THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 3, 1995 TAG: 9511030674
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
In the heart of NASCAR country around Mooresville, N.C., relations have been strained recently between some of the Winston Cup team shops scattered up and down Rolling Hills Road in Lakeside Industrial Park.
Things started to get tense last month when Felix Sabates, who has the biggest shop in the park, hired three engine shop employees from Rusty Wallace's team, located a few hundred yards down the road.
Then Sabates hired a key team member from Ricky Rudd, who is headquartered a short distance beyond Wallace.
Both Rudd and Wallace have voiced their displeasure with Sabates' moves, but on Wednesday Rudd went a step further. He sued.
Rudd announced that he had filed one suit against Sabates and another against his former team engineer, Dave Charpentier, who has announced that he is leaving Rudd and RPM Motorsports to join Sabates and Sabco Racing for the 1996 season.
Rudd said he is alleging that Sabates interfered with a written contract he and RPM had with Charpentier for the 1995-96 Winston Cup seasons. And in the other suit, he is alleging that Charpentier breached his contract by agreeing to work for Sabates.
The suits have been filed in Iredell County (N.C.) Superior Court, Rudd said in a statement. They ask for damages as well as an injunction preventing Charpentier from working for Sabco or any other race team.
Rudd's statement said the suits allege Sabates ``solicited and enticed'' Charpentier to breach his RPM contracts ``through a variety of means, including offers to pay off debts. . . and guaranteeing loans for him.''
``I regret very much having to file this litigation,'' Rudd said in the statement. ``Dave Charpentier's efforts have been a key factor in RPM's strong showing over the last two Winston Cup seasons. But Dave has contracts with RPM and if written contracts are not respected by the teams and the persons who enter into them, then I do not know how this sport can survive.''
In a telephone interview, Rudd said he couldn't say much more. ``What it boils down to is we don't want to lose the guy,'' he said.
Rudd said Charpentier is still working at RPM and he expected him to continue working there through the end of the season. Charpentier and Sabates could not be reached for comment.
Although Rudd had a contract with Charpentier, teams do not routinely put their mechanics and shop employees under contract.
Both Rudd and Wallace have begun asking in the past few weeks that employees sign multi-year contracts.
``I expect (Richard) Childress and I expect (Robert) Yates and a lot of these big teams to start doing this now,'' Wallace said a couple weeks ago. ``Because our investment is too great.''
``We've been hit pretty hard,'' Rudd said after his victory at Phoenix last weekend. ``We're losing three or four people. But there's probably only one situation that I'm not pleased with the way it went.
``When some of these guys come up and offer to double a salary, we can't compete with that. We don't have deep pockets.''
BODINE OUT, SHEPHERD IN: Todd Bodine is out and Morgan Shepherd is in for the 1996 season at the No. 75 Ford Thunderbird team owned by Butch Mock.
Mock announced Wednesday that he had reached an agreement with Shepherd to drive the Factory Stores Ford beginning with the 1996 Daytona 500.
Bodine, in his third year and second full season with the team, will be released following the season-ending NAPA 500 on Nov. 12 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Shepherd, who will be released from the Wood Brothers Ford at the the end of the season, drove off and on for Mock in the late 1980s, including a full season in 1989, when he had two second-place finishes.
Shepherd's last win came in March, 1993, at Atlanta. Bodine was winless with Mock except for a victory in the Winston Select Open at Charlotte in May, a preliminary event to the Winston Select. by CNB