THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 16, 1996 TAG: 9608160737
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CAPRON LENGTH: 228 lines
It was on an early September Saturday in 1992 that racing veteran Speck Edwards and up-and-coming newcomer Tony Edwards first bumped into each other as they happily shared the limelight at Southampton Speedway.
Each had just won his first race at the new dirt-track - Speck in the Late Model Stock division and Tony in the lesser Limited Sportsman.
``This could be the start of something for us,'' Speck said to Tony, no relation, as they celebrated the victories.
It was the start of something, all right: one of the most bitter and violent rivalries in Virginia's colorful auto racing history.
Speck Edwards is awaiting trial on two felony charges and Tony Edwards has been in and out of hospitals because of the feud.
Tony Edwards is serving a two-race suspension at Southampton. He was accused of spinning out Speck Edwards, who was returning last Saturday from a two-week suspension for allegedly sending Tony Edwards' into the wall.
From the night four years ago when they shared victory lane, the two drivers sped toward each other on a collision course, becoming the most successful and feared drivers at the rural track, and finally becoming bitter rivals when Tony moved up to Speck's division in 1995.
Feuds and rivalries are common at ``bullrings'' such as the Southampton track where racing's weekend warriors bang bumpers, dent fenders and bruise egos every Saturday night during the season.
But few disputes reach the intensity of the one involving the feuding Edwardses. Their lives have been wrecked emotionally, their bodies bruised and battered, and they have spent thousands of dollars rebuilding damaged race cars.
Sidney ``Speck'' Edwards, a 57-year-old truck driver, was charged in Halifax, N.C., last October with assault with a deadly weapon - his race car - and inflicting serious injury, the result of allegedly running over Tony Edwards at a dirt track in Brinkleyville.
That happened one week after Speck won the Late Model championship at Southampton despite being spun out on the last lap by Tony.
Tony Edwards, a 38-year-old employee of Union Camp in Franklin, has been sent to the hospital twice because of run-ins with Speck - once after the North Carolina incident and again last month after his race car was stuffed into the wall at Southampton.
Both drivers were suspended - Tony for one week, Speck for two weeks - and placed on probation following the July incident.
The rivalry resumed with more controversy last Saturday when Tony was disqualified on the seventh lap for allegedly bumping into Speck and spinning him through the infield.
Tony claimed he was a victim again. He said Speck intentionally slammed on the brakes to cause the collision and spun himself out, knowing it would result in Tony's expulsion.
Indeed, there was only minor contact, considerably less than other cars had been involved in without spinning out.
While some drivers were sympathetic with Tony, they agree it is past time for track officials to do whatever they must to end the feud.
``A lot of us have got caught up in their mess and have gone home with tore-up race cars,'' said one veteran driver who did not want to be identified for fear of getting in the middle of the spat. ``We're lucky no one has been seriously hurt. But if this is allowed to continue, it is bound to happen and the track is going to held responsible for not doing enough to stop it.''
Promoter Jim Randall said the track is determined to end it: ``These guys have been doing it back and forth for years and this is not going to be tolerated any more.''
Both drivers say the feud has taken the fun out of racing for them and they wish it had never happened. But, like pit bulls who have each other in a jaw-lock, neither is willing to let go.
``I don't need any more victories. I've won my share,'' said Speck, a bachelor who lives about a mile from the Southampton track. ``But I don't want people saying he (Tony) ran this old gray-haired s.o.b. out of racing.''
Tony Edwards said he almost did not return to racing this season after the incident last year in North Carolina. He said his wife and 9-year-old daughter have emotional scars from seeing him injured as a result of being spun out by Speck.
``This really is a hobby, and you are supposed to enjoy something you spend so much time and money doing,'' said Tony, a trim man with thin, dark hair. ``But what has happened the last year has put emotional scars on my family. It makes you stop and wonder if it is worth it. But, then again, I am not a quitter.''
Small in stature, Speck Edwards is a legend to many fans in the rural communities along Highway 58 between Emporia and Franklin. He enjoys puffing on cigar butts, but no longer smokes them during races as he used to do.
He got the nickname ``Speck'' from his boyhood freckles. His other nickname - ``Hurricane'' - was given to him at a country track in North Carolina by the public address announcer. ``I don't care for it too much,'' Speck said.
Speck began racing 30 years ago, and once won so many races at one track that a special purse was offered to anyone who could outrun him. He is a longtime Ford driver in a sport where General Motors products routinely dominate.
``I really think that is part of the problem with Tony,'' he said. ``When I beat him, people get on him for losing to an old man driving a Ford.''
Tony Edwards, an avid hunter, has raced for only six years, the last five at Southampton. He also enjoys scuba diving and camping with his family.
A self-described thrill-seeker, he proved right away that he could hustle a car to the front of the field and it didn't seem to matter if he bumped a few fenders to get there. He is Southampton's biggest winner with 38 victories, three more than Speck's 35.
Tony had 25 wins in the Limited Sportsman division before moving up to Speck's class two years ago. That's when the fireworks began.
Some drivers say the root of the dispute is that neither driver can accept losing.
``This thing has gone too far, really,'' said R.B. Jones, a Late Model driver from Chesapeake. ``They should just drop it. Neither one of them is really a bad guy, you know. They are just so competitive.''
The Edwardses no longer speak to each other. Neither believes the feud is close to ending, and neither is willing to take the first step toward resolving it.
``I shook Tony Edwards' hand twice last year and after each time he spun me out,'' Speck said. ``The first part of last year we shook hands and I told him that we were going to run a good, clean race. Then he spun my --- out on the third lap.
``At the end of the season, before the final race for the championship, we shook hands and said we were going to run a fair race for the title, and he put my --- out on the last lap. I can get along with every driver out here except him.''
Tony said he tried to get along with Speck and race by his rules after moving up to the Late Model class.
``Speck came over to me before the first race and told me that we'd get along fine. He said, `You bump me, I'll bump you. You bump me hard, I will bump you hard.' I told him I could live with that.''
But, Tony said, Speck wasn't willing to give and take. In the third race of the season, he was jamming on Speck's bumper, trying to make a pass, when Speck waved for him to go around.
``I started around him and he hooked me in my quarter-panel, spinning me out,'' Tony said. ``I came back up through the field and when we got to the place he had hooked me, I hooked him and sent him through the infield.
``It was just to prove a point. He had said a bump for a bump, and a hard bump for a hard bump. Well, a spin for a spin, right?''
Tony said the next week he approached Speck and reminded him of what he had said before the first race.
``I asked him if he wanted to pick up where we had left off the previous week, or did he want to shake hands and go racing. He said we should call it even and go racing. But it was never even from that point on.''
Tony said he continued trying to build a working relationship with his new rival.
``I tried talking to him and all,'' Tony said, ``but he would fly off the handle and tell me that I should have stayed in the lower class. And I said, `Yeah, I bet you do because you can't stand the competition.'
``He (Speck) has been on top a lot of years, right? Sometimes when you are on top it is hard to play second fiddle to somebody else. Watching me race through the years, Speck made the comment that if I ran his class, he would teach me a lesson.
``So, I guess running over me in Brinkleyville, putting me in the wall up here, maybe they were lessons. I don't know.''
Speck claims the incident at Brinkleyville was unintentional and criminal charges never should have been filed.
``There is a young district attorney down there trying to make a name for himself,'' Speck said. ``It was a racing accident on private property. It didn't happen on a highway. I have never heard of anything like this in racing.
``My lawyer tells me we have a good chance of winning. But you never know. It is going to be a jury case, so you don't know which way it will go.''
Tony would not talk about the Brinkleyville incident because of the pending trial.
According to accounts, the two drivers got together early in the race, with Speck sliding into Tony to send his car into the wall. Tony waited for Speck to come back around and drove into the side of his car.
Both drivers were ordered to the pits.
Speck said someone on his crew told him to go back on the track and he gunned his engine when he suddenly saw Tony, on foot, running toward his car.
``I had mud on my windshield and mud on my goggles,'' Speck said, ``and the sun was shining in my eyes. He (Tony) was somewhere he shouldn't be. As soon as I saw him, I hit the brakes. He was looking at me like, `If you hit me, you ol' s.o.b., I am going to jump on your car.' I bumped him on his knees, and he jumped on the hood of my car.''
Tony was air-lifted to a Norfolk hospital, where he was examined for spinal injuries. He was released a few days later.
Speck believes that Tony was not hurt as badly as he claimed. When Tony wrecked into the wall four weeks ago and was taken to a hospital, Speck showed little concern. He thought it was all a fake.
``I couldn't understand Speck's lack of concern,'' R.B. Jones said. ``If it had been me that caused someone to wreck, I would have been over there to make sure he was all right. Speck said Tony was just putting on and not really hurt.''
``I hurt my back and hip, and no one asked me if I was all right,'' Speck said.
Paul Dixon, Tony Edwards' crew chief, has known Speck for more than 25 years. Once they were friends, but not now.
``I've seen a lot of rivalries over the years, but this has gone a little farther than most,'' Dixon said. ``I never thought it would get to this point. If anyone had told me that Speck would do what he has done, I would call them a lie. I ain't got no use for him anymore.''
This is not the first time Speck has been involved in controversy at the Southampton track. Two years ago, he smacked track promoter Jule Matthews, resulting in a one-week suspension that eventually cost him the Late Model championship.
``Speck has a quick temper, and if he doesn't win, he wants to blame someone else,'' said Matthews, who no longer is in racing.
Speck claims he barely touched Matthews.
``I've won two championships here and they cheated me out of another with that suspension,'' he said.
Speck may have evened the score by tricking Tony into committing a foul last week, resulting in his suspension that virtually eliminates Tony from title contention.
Speck contended he did not purposely cause the collision, but before the race he talked about the possibility that a spin out could be faked.
``Suppose I'm running behind him and he slapped on the brakes and caused me to hit him,'' Speck mused. ``No one would know the truth.''
Tony admitted he was racing Speck tight.
``You have to be on him if you want to pass him,'' he said. ``I had someone beating on my back bumper wanting me to go on. But, I swear, he (Speck) was the one who caused it. He slapped on the brakes and I stood on my brakes and barely touched him.
``He did exactly what he planned to do. Me, Speck and the Good Lord are the only ones who know what really happened. I know that I have a clear conscience.''
With Tony on suspension the next two weeks, Speck has a clear shot toward another title. Tony is eligible to return on Aug. 31, and with only seven races remaining probably would not have time to make up the points he lost during suspension.
``If he (Speck) has to win it that way, he can have it,'' Tony said. ``If he wants it that bad, he can have it.''
The big questions, though, aren't about the championship. Speck still faces a court date in North Carolina.
And no one knows what will happen the next time the feuding Edwardses bump into each other on a race track. ILLUSTRATION: MICHAEL HEFFNER color photos, The Virginian-Pilot
Tony Edwards
Speck Edwards
Speck Edwards, left, and Tony Edwards tangle in turn No. 4 last
Saturday at Southampton Speedway. Despite frequent suspensions,
neither shows signs of giving an inch in their 2-year-old quarrel. by CNB