It was a pleasant surprise to see the byline of Deb Williams show up in my Charlotte newspaper. Deb is an "old school" writer. I once tried to hire her back in the 80s. She cut her teeth watching 60s racing around Asheville before becoming a correspondent for United Press International - UPI. Once there, she convinced them to let her become a motorsports beat writer and she became one of the best.
From UPI, Deb was hired by Rob Griggs and headed up the coverage for his Grand National Scene newspaper and Grand National Illustrated Magazine at all NASCAR Winston Cup events for many years.
The last time I saw Deb was several years ago at the funeral of Judy Tucker, former secretary for Dale Earnhardt, Joe Whitlock, Humpy Wheeler, Osterlund Racing, Richard Howard and Blue Max racing.
Writing for the local Lake Norman News , several of her stories have been reprinted in the Charlotte Observer and its That's Racin' property. It has been a pleasure to read something by someone who knew the behind the scenes stuff and worked to get her stories, rather than stuffing her face at the media buffet and writing from pit notes like so many.
Today she caught us up with the championship sports car race winning activities of former NASCAR cheater, Gary Nelson and former NASCAR driver, Elton Sawyer , who married another NASCAR driver - Patty Moise . Welcome back, Deb!
Action Express Racing becomes sports car powerhouse
By Deb Williams
Correspondent
Posted: Saturday, Feb. 08, 2014
Throughout the 1980s, Denver was the home to U.S. Tobaccos motorsports effort, first with Hal Needham as Harry Gants team owner and then, later, with the Jackson brothers and Travis Carter taking over the NASCAR flag.
In the past few years, however, the Lincoln County community on Lake Normans west shore has become the home of one of the powerhouse teams in professional sports car racing, Action Express Racing.
Owned by Bob Johnson, the team is a mixture of NASCAR and sports car racing veterans who have guided the operation to two Rolex 24 victories, including the one at Daytona last month.
Gary Nelson, crew chief on Bobby Allisons 1983 NASCAR Cup championship team and the former Cup series director, is the team manager. Elton Sawyer, who won two Nationwide Series races during his 20 years competing on that circuit and later became the research and development manager at Evernham Motorsports, is the director of race team operations.
Scottish-born engineer Iain Watt is the teams technical director. A graduate of the Cranfield Institute of Technology in Bedford, England, Watt has worked with numerous open-wheel standouts, including Max Papis, Dario Franchitti, Christian Fittipaldi and Tony Kanaan. The team acquires its powerplants from ECR Engines.
I am a little surprised with how quickly weve been successful, but not as many changes as you might think (have occurred), said Johnson, who began working with the late Bob Snodgrass on the Brumos Racing Daytona Prototype teams in 2002, providing them with financial and business management consulting services.
We have a lot of the same personnel, even carrying over from the Brumos days. I mean, we have people that have been a part of the organization from the beginning of when Brumos started racing.
In 2009, Brumos campaigned two Daytona Prototype teams, with the No. 58 Porsche Riley winning the Daytona 24-hour race. However, at the end of that season, Brumos Racing decided to cut back to one team, running only the No. 59 Daytona Prototype for 2010.
Johnson took ownership of the other team and created Action Express Racing and the No. 9 Porsche/Riley Daytona Prototype. The new team pulled off a major upset in its first outing in 2010, claiming victory in the Daytona endurance event.
Brumos Racing decided to leave the Daytona Prototype class at the end of that season, opening the door for Johnson to take over the remaining team. He created the No. 5 Action Express Racing team and expanded it to a two-car operation.
In 2011, the team posted a victory at Virginia International Raceway and recorded four other podium finishes. During the next two years, Action Express snared four victories, two in each season; Detroit and Watkins Glen in 2012 and Mid-Ohio and Watkins Glen last year.
We have accomplished a lot in a short time, but, again, its just because of all the hard work and people like Gary Nelson and Elton Sawyer and Coyote, and the whole organization is behind us, said Johnson, a practicing CPA for more than 43 years.
When we had the problem with the car and did all the significant damage to it in November, if we hadnt had Coyote behind us to put another chassis in place very quickly, we couldnt have put the car together and been racing again as quickly as we did. Its part of the organization and thats what makes it possible.
