Full Throttle

Reprinted from the Richmond Times Dispatch.

In the opening to “Black Wheels,” Wendell Scott Jr. explains why he once distanced himself from racing after helping his father become NASCAR’s most successful African-American driver.

“I had to back out of this game because a lot of minorities don’t know this game,” Scott said. “If you don’t know where you came from, you don’t know where you’re going.”

But aside from Scott’s father, the Danville, Va., native whose career was made into a Richard Pryor movie (”Greased Lightning”), the stories of the Jackie Robinsons in racing have gone largely untold.

“Black Wheels” aims to fill that narrative void, coloring in the past of a traditionally lily-white sport.

The one-hour documentary from Petersburg-based New Millennium Studios traces the history of minorities in racing back to 1924 when The Gold and Glory Sweepstakes was created by the Colored Speedway Association as a Negro League-style series for black drivers banned from the Indianapolis 500.

Through a voiceover by New Millennium co-founder Tim Reid interspersed with dozens of interview snippets, the movie chronicles pioneers such as Charles Wiggins, Joie Ray, Willy T. Ribbs and Scott. It also documents the progress of pre sent-day drivers such as the Craftsman Truck Series’ Bill Lester, the only black driver competing on a national circuit.

Producer Byron Hunter, who spent two years researching and compiling the film, said he “didn’t do the film to educate African-Americans. I did it to educate NASCAR fans.

“I want everyone to know there is a history of diversity,” Hunter said. “I think there’s an assumption that racing is not only a white sport but more of a redneck sport that African-Americans or Latinos or women have never been affiliated with. But we’ve been in this sport a very long time. We’ve got to let our people know there is a history there. Then we’ve got to let them know there is a future.”

“Black Wheels” will launch on syndicated TV in more than 100 markets next month (airing on WRLH-35 at 4 p.m. on Aug. 14), and its release coincides with a renewed push by NASCAR to diversify. Last year, Drive for Diversity was created to put minorities in well-funded Late Model rides in hopes of creating a pipeline to the Nextel Cup Series.

Since Scott’s career ended with a crash at Talladega Superspeedway in 1973, there have been no black drivers in Cup. But Sam Belnavis sees opportunities for minorities as plentiful now as any time in the 57-year history of the sport.

Belnavis entered NASCAR in 1981 as a sports marketing director and was introduced to Bill France Jr. as “the colored guy from Miller Brewing.”

“Then I became known as the black guy,” he said. “Finally, I became known as Sam Belnavis.”

Now the chief diversity officer for Roush Racing, Belnavis believes “Black Wheels” can change perceptions about opening doors for minorities in NASCAR.

“Today the welcome mat is out,” Belnavis said. “But who knows that? Do Hispanics know that? Do African-Americans know that? They don’t.

“It’s very important for NASCAR to make sure this film gets exposure to know that we have a history, a legacy in motorsports. We don’t think the sport’s for us because we don’t have the knowledge that Charlie Wiggins was around and he kicked some butt.”

Wiggins is the film’s most compelling character and an unsung hero whose story made Hunter feel as if he were “unearthing the King Tut of auto racing.” Wiggins raced in the Gold and Glory from 1925-36 and became known as “The Negro Speed King” for winning the majority of the events with his “Wiggins Special,” a car built from discarded junkyard parts.

He also owned a garage on the south side of Indianapolis and put his mechanical skills to use where his driving talent wasn’t allowed. In 1934, he entered Indianapolis Motor Speedway by posing as a janitor for Bill Cummings’ team. Wiggins swept floors at the Brickyard during the day and secretly tuned on Cummings’ car at night.

With Wiggins’ help, Cummings won the Indianapolis 500. Two years later, the Gold and Glory Sweepstakes disbanded when Wiggins lost an arm in a 13-car pileup. He continued to build and repair race cars until his death in 1979.

Inspired by Wiggins, Ray became the first African-American to race at Daytona Beach, Fla., in 1952.

In a “Black Wheels” screening last week at the National Press Club in Washington, Lester and Joe Henderson III, a 19-year-old in his second year of racing in Drive for Diversity, learned about Ray and Wiggins for the first time.

“It really opened my eyes,” Henderson said. “I know about Wendell Scott and Bill Lester, but to see Joie Ray and Charlie Wiggins, I realize there’s a whole lot more to it.”

Those revelations are gratifying for Reid, a Norfolk native who attended Cup races at Riverside (Calif.) International Raceway with his family 25 years ago while starring as Venus Flytrap on “WKRP In Cincinnati.” New Millennium, which co-financed “Black Wheels” with Waste Management, is an independent studio that has focused on telling black history through the “American Legacy” series. “Black Wheels” is the latest chapter.

“The idea is to find these kinds of stories,” Reid said. “They’re not hidden. No one has said, ‘You can’t tell that story.’ It falls into our mission to do that.”