Frank Weiss Racing Components, Inc.
 |
 |
FWRC CUSTOMERS  Jeff Gordon
It's not often that someone's career path is decided at age five –- unless your name happens to be Jeff Gordon. In 1977, long before Gordon became a four-time NASCAR champion, Gordon stepped behind the wheel of his first quarter midget at the urging of his stepfather, John Bickford. Bickford remembered Gordon's first few laps at the makeshift racetrack in Vallejo, Calif. as less than stellar. “He slipped around the track for days getting used to the car and how to drive it,” he said. Not long after that, Gordon, barely school age, started turning heads. At the age of six, he won 35 main events en route to the Western States Championship. He won his first Grand National Championship in 1979. A year later, Gordon took 50 fastest time awards and 46 race wins in 50 events. “I really felt comfortable and confident in those cars,” said Gordon. “I felt that I could win just about every time out.” After dominating the quarter midget scene, Gordon, bored with racing, nearly started a career in waterskiing before moving on to sprint cars. When Gordon turned 13, Bickford felt the time was right to put his stepson in the driver's seat of a 650 horsepower sprint car for the first time. Race organizers didn't agree, feeling Gordon was too young to run such a developed racecar. Still, preparations for Gordon's sprint car career went on. “I knew it was going to be tough, but all I wanted was a chance to prove whether I could or couldn't drive these cars,” Gordon said. Gordon was finally allowed to run in Jacksonville at the All Star Florida Speedweeks, provided he started at the back of the field. He hit the wall in that first effort, but ran on a dozen different tracks that year, culminating in a 12th-place effort. Gordon's first sprint car win came in 1986 at the KC Speedway in Chillicothe, Ohio. In all, Gordon won 22 USAC races and garnered 55 top-five and 66 top-10 finishes. In 1990, at age 19, Gordon became the youngest USAC National Midge Champion in history. A year later, he won the USAC dirt title to become the youngest Silver Crown winner ever. In 1991, after taking Buck Baker's driving school at North Carolina Speedway, Jeff told his stepfather to “sell everything. We're going stock car racing.” Gordon won three Busch Series races in 1992 before jumping to Cup racing, where he won rookie of the year honors in 1993 and the first of his four titles in 1995. Gordon also took top honors in '97, '98 and 2001.  Dale Earnhardt Jr. Before he was the face of NASCAR's new generation, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was very proud of his skills as an oil changer at his father's car dealership in North Carolina. "If I wasn't racing, I'd be working at my dad's Chevrolet dealership," said Earnhardt Jr. "It was only a couple of years ago that I was the fastest oil-change man in the place." His career began meekly, as he and brother Kerry sold a go-kart for $500 so that they could buy an old Monte Carlo racecar for $200. Legend has it that Junior later sold that car to current Busch Series driver Hank Parker Jr. Earnhardt Jr. took his first green flag at the Concord Speedway in the street stock division at the age of 17. He garnered three feature victories from 1994-96. Just two years later, Earnhardt Jr. dominated the Busch Series, winning 13 races and two series championships in 1998-99. His first title in 1998 made him the first third-generation NASCAR champion, joining father Dale Sr. and grandfather Ralph. His maternal grandfather, Robert Gee, was a well-known NASCAR fabricator and mechanic. Junior wasted no time making an impact in NASCAR's elite series when he entered in 2000. He won at Texas in his 12th career start and at Richmond in his 16th start. He also became the first rookie to win NASCAR's all-star race at Lowe's Motor Speedway. It also didn't take long for Junior to become the unofficial poster boy of the sport. He's appeared on countless magazine covers, numerous television talk shows and was the focus of two MTV documentaries: “Cribs” and “True Life, I'm a Race Car Driver.” Junior is also a co-owner of "Chance 2 Motorsports," a Busch Series race team.  Angelle Savoie
 Anton Brown
 Champ Car Team
Champ Car, a shortened form of "Championship Car", has been the name for a class of cars used in American Championship Car Racing for many decades. It is is also the common name for the Champ Car World Series, a North American open-wheel racing series that was formerly known as CART, or Championship Auto Racing Teams. The series was formerly known as the CART PPG IndyCar World Series and the CART FedEx Championship Series.
 Ron Capps
 Richie Stevens The next generation of drag racing officially arrived on the NHRA circuit in 1998 when as a teenager Richie Stevens Jr. became the first graduate of the sport's Junior Drag Racing League to turn pro. Before his rookie year was finished, Stevens had already proved he belonged with the sports elite by winning his first national event and becoming the youngest Pro Stock winner in the 49-year history of organized drag racing - a record which still stands today. |