The teams next event is the March 12-15 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in Florida.
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/02/07/4665087/action-express-racing-becomes.html#storylink=cpy
Deb also penned the story below, futher illustrating the activities of NASCAR folks gone sports car racing:
After building career in NASCAR, London enjoys victory in Rolex 24
By Deb Williams
From sweeping floors in a NASCAR Nationwide Series shop to celebrating a Rolex 24 victory at Daytona International Speedway, Joe Londons two-decade racing career has shown that hard work and dedication can still take a person from humble beginnings to joyful success in motorsports.
The lead assembler for Earnhardt-Childress Racing Engines prototype effort, London not only got to celebrate a victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona last month, he and his six co-workers received the satisfaction of seeing the powerplants they built taking the first four positions in the grueling 24-hour race.
Thats quite an accomplishment for the small group that built 10 engines in 12 days.
To do something that you know not many people have the opportunity to do and to accomplish the Rolex 24-hour win, knowing its a lot of endurance and theres a lot of time and effort that goes through the company to even finish that race is pretty awesome, London said.
It was emotional because youre up for 37 hours. It took everybody on the calibration side of the engines, to the building side, everything that went into it to win the 24. It was a big company win.
Even though it was the Mooresville residents first trip to victory lane in the Rolex 24, ECR Engines has won previously in sports car racings prototype division. In the last two years, the company has claimed the manufacturers championship in prototype on the engine side, and one ECR Engines-supplied team emerged with the driving title.
Even though London has worked in an engine department since the late 1990s, it wasnt a job he envisioned when he began sweeping floors and assisting on the race car for a team co-owned by Greg Pollex and NFL quarterback Mark Rypien.
At the time, London was 19, and his stepfather, Fred Wanke, was the crew chief for the Busch Series (now Nationwide) team that fielded Fords for Chad Little. In 1993, he briefly stepped away from racing to join the Air National Guard; when he returned after eight months of training, he took odd jobs working on cars.
In late 1994, London joined his stepfathers company, Fred Wanke Racing, which built turn-key cars for Rich Bickle, did work for Ultra Wheels Motorsports, built a truck for Dale Earnhardts team with driver Ron Hornaday and handled Darrell Waltrips truck effort until the end of 1995. At that time, London joined Waltrips Concord-based Cup team.
When I wanted to get into racing, I wanted to be on the car side, London said. I wanted to be a fabricator, on the mechanic side of it. At the end of 95, when I went to Darrell Waltrips to work on the Cup team, I went into the engine shop. I never was the type that tinkered on engines, so going into tear-down was a big eye-opener for me.
In addition to working in the engine tear-down department for three years at Waltrips, London assisted the engine assemblers on the engine dyno and in the machine shop.
I learned a lot, London said. Claude Queen was my first boss at Darrells, and he really helped push me along. He showed me the ins and outs.
When Tim Beverly bought Waltrips team, London moved to Dale Earnhardt Inc. in April 1998. He continued in the same role at DEI, remaining in tear-down for another 21/2 years.
London began assembling engines at DEI, and it just took off from there. In 2004-05, he was engine builder of the year on Martin Truex Jr.s two-time Busch Series championship team.
When ECR Engines was formed in 2007-08, London continued with the company, building Cup engines for a couple of years before moving to the Nationwide and Truck side. He also worked on dirt late model engines for a year before starting his tenure on the engines for professional sports car racings exotic prototype cars.
Its really been unreal, the 40-year-old London said about his career. Being on the engine side makes you want to win. Youre preparing for game day. To be able to get up every day and do it every day, its fun. I have fun getting up every morning and going to work. Im there to win races.
Joe Nemechek and son John Hunter will share the SWM-NEMCO Motorsports entry in NASCARs Camping World Truck Series, thus allowing the team to run the entire season.
John Hunter will compete in 10 races at the track that allows a 16-year-old to race, while his father will handle the remaining 12 events.
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/02/07/4665459/after-building-career-in-nascar.html#storylink=cpy
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/16/16 07:54:05AM
