Corolla

The Racing Corolla (or...you race a WHAT?)

So my buddy Jason has given me crap ever since I started racing the quad that I "could by a dang race CAR and race it for less money" than I've got in my quad. Which was true. I didn't dispute that. I just wasn't interested in racing roundy-round. But one night, he and I and our wives went to a local pavement track to watch. Kentucky Motor Speedway has been there for decades, and has seen drivers such as Darrel and Michael Waltrip, the Green brothers (Mark, David and Jeff) and Jeremy Mayfield, to name a few of the better known. We were having the same"you could race a CAR" conversation when the "Hornets" class came out. Four-cylinders only the announcer said. And they

don't run the circle track. Instead, they run the figure-eight track, but don't cross in the middle. They come into the infield off of turn two, go back out onto turn three, come around the banking and go into the infield off of four and back out onto turn one for a trip around the banking. We looked at each other, and said "We are SOOO here." We decided to look for a car and see what we could do.

Days later, I came across a car on Don Moore's used car list (we do their advertising) that said '1983 Toyota Corolla-Wholesale only'. "This has possibilities," I thought. Investigation revealed that the car belonged to a girl that had just started at Don's, and it had been slightly wrecked and didn't run for some (in their words) "really simple reason", but I could get it REAL cheap. Upon inspection of the car at her house, the left front lights were broken out, the hood was slightly wrinkled, the battery cable was broken (the reason it wouldn't run) and the radiator had been pushed back slightly, but not punched. The lights had to come out to race anyway, and I straightened the hood with my HANDS as I stood there. I knew the radiator could be pushed back out, so we were in business! I wish I had a picture of it when we got it, but I don't. It was very faded tan. Some tractor paint in the appropriate colors (if it's gonna be fast, it's gotta

be yellow) from Rural King (we painted it with rollers, I swear, I have the video tape), some graphics from BWTaylor Motorsports, and we're racing! This pic is out final adjustments, the biggest of which was The Jolly Roger flag that Jason is mounting to the back

First race...starting in fifth...fighting for third.

Second race... starting in second.

In the immortal words of the late, great Dale Earnhardt "Rubbin's racin". We do a lot of rubbin' in this class. This is after just the first race. If you look at the top picture, you see a lot more 'rub' marks.