Back in the race
Speedway drivers get revved up for upcoming season
By Lynn Warren CONTRIBUTING WRITER

After the winter season, Thomas Stinson is ready to return to the "beating and banging" at Southside Speedway next month.

Southside Speedway's big gravel parking lot on Genito Road sits vacant, its spectator gates secured with sturdy padlocks. The black ribbon of the one-third mile semi-banked oval track lays cold and quiet.

But Chesterfield County drivers Thomas Stinson, Greg Fernandez and Brandon Hendrick's off season couldn't be any more different. Instead of hibernating in front of the television watching NASCAR reruns like so many of their fans, they've been hunkered down over their car engines, preparing for the upcoming season.

After six long months, they'll finally receive a green flag on Apr. 6 when Southside Speedway starts its 49th season

In the meantime, the drivers are putting the final touches on their cars before practice sessions begin later this month.

Thomas Stinson

There's nothing "off" about the Stinson racing team's off season. The 2006 Southside Speedway Modified Class Champion and his crew, which includes Mark, Harold and Happy Hunter and Chris Mason, keep three different cars going on three different circuits. Running about 40 races each year, Stinson's 11-month season is divided between the Rolling Thunder Tour, the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and the Modified Class at Southside Speedway. The team just returned from the World Series of Asphalt Modifieds in New Smyrna, Fla.

Photo courtesy of Greg Fernandez Greg Fernandez is ready to start his second season at Southside Speedway in the Late Model Sportsman Class. The speedway's first race this year is Apr. 6.

But, despite his many travels, Stinson admits he prefers the "bull ring at Southside with all of the beating and banging" to the bigger tracks where the Rolling Thunder and Whelen races are run.

The Stinson team is self-sufficient in both the maintenance of its cars as well as in generating operating capital. The crew cuts, splits and sells firewood year round to fund their racing ventures. In fact, they've been so efficient that they actually "made a little money for the first time last year," said Stinson.

The team also splits the labor and the skills needed to keep three racecars running.

"We work on a racecar pretty much every night," Stinson said.

Engines, transmissions, suspensions, body work and painting are all done in house.

"We build and rebuild our own motors. It is the only way we can operate," Stinson said. "I am the driver and the body man. I do all of the welding."

There can be no arguing with the Stinson team's formula for running a successful racing program. In 15 years, they have won 13 championships including 11 in the Modified Class over the last 10 years.

Greg Fernandez

Coming off his Rookie of the Year season driving in the Late Model Sportsman Class, Fernandez can hardly wait to start his second season at Southside.

"As you know, racing is predominately a white sport. I'm half Cuban, and I was welcomed by everyone at Southside Speedway. Everyone helped me every way they could," he said.

Fernandez Motor Sports is a low budget, one-person operation, which means Fernandez personally spends the off season in, over and under the racecar doing a top-to-bottom tear down and rebuild. A Toyota mechanic by trade, Fernandez has had to call on his impressive versatility to completely rebuild both his engine and transmission as well as doing all of the body work.

He also hopes to rebuild his driving skills entering his second season.

"I've had a tendency to overdrive the car, and while you can't be scared of it and be willing to put the pedal to the metal, I need to calm down a bit," he said.

Brandon Hendrick

Brandon Hendrick, the third generation of Hendricks to drive at Southside Speedway, takes a more passive approach during the off season.

"I enjoy being away from the track, hanging out with my wife Katie and doing family things," he said.

The 26 year old also spends as much time as he can playing soccer with the CVSA league.

The two Hendrick racecars do get some off season pampering with winterizing and the necessary bodywork being done at Roy Hendrick's Muffler and Automotive Shop. But engine work is farmed out to "our motor guy," explained Hendrick.

Hendrick, his dad Roy who will return to race at Southside this year, and his grandfather Ray admit that while they do have a solid racing team, they never come out of the black financially. A racecar costs between $5,000 and $50,000 plus $400 in tires and $100 in gas for each race date.

"You might break even if you won every race," said Hendrick. "We do it because we love it."