This 1992 newspaper story about Champion Raceway highlights 4 of the old Chantilly Speedway drivers:
Champion's fabulous four sport skill, experience
August 1992
By CHARLIE HALL - Editor
BRINKLEYVILLE - Notre Dame football had the Four Horsemen. Champion Raceway has the Four, ahh, well, Older Guys.
Not that they act or drive like senior citizens. To the contrary, the veteran group of Joe Huss, Nathan Wright, Earl Arnold and Monk Clary have a combined age of 206, with nearly 100 years racing experience. They're not just track ornaments, not by any means. They all pilot sleek Late Model racers, the fastest class at the track. Their proficiency extends beyond the bounds of the local region, with all four in the Top 10 of the prestigious and highly competitive 11-track NASCAR Winston Racing Series Eastern Seaboard region. The four have raced together most of their careers and even with all their successes, all seem to share some common sense feelings about the sport, such as racing for fun and not taking it too seriously.
Joe Huss has been racing for 30 years, getting his start in an unusual way at the old Brunswick Speedway in southern Virginia. "Some local people built cars for a figure eight track and I asked everyone to let me drive one," he recalls. "One guy had a girl who was going to drive, but she backed out. I tried the helmet on. It fit, and they put me in the car." Huss, who worked in a paper mill and taught school for a time before opening his own shop, then began a racing career that has seen him race at 45 tracks in 17 states, as well as in Nova Scotia, Canada. He ran the small tracks and the big ones two, running in the old NASCAR Grand American Series in the earlier 70s, where he was runnerup for rookie of the year honors. Some of his fond memories of that era included leading at Jacksonville, Florida with four laps to go in a Grand American race, only to run out of gas and finish second to the late Tiny Lund. A better memory is finishing second to Jim Paschall at Raleigh Fairgrounds, making up three laps on the field, under green. At Dover, Delaware once, Tiny Lund's car crashed and burst into flames. Huss and a fireman pulled him from the car, but adds "we broke his ankle in the process." Huss' shop handles a little bit of everything, from race car chassis, engines, `48 Fords and even Mercedes. "We're scared to turn anything down," he laughed. In racing, he's always been his own car and engine builder, as well as sponsor. "A shoestring budget would have been high dollar," he said, again somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Still, the fact remains, he's won more than 300 feature events. He doesn't solicit sponsors, but does have plenty of friends and neighbors helping out, such as Gene Patterson, Randy Patterson, Randy Patterson Jr., Terry Strickland, "Popcorn" Burgess, Kenny Simmons, Jerry King and Jimmy King. As to when he might retire, he said that would come when he doesn't have fun anymore. "Right now, though," he says, "I'm just about as enthused as I was when I started."
Nathan Wright has been racing 22 years and also got his start at Brunswick Speedway. He used to help out others, even though he was around 20 years old, because his mother didn't want him to drive. "I was taught in the old school. I respected momma and daddy," he says. "I still do. One is 80 and the other is 78." He says he's had "the best luck in the world to be a low buck racer." He won championships at Chantilly Raceway in Weldon, NC three times and was on his way to a fourth before it closed at midseason in the late 1970's. A special memory was starting on the outside pole from a field of 143 cars and winning the race from a field of 30 racers from 13 states in the old World Series of Dirt Track Racing at Saluda, Va. He was instrumental in getting the Late Model class started at Champion Raceway, bringing his car down to the track one night a couple of seasons back to run a few laps for show. The next week, a cousin brought his Late Model and the pair created some interest, leading to a division. He's never run asphalt. He thought about it a couple of seasons back, but looked at the fact his three engines and car were made for dirt. "I decided I've got what I've got and to stick with it." A couple of seasons back he turned the reigns of his Late Model over to his son Kent. It was the only car he had to lend and his son did well, winning four races in each of the two seasons he drove. Wright, in the meantime, kept busy, driving a Street Stock for a friend of his, winning 13 races. One thing he prides himself in is that he's never blown an engine, quite an accomplishment for 22 years. "I did blow one for someone else," he recalls. "I was driving their car, came into the pits and told them the oil pressure was low. They told me to keep driving." When asked how long he'll drive, he tells a story on Joe Huss. "Joe said he was going to win a championship at 65. I said "you're going to have to outrun me to do it." Like Huss, he has some close friends and neighbors who help out with the car and are considered crew. There are friends like Mike Evans, Leonard Clary, Darryl Clark, Frank Wright and his engine builder of 20 years, Tom Clary. Clary is retired now, but according to Wright, "he still sits in the chair and tells us what to do." Then, their are father and son neighbors William and Edward Wright. "When I've had to be at work, they've put an engine in for me, more than once." Now, that's neighbors.
Monk Clary fans might think he's not at the track this week, but look closely. He will be sporting a new look this Saturday night at Champion Raceway, with a new white 1992 Chevy Lumina. Monk's well known for his orange racers, the latest being the florescent orange IROC he campaigned this season. He was going to paint the new car, but decided after picking it up in Charlotte this week to keep the white paint scheme. However, his orange racer, wrecked this past week will be around if repair work is finished, and there's a good bet it will be sporting a driver. Monk, who started racing 25 years ago, retired for a number of years before getting the bug again after seeing some of the others running. This is his third year back. "When they opened Brinkleyville, I came down to a race, saw them running and it gave me the feeling again." He won two races his first year, 11 last season and has a half dozen wins this year. One of his best memories was winning for the first time after coming back three years ago. Like the others, he's campaigned mainly on dirt. He ran two asphalt races, taking an eighth at South Boston and then qualifying for an ARCA 200 race at Daytona. Unfortunately, he never got to race, suffering a blown engine in practice. These days his engines are in the fine hands of nephew Randy Clary, who works for the Alan Kulwicki Winston Cup team. Lynn Morris, Mike Lundy and Keith King make up his crew. He's always run No. 89. Years ago he bought a`57 Chevy from Wayne Allen in Gaston. He car was No. 89. He won some races and it's been his number ever since.
The Keeter Motorsports racing team is as impressive and friendly as any at Champion Raceway. On Saturdays you can find the No. 28 driven by Earl Arnold parked near the tire station, with their ladies sitting nearby. Arnold is a 300-plus feature winner in his long and storied career. At 50, the Clayton driver is also in the elite of Eastern Seaboard Late Model drivers, along with Clary, Wright and Huss. Winning comes natural. He's had seasons when he's won as many as 24 and 27 races, running at tracks such as Raleigh and Fayetteville. He says he's having as good a time as any in his career since hooking up with Dan and Sue Keeter, the Keeter Motorsports owners. Dan Keeter is a former drag racer, turned round track mechanical whiz. He and Arnold sport a dedicated crew that includes Tiny Norman Goodnoe, Tracy Davis, Kevin Haskins and Harvey Dickens. Sixteen out of 17 times this season, they've put Arnold in a car that has finished in the top five, including a pair of wins.
If none of the Fab Four ever won again, they'd be winners. But the way they're going, it looks like they just got their second wind.
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
