DATE: Sunday, August 17, 1997               TAG: 9708170178

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: BROOKLYN, MICH.                   LENGTH:   79 lines

G. BODINE'S PARTNERS READY TO ``SPEND WHATEVER IT TAKES'' THE DRIVER ADMITS HE WASN'T UP TO SPEED IN TERMS OF GETTING THE MOST BANG FOR THE BUCK.

If Geoff Bodine was as bad a race-car driver as he was at controlling the finances of his race team, he probably couldn't win at Langley Speedway, much less in the NASCAR Winston Cup series.

Bodine confessed to a lack of skill with the books Saturday at Michigan Speedway as he unveiled two new owners with deep pockets who have jumped in to rescue him from ruin.

Bodine's long-expected announcement of the reorganization of his No. 7 QVC Ford Thunderbird team was the only significant development during a race weekend that historically has marked the high-water mark of ``Silly Season.''

In his press conference Saturday morning, Bodine took a far different stance than the one he took after failing to qualify for the Pepsi 400 last month at Daytona. Frustrated by missing the first race of his NASCAR career because he was too slow, Bodine lashed out at his sponsor, QVC.

The bottom line, Bodine said at Daytona, was that ``my sponsor just didn't give us enough money to run this race team. We've been stretching this money as far as we could, and I guess our performance has shown that.''

On Saturday, with Jim Mattei and John Porter, the new majority owners of his race team, at his side, Bodine said the picture he painted in July was not the way it was.

``They are businessmen,'' Bodine said of his new partners. ``Obviously, I'm not a very good one. We didn't do a good job in that area. I didn't do a good job. I probably spent money where I shouldn't have and wasted money and got in a position where the budget wasn't enough for me to keep going.

``I never said they didn't pay me,'' Bodine said. ``I just said that the budget we had with them wasn't enough to operate the way I operated.''

There were certainly no hard feelings from the folks at QVC, who were here in force this weekend as Bodine competed in a special gold-colored car and wore a gold uniform to promote an Aug. 17 sale of gold products on the network.

Bodine's new partners are buddies of car owner Felix Sabates. A news release said that Mattei is a private investor in Dallas who ``provides venture capital for companies in various industries'' and that Porter is a private investor who serves on the boards of directors ``of several public and private corporations.''

``It will take north of $6 million'' to run the team,'' Mattei said. ``We will spend whatever it takes. The way John and I have always run our companies, and he's got a $10 billion company, we follow budgets and allocate money where it is necessary, and we hire the best people.''

The first significant new hire is veteran crew chief Tim Brewer, who worked with Bodine on Junior Johnson's team. Brewer will be team manager, replacing Lee Morse, who has left the team.

``It's tough being kicked around for awhile,'' said Brewer, who has bounced around among several teams in recent years, most recently the No. 4 Chevrolet team with driver Sterling Marlin. ``But Geoff and I had a lot of good things going back years ago. These guys are going to help us get back to there.''

In the meantime, now that the highly regarded No. 28 Ford has been assigned to a newcomer, Kenny Irwin, Jr., for next season, the focus has shifted to other fronts.

Sterling Marlin said he is still considering his options for 1998, although it is anticipated that he will move to Sabco Racing to replace Robby Gordon and perhaps have a reunion with his former crew chief, Tony Glover.

``Things just haven't been working'' at the No. 4 team Marlin told Chevy's Ray Cooper on Saturday. ``I've been here four years, so I guess it's a four-year itch. I've got two or three options for next year, so we'll see what happens.''

The Cartoon Network, which announced recently that it would not return as sponsor of the No. 29 Chevrolet driven by Jeff Green, reportedly will become Lake Speed's sponsor next season.

``Can't say anything,'' Speed said Saturday.

And in the Grand National series, one of the top sponsors, Slim Jim, has announced that it is switching teams and drivers, moving from Jason Keller's team (owned by his father, Joe) to a new Chevrolet Monte Carlo that will be driven by All-Pro champion Mike Cope and owned by Frank Cicci, Jeff and Scott Welliver and John Gittler. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO

Since his victory at Watkins Glen a year ago, Geoff Bodine has seen

his fortunes dwindle.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu