Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 5, 1990 TAG: 9005050279
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By RANDY KING SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: TALLADEGA, ALA. LENGTH: Medium
"I never knew nothing else," Schrader said Friday at Talladega Superspeedway.
"My daddy was a racer, and when I was 2 1/2 or 3 [years old], my mama would like to lay out in the sun. I can see now that you can't do that with a little baby running around.
"So Dad went out in the backyard, drove a pole in the ground and tied a cable to it. He'd tied a Go-Kart to the other end and unhooked the steering. Mom sat me in the thing, buckled the seat belt - it wouldn't run faster than 10 mph - and fired it up. So while she sat in the sun, I'd drive it around in a circle.
"I never did anything else."
At 5 years old, little Schrader yearned to go faster.
"They [his parents] got me one that wasn't hooked to a cable. I remember plain as day my daddy saying, `Take this throttle and push it this way to go faster.'
"I puttered around a little while, and I thought, `this thing needs to go faster,' even though it was already going too fast for me. When I hit the throttle, that thing took off and I was out of control for 10 minutes.
"They chased me around, and I finally hit a bird bath so hard it almost killed me.
"But I'm awful hard-headed. I stuck to it anyway."
At 34, the Fenton, Mo., native has been going 'round and 'round ever since.
Thursday's first practice session was a hare-raising experience for Derrike Cope.
The Daytona 500 winner's Chevrolet ran over a rabbit on the backstretch of the 2.66-mile track. It took nearly an hour to repair damage to the car's front air dam.
Dodge makes its International Race of Champions (IROC) debut in today's first round of the four-race series.
When Chevrolet stopped manufacturing IROC-Z Camaros in 1989, it decided to end its series association. Dodge quickly stepped forward with its Daytona model.
"The Dodge has been fantastic," said Jay Signore, IROC president. "They are more aerodynamically clean than the cars we've raced before. In fact, we found it took 40 less horsepower to reach 190 mph when we first tested them."
Bobby Rahal will start on the pole in the 38-lap, 101-mile race. There are five NASCAR drivers - Mark Martin (second), Rusty Wallace (fifth), Dale Earnhardt (ninth), Darrell Waltrip (11th) and Terry Labonte (12th) - in the 12-driver field.
The race, which takes the green at 1 p.m., will be taped and shown by ABC (WSET Channel 13) on May 27 at 3:30 p.m.
Old-timer Charlie Glotzbach, a four-time winner on NASCAR's Winston Cup tour in the late 1960s and early 1970s, starts on the pole in today's 500K Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) event.
Glotzbach, 51, won the pole Thursday with a lap of 194.267 mph. Defending champion Tracy Leslie will start second.
The 117-lap, 312-mile race, which takes the green flag at 2 p.m., is always one of the more dangerous, action-packed ARCA events.
\ LUGNUTS: With injured Neil Bonnett unable to compete in The Winston at Charlotte (N.C.) Speedway on May 20, Morgan Shepherd moves back into the elite all-star field. Shepherd will qualify unless a driver currently not in The Winston field wins Sunday's Winston 500. . . . Because Bonnett is out, the Wood Brothers team, barring a victory Sunday, will be pushed back into the Winston Open preliminary. Dale Jarrett will drive the Woods' Ford in the race. . . . The 500 marks the first anniversary of the appearance of Chevrolet's Lumina on the Winston Cup trail. The new model has been strong since its inception, winning a tour-high 12 times in 29 races. . . . Morgan Shepherd posted a lap of 195.142 mph Friday to pace second-round time trials for the Winston 500. Shepherd, whose Ford turned 192.734 mph in Thursday's first round, earned the 21st spot in the 40-car field.
by CNB