Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corporation

Sawyers to drive student-prepared car

Sep 26, 2007
By DREW EARY - Bulletin Sports Writer. Like more than 100 other drivers, Rodney Sawyers of Ridgeway will be working his hardest to make the field at the Bailey’s 300 race Saturday at Martinsville Speedway.

But unlike many others, Sawyers will be driving the Patrick Henry Community College (PHCC) owned No. 73 Dodge, a car that is built and maintained by a group of students.

And, for the upcoming race at Martinsville Speedway, many of the students who have been working on the race car are first semester freshmen.

“I trust them to do everything they do,” Sawyers said. “They learn what they are supposed to do in the classroom, and they should be doing what they do well.”

Sawyers, who has been racing for the past 20 years, said that much of his confidence in the students comes from the knowledge of the Motorsports Program teachers at PHCC.

“Everything those guys (the students) know, they learned from either Talmadge (Thomas, PHCC Motorsports teacher) or Denver (Smith, also a teacher in the PHCC Motorsports program), and those two have been doing this for a good while,” he said.

However, even though Sawyers said that he was confident about what the students were doing with the car, he wasn’t sure if they would be able to keep up with some of the other drivers and teams that will be at the Bailey’s 300.

“Philip (Morris), Tink (Reedy)...those guys have about 20 years in doing this,” he said. “They know how to do this stuff, they know all the little tricks and secrets.”

Sawyers, who usually drives PHCC’s car, said that Saturday’s race will be the first race he has driven the car this year. In the past, he has competed at races at Motor Mile Speedway and South Boston Speedway.

“The car does real good,” he said. “We finished eighth (out of about 70 cars) at the big Late Model race down there last year.”

On the test day for the Bailey’s 300 on Sept. 19, Sawyers said the car was holding its own during practice.

“We are about four-tenths off on old tires,” Sawyers said. “We are down a little on horsepower,” he said. “But that’s something we can make up in corner speed.”

Smith, who acted as the team’s crew chief during practice on Sept. 19, said that everything was going well during practice.

“All of the students, every one, has some feel for racing,” he said. “Many already have some background in it. Some are even ready to go to a team now.”

Smith said that the students that he brought to the track for the practice session had only been in the program for three weeks, but they already knew enough about racing to be at the track.

“They already know a good bit about how to do the stuff we are working on” during practice, he said. “We have done a track bar (a part of the rear chassis) adjustment. That’s something they learn in class. We have training simulators that show where and how to make those adjustments.”

And, according to Smith, the adjustments that were made to the car made a difference.

“The car is running real good on scuffs (used tires),” he said. “As (practice) goes on and the weather gets hotter, we’ll have to make more adjustments.”

Of the PHCC students working on the car at the track, some had previous experience working on circle track race cars, and some did not.

Lindell Williams of Horsepasture was one of the students who had no previous experience with circle track racing.

“I know drag racing, but this stuff (circle track racing) is a different story,” he said. “The whole set up alone is different. You have to set up the car for the track.”

Williams said that the differences in car set ups were a surprise to him.

“I though racing was racing,” he said. “But after I got into it, I realized it was a whole lot different.”

Williams said the major differences was that in circle track racing, making chassis adjustments was the primary way of making the car go faster.

“We have had to rebuild the late mode to get ready for this race,” he said. “We had to do the whole suspension, the A-frames, dyno the car. We did a little bit of everything.”

On the opposite end of the racing experience spectrum was Ted Dailey of Radford.

Dailey had previously worked on his father’s Late Model Stock car, which races at Motor Mile Speedway in Radford.

“Mostly we have been working on getting the car set up,” he said. “Anything you do to the car will make it faster.”

Dailey said that he had been responsible for taking tire temperatures after the car practiced on the track. Dailey used the tire temperatures to determine how the car was handling on the track.

“You can tell from the tire temperature if the car is loose or tight,” he said. “A high temperature says the car is tight, or pushing out. Right now the car is handling all right.”

Dailey said that getting to work on the PHCC race car was fun for him because he enjoyed working on his father’s car.

“It’s awesome,” he said. “I work on my dad’s car, but our season ended Saturday (Sept. 15). Now I get to come to class and do the same thing.”