three in-car cameras that will be placed in Tony McGuire's vehicle. The cameras will provide the audience with a rear view from McGuire's bumper, as well as camera shots focusing on McGuire and out the windshield.
Another wrinkle added to this year's race will be the inversion of a yet unspecified number of cars after lap 125. Shaver said the number of cars to be rearranged would remain a secret until the midrace break in an effort to increase competition for the $1,000 halfway purse.
"We're not exactly sure how we're going to decide the number of cars yet, but we want all the drivers to go for the $1,000 and not worry about the restart," Shaver said. "We've looked at a variety of different ways to decide how many cars are going to be inverted, but probably the fairest way would be to let a fan draw a number."
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines KEYWORDS: AUTO RACINGby CNB