ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, September 14, 1996 TAG: 9609160085
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: RACING
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: CHAD WILLIS
These days, Late Model Stock champion Chad Harris is a hard man to find. Don't blame Harris - blame the phone company.
You see, there's currently no directory assistance to Cloud Nine.
It's been nearly a week since he captured the New River Valley Speedway track championship, but Harris is still walking around his hometown of Stuarts Draft with his head in the clouds.
"It's a pretty unbelievable feeling to win the title,'' Harris said. "It's been a few days now and it's just starting to sink in.''
Harris calls it unbelievable while others have called his run at the title nothing short of a miracle.
Ten races into the speedway's 23-race season, Harris found himself trailing two-time defending champion Jeff Agnew by 114 points.
At the time, Agnew had six victories and seemed destined for his fifth track title. Harris was still trying to get settled into a new ride.
"I didn't get any practice time in the Magic City Sprinkler Chevrolet before the season began,'' Harris said. "It took a while to get everything like we wanted.''
Harris, who finished eighth in points in 1995, entered the season with his best-case scenario being as a part-time driver in his own car. Then he got the call to drive every weekend.
"We didn't have the money to drive our Ford every week, so we were really happy when this deal came along,'' Harris said.
It turned out to be the deal of a lifetime. Harris began to find his groove just as Agnew became involved in a series of incidents with Tony McGuire.
"We were consistent,'' Harris said. "That was the secret. I was able to keep the car in one piece while Jeff and Tony were having their problems.''
With six races remaining in the season, Harris made his move, finishing no less than sixth in any race, collecting five top-5 finishes and his first career victory in the next-to-last race of the season.
During that same span, Agnew's average finish was ninth. A disqualification in the Labor Day event gave Harris a 34-point lead with one race remaining, ending any hopes of an Agnew three-peat. "It was a heck of a feeling to crawl out of the car and hear the crowd cheering for me like that,'' Harris said. "I'm like an outsider being from Stuarts Draft. For them to accept me like that with locals like Jeff and [Rodney] Six-Pack Cundiff running there is really special.''
Agnew's misfortunes did not carry over to his racing at Kingsport Speedway, where he earned that track's points championship. Agnew finished sixth in the NASCAR Winston Racing Series Blue Ridge Region and Harris eighth.
Harris was one of three first-time track champions at the NRV Speedway. Tam Topham of Wytheville captured his first Limited Sportsman crown while Floyd's Ray Sowers tasted victory for the first time in the Mini Stock division.
Topham led the Limited Sportsman standings from the first race to the last, finishing 32 points better than Jay McCray in the final tally.
Topham crossed the finish line first 10 times in 1996, winning six of the first nine races including four in a row.
Three wrecks in five weeks, coupled with a victory by McCray, left Topham's lead at just 16 points after July 6. Topham responded by winning the following race and finishing in the top five the last nine outings of the season to claim the title.
Sowers overcame a sluggish start to win the Mini Stock title. After winning the season's first race, Sowers finished 15th, 17th, 15th and 11th in the next four races before reeling off 13 straight top-3 finishes.
His early season woes were in sharp contrast to Sowers' strong 1995 start that helped him finish second in last season's points race.
"Normally we run better at the beginning and end of the season when the weather is cooler,'' Sowers said. "Our success this year kind of happened by accident when we stumbled across a new tire stagger.''
The change resulted in a five-race win streak, the second longest streak of the season at the speedway. In all, Sowers' 1979 Chevrolet Monza won 10 races.
Christiansburg's Tommy Allie won his second NRV Speedway Pure Stock points title in dominating fashion, outdistancing runner-up Ronnie Hall by 198 points.
Allie won 19 of 22 races, including 14 in a row, for his second title in three years.
He also answered the age-old question of which is more important, the car or the driver, in the final race of the season. Allie traded cars with P.F. Hanks for the 25-lap affair and picked up his 19th victory of the season.
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. GENE DALTON/Staff. Tam Topham (left) of Wythevilleby CNBcaptured his first Limited Sportsman crown while Christiansburg's
Tommy Allie (below) won his second NRV Speedway Pure Stock points
title. color. (headshots) 2. Harris. 3. Sowers. KEYWORDS: AUTO RACING