THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 1, 1995 TAG: 9508010361
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 127 lines
Three races into the 1989 Busch Grand National season, Elton Sawyer's homegrown race team ran out of money.
South Hampton Roads car dealers Ashton Lewis and Tommy Gibbs had pumped all the money they could afford into First Team Motorsports, but they had been unable to find a major sponsor, and their well dried up.
``I was kinda young,'' the Chesapeake native recalled. ``I was going to race, come hell or high water, so I did. And we incurred some awful large bills. Fortunately, the bank would still lend me money. So I'd go down and get more money.''
There is a certain something that separates those few drivers who make it to NASCAR's big leagues from those thousands who dream of it. Sawyer's willingness to risk everything to race - a passion for which he has only recently finished paying the bills - is no doubt a big part of why he is driving in the Winston Cup series today.
Sawyer's Winston Cup berth is still somewhat tenuous. He took over the No. 27 Ford Thunderbird at Martinsville in April and was impressive enough to win a promise from crew chief Mike Hill to finish the year in the car.
He is hoping to be invited back to run a full schedule next year, but that likely will depend on his performance the rest of this season. If, for instance, Sawyer misses three races in a row, his star may fall as quickly as it rose. But a few more credible showings like his 14th-place finish at Talladega the weekend before last and Sawyer should have a ride in '96.
Sawyer, 35, who now lives in Greensboro, is the first Chesapeake driver to reach the Winston Cup series since Ricky Rudd.
Sawyer and Rudd have been acquaintances for years, and Rudd recalls a day about 10 years ago when they tore up Everett Sawyer's front yard with go-karts.
``Elton and I had a mutual friend and there were about three or four of us racin' around the front yard at their home in Great Bridge,'' Rudd said.
Rudd has been a fixture on the Winston Cup circuit for almost two decades, but at this stage of his career, Sawyer is as well-known for his marriage to Grand National racer Patty Moise as he is for his driving. Sawyer and Moise were married in late 1990, and their relationship already has withstood some daunting challenges.
``The first year was digging out from under financially because of all his past racing,'' Moise said. ``But we were very up-front with each other. When you're in racing, you really accelerate the learning curve about someone else. You're going to see all aspects of a person because of the intense highs and lows of the sport.''
The couple experienced both ends of the spectrum in the past few weeks. At Watkins Glen in late June, they both had hard crashes and numerous other problems. In the Grand National race at Talladega 10 days ago, they both had top-10 finishes while nearly everyone else wrecked. Moise finished seventh, Sawyer 10th.
For Sawyer, the bleakest times were the years 1992 and '93, when he didn't have a ride. It was the lowest point in a career that stretches back to Langley Raceway (now Langley Speedway) in Hampton almost two decades ago.
``The dream of every lap I made at Langley Raceway for years was to be in Winston Cup racing,'' he said. ``It's just the route I've had to take to get here may not have been straight down Interstate 95 to Daytona. I'm not complaining. It's just taken me some time.''
When he started racing at 17, Sawyer thought the sport was full of rednecks and required little more than a heavy right foot.
``Basically, I grew up playing all the ball-and-stick sports. I gave them everything I had. But here I was, about a 5-foot-7 or 5-8, 150-pound defensive back. I don't think Lou Holtz was looking for me.''
So when his father, Everett, who had won quite a few local races on his own in the 1970s, asked him if he'd like to drive in the last race of the 1977 season at Langley, Elton said yes. He was hooked.
``The racing thing just seemed to come a little more naturally to me,'' he said. ``Once I got involved, I could see you had to put quite a bit of effort toward it just to compete, even at Langley.
``I started to just really dissect the cars, trying to learn as much as I could about them and how to make them drive better. You've got to be able to work with this mechanical object, and you've got to be able to make it do what you want it to do.''
Sawyer was the Langley track champion from 1983 through '85. In '84 and '85, he won the regional title as well.
``By 1986, we had basically accomplished all we could at the local level,'' Sawyer said. ``So we decided we were going to go ahead and go Busch racing.''
But he never had enough money, which meant he could never hire enough people. Couple that with his inexperience and Sawyer's efforts were doomed.
``I gained a lot of experience,'' he said. ``I know now the mistakes that I made. So when Patty and I get the opportunity to become car owners, hopefully we won't make those mistakes.
From 1986 through '91, Sawyer ran most of the Busch races. He never won, but he finished second six times.
His marriage in '91 generated a lot of publicity - which he didn't mind - but he wanted to make news on the track.
Sawyer lost his ride with the A.G. Dillard team late in '91 and was all but out of the driving scene the next two years. He took a job as a mechanic with car owner Bill Davis, whom he considers one of his closest friends.
But in 1994, Sawyer finally got a break. He joined Akins/Sutton Motorsports for a full Grand National season, with solid sponsorship from Ford Credit. And on June 11 last year, he won his first Grand National race, at Myrtle Beach, S.C.
This April, after Loy Allen Jr. stepped out of the No. 27 Ford in the Winston Cup series, Hill called. Sawyer accepted the challenge. His first Winston Cup effort was at Martinsville Speedway, where more than 40 cars battled for 32 starting spots.
When Sawyer qualified ninth, the team was ecstatic.
Sawyer was 27th at Talladega in April. When he returned for the July race he finished 14th, the best result of his young Winston Cup career.
``Right now, they've got to get that harmony going on that team,'' Rudd said. ``They've showed signs on several occasions of looking good. They just need time to work together. They've had a lot of drivers there, and they need to take some time with a driver.''
Said Sawyer: ``Even at this level, I know it's going to take me a year or so to learn how to race these race cars. I feel like I can drive them, but there's a difference between driving them and racing them.
``I feel like we can make the races and now we've just got to really concentrate to learn how to get these cars set up to run 500 miles and race 500 miles. And the only way you're going to get that experience is to get seat time.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Landmark News Service
Elton Sawyer is doing daily double duty this season, running a full
slate of Grand National races while filling in behind the wheel of
Junior Johnson's No.27 Ford on the Winston Cup series. A strong
finish could land him that job on a full-time basis in 1996.
by CNB