THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 7, 1996 TAG: 9604050184
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
When Chesapeake firefighters Frank Young and John Hudgins Jr. were killed in a fire March 18, area residents sprang to action, expressing condolences and raising money for the bereaved families.
Racecar driver Anthony R. ``Tony'' Jolley wanted to do his part, too.
Jolley, 36, a Chesapeake resident, consulted his sponsors and then stripped his race car of most of its advertising.
Now the names of the two fallen men are painted on the doors of the red, white and yellow Chevy.
``In memory of Frank Young and John Hudgins Jr.,'' the lettering says.
In their honor, Jolley was scheduled to ride the track Saturday in Langley Speedway's weekly NASCAR race.
Jolley, who's been racing cars for four years and has been involved with racing for two decades, hopes his gesture will draw attention to the ultimate sacrifice Young and Hudgins made while battling a fire in an auto parts store in the Indian River section of town.
``It just kind of came to us,'' Jolley said. His brother, James K. ``Kenny'' Jolley, helped with the idea. Kenny Jolley, owner of Associated Contracting Services in Deep Creek, is Tony Jolley's main sponsor.
Other sponsors, Dixie Land Drive In, Kenneth Meads Signs and Muffler City, also encouraged Tony Jolley to repaint his car temporarily.
``We're just local boys,'' said Kenny, who lives in Suffolk but felt the community's grief over the firefighters' deaths.
The Jolley brothers took their modified car over to the fire station in Deep Creek, to take pictures and to show the other firefighters.
``They were crazy about it,'' Kenny Jolley said.
``Everybody riding by was beeping and everything,'' Tony Jolley said.
They'll give pictures to the Hudgins and Young families.
Also, they were set to collect money Saturday at the Langley racetrack, to contribute to the fund set up to help the firefighters' families.
Racetrack officials had agreed to place donation jugs at concession stands, and Tony Jolley planned to recruit other drivers to pass jugs around through the crowds.
Tony said he'd try to keep the new wording on his car as long as possible. Racetrack officials, however, discourage drivers from deviating from rules that require the racers' numbers to be painted clearly on car doors.
``I am going to see how long they'll let me run it,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MORT FRYMAN
Sponsors of race car driver Anthony R. ``Tony'' Jolley agreed with
his idea to honor two Chesapeake firemen.
by CNB