Full Throttle

The U.S. Military has run it’s own little security enclave called Area 51 for decades. Stories of captured UFO’s and secret military black ops abound from Area 51 and some have called it one of the great mysteries of the 20th Century.

For the last forty years Caraway Speedway, a half mile asphalt oval in North Carolina, has operated as one of the backbones of NASCAR. Racing mostly modifieds and late model stocks it has provided a place for future NASCAR stars to hone their skills and, with hard work and luck, have a chance to become the next “big thing.”

It has also become auto giant General Motors own little Area 51. A place to test and evaluate young talent outside the watchfull eyes of the media. Late last month at Caraway three days were set aside for GM to evaluate thirteen young drivers hopeful of making the final jump to NASCAR.

The 13 candidates were tested driving GM trucks and watched by GM racing engineers for it’s first computer-data driver auditions. NASCAR veteran Dennis Setzer and chief mechanic Randy Goss set up and baseline the testing truck, then each driver gets an hour and two sets of tires to show his best stuff. Pat Suhy, the head of GM’s NASCAR field operations, listens intently on the radio to the point-counterpoint, judging not only how fast these guys can drive but how well they can communicate about the chassis.

Here is a list of some of the drivers involved and a short bio of each:

• Tavo Hellmund, born and raised in Mexico City, lives in Austin and once caught the eye of GM’s Herb Fishel, when Fishel, a Winston-Salem native, was the head of GM’s racing operations. “I had the NASCAR dream before it became fashionable with the ‘diversity initiative,’” Hellmund said. “I’ve been racing short-track stuff, and winning at every level.
• Woody Howard, lean, wiry and hungry, like a younger Greg Biffle, cooling his feet sitting behind the wheel of a car after driving down from Chesapeake, Va.. Trying to appear cool, and, like a good boxer, doing his best to manage the surging adrenalin rush. He’s from the Joe Gibbs camp … tentatively.
• Stephen Leicht, happy and carefree, wandering around the infield curiously, beaming like a kid on the midway. Only 18, Leicht seems under the least pressure. But then, he’s a kid that Richard Childress has his eyes on. Leicht, the youngest on the list, is running the full American StockCar League (ASL) tour. A native of Milwaukee, Leicht now lives in Asheville. Teaching him the ropes is veteran Howard Lettow, who worked with current NASCAR stars Jimmie Johnson and David Stremme.
• Ross Thompson, a road racer by trade who in 1998 had a Trans-Am series run, ran Winston West for a while and won a NASCAR Southwest Tour race. Although he has a full-blown game face on, insists: “There is no pressure. This is the opportunity of a lifetime, without a question. “When we showed up, Randy said ‘Just go have fun.’ Pressure is what you put on yourself, and I don’t have any pressure on myself.”

Todays NASCAR has come a long way from the days of bootlegging and NASCAR’s first “Golden Boy” Fred Lorenzen, but with luck and under GM’s tutelage and NASCAR’s diversity program some on this list may have The Chase in their future.