05/17/2008

By JASON TYSON  / Associated Press

A horsepower of 600 is what it takes to get the No. 44 car around the track.

It took the power of 10 people to get the car on the track.

They build it, move it from race and race, and they put it back together when races go bad.

"This is our passion," said Tony White, a pit-crew member with the 2-year-old racing team. "Some people have golf or a boat. This is our boat. We like to race fairly and show good sportsmanship and hopefully watch something that we work on run like it is supposed to."

The Winston-Salem Journal reports that White is among the 10 people who work on No. 44 in a garage off Hickory Tree Road in Davidson County, just south of the Forsyth County line.

The race car is a modified stock car that competes in the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour, several tiers below NASCAR'S Sprint Cup series.

Most of the crew members have regular jobs as mechanics, parts suppliers and technicians. They volunteer their time during off-hours to work on the race car because they love racing and they love cars.

"Each of us has an important role, and we can't run this car without everyone," White said. "I spend two or three nights a week and weekends here. Sometimes we are up well past midnight getting it ready."

The love of what they do is apparent in their interactions with one another in the garage. They joke around and smile as they work late, even though most of the 10 have spent their days turning a wrench or covered in engine grease.

Earnings on the modified tour are modest — about $2,000 for the winning team. Although every team that enters earns something, the race money seldom covers the cost of maintaining the vehicle.

The car's owner and sponsors foot the bill, which runs from $2,000 to $3,500 in tires, gas, entry fees and other assorted expenses for each race.

White said that owners of a race car in the Whelen series are almost guaranteed to lose money.

The No. 44 team is still looking for its first win on the tour, and White says that the most difficult thing is trying to find sponsors to help pay for those costs. The hours are long, with a maintenance schedule that takes about 20 hours per crew member in the week before each race.

"All of us do this because we enjoy the competition and working with good people," White said. "It is not for the money or recognition. Each of us are simply passionate about cars and racing."

The car was built from the ground up by Jim Hire, who is the crew chief of the team. All of the vehicle's parts were fabricated or custom-made, including the engine, which was supplied by a shop in Clemmons. The car sits on 15-inch-wide tires placed outside the metal frame of the vehicle, giving it a narrower body and different look than the cars in the Sprint Cup series.

One crew member described it as a "bastardized version of a stock car and an open-wheeled Indy-style car."

It is owned by Fishel Racing Group, which is headed by Bryan Fishel. The Fishel family has been involved with racing in the area since the 1960s. The team members are: White; Jim Hire; Hire's son, Brandon Hire; Greg Butcher; Joey Chucci; Rick Smith; Skip Edwards; Shelby Fishel, the mother of Bryan Fishel; Sharon Temple; and Tommy Pendergrass.

Most of the team members have worked with race cars previously, either through an auto shop, pit-crew experiences or connections with the Fishel family.

For example, White said he has worked on several different types of cars in the past, while Jim Hire, 54, has been involved with cars for most of his life.

The Whelen tour is NASCAR'S oldest division, in its 60th year, and this year's schedule is 12 races long. Half of those are held at Caraway Speedway in Asheboro, with others at other tracks in the region. One of the races is scheduled for Aug. 2 at Bowman Gray Stadium, the tour's oldest track.

White compares driving at Bowman Gray to "racing in a bull ring," and akin to "the Roman Colosseum."

Bowman Gray is a 199-lap race, but it is a shorter track compared to the other raceways, most of which are 150-lap tracks.

Brandon Hire, 30, works at Childress Racing with White and is the team's driver. The younger Hire had previous experience racing all types of cars, and the genesis of this team began with him. He was driving in a Late Model Series Race in Elkin a couple of years ago when he was approached by members of the Fishel Group to drive the first No. 44 for the Whelen tour.

The rest of the team was formed after he agreed.

"Racing has been in my life for so long," Brandon Hire said. "I was racing go-carts when I was 8 years old. I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to race these cars."

When Hire broke his wrist last season, Butcher stepped in to drive for the first four races. Now Brandon Hire is trying to complete his first full season as a driver.

"We want to have fun but we also want to be competitive," Jim Hire said. "It is such a competitive sport, and we are chasing that dream in victory lane."