ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, April 20, 1996               TAG: 9604220100
SECTION: SPORTS                   PAGE: B-5  EDITION: METRO 
COLUMN: AUTO RACING NOTES
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER

FORDS STILL MAKING NOISE

Ford officials intensified their lobbying efforts with NASCAR this week for changes in the Ford Thunderbird after Chevrolets took the top-five finishing positions at North Wilkesboro last weekend.

But NASCAR hasn't budged - yet.

``They're persistent, but we also take our time,'' NASCAR spokesman Kevin Triplett said Friday at Martinsville Speedway. ``We're mulling it over.''

``Right now, nothing's happened,'' said Ford's Preston Miller after another chat with NASCAR vice president Mike Helton in the NASCAR transporter.

``There's been a lot of talking, but we've been talking for eight years now.''

Miller said Ford is lobbying for the same proposal Ford made after the 1995 season ended - lowering the back of the Thunderbird's roof by 11/4 inches. That would improve the Ford's downforce without adding drag, Miller said.

Previous changes, such as allowing Ford to have a larger spoiler, have been ``inefficient ways'' to try to achieve parity because of the increased drag, he said.

Miller said NASCAR has asked Ford to try to find other changes besides lowering the roof height, ``but we just couldn't come up with any better way to do it.''

NO PROVISIONALS: One of the 1996 goals for Ward Burton and car owner Bill Davis was to complete the season without using any provisional starting spots.

The good news is that the team has not used any provisionals. The bad news was that Burton didn't make the race at North Wilkesboro last weekend.

On the way home last Saturday, Davis told the team, ``I know one of our goals this year was to not use any provisionals, but I didn't have this in mind.''

Burton did somewhat better at Martinsville on Friday. He was 31st fastest for a 32-car field pending a second round of time trials at 1 p.m. today.

A FAN IN THE PITS: Former Busch Grand National champion David Green, who's leading the points again this year, was a visitor in the pits Friday at Martinsville.

``Some folks have suggested I'm here looking for a Winston Cup ride, but I'm just hanging out,'' he said. ``It's been a great, great year for me in the Busch series so far.''

Green's first victory of the year came at Hickory, N.C., on April 6. It was the first-ever Grand National win for car owner Buz McCall and Green's team.

``Other than [team consultant] Kirk Shelmerdine and myself, it was the first win and the first pole for every member of the team. This is a new team and we have a new sponsor, so for that to happen this quick is amazing.''

PACE CAR RELIEF DRIVER: NASCAR official Jerry Cook, a former modified driver who won seven races here, is driving the pace car for Elmo Langley this weekend. Langley has been seeing doctors this week to have blocked arteries cleared.

ONE MORE AT WILKESBORO: Amid increasing speculation about the fate of North Wilkesboro Speedway, NASCAR issued a statement from president Bill France all but confirming that the Holly Farms 400 will run as scheduled at the short track on Sept.29.

``We are telling the crews and sponsors that our 1996 schedule is accurate and we will race the scheduled NASCAR Winston Cup series event in North Wilkesboro in the fall, weather permitting,'' France said.

RIPKEN AND LABONTE: Terry Labonte, who breaks Richard Petty's consecutive race streak here Sunday with his 514th straight start, met baseball iron man Cal Ripken Jr. at Camden Yards in Baltimore on Tuesday and threw out the first ball.

Labonte isn't much of a baseball fan and Ripken knows little about racing.

But Ripken did say that when his brother, Frank, became a racing fan, ``I became a race fan to compete against him. He liked A.J. Foyt, so I became a Richard Petty fan just to compete against him.''

Ripken said that when he played for Class AA Charlotte, ``I went to the Charlotte Motor Speedway and I had a great time. I couldn't hear for about a week, but I had a good time.''

LEGACY RACE: Doug Stevens Jr., of Forest Park, Ga., won the 30-lap race for Allison Legacy cars Friday after leading the final four laps.

The cars are 5/8-scale replicas of Winston Cup cars with small Honda engines.

LENGTH: Medium:   85 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  DON PETERSEN/Staff. Ken Schrader is upset after crashing
          his Chevrolet (in background) during qualifying Friday afternoon at 
          Martinsville Speedway. He later qualified a second car in sixth 
          position.