Oct 17, 1999

                   A Race of Champions

Eleven years ago NASCAR star ‘Front Row’ Joe Nemechek managed a fourth place finish, Dick Trickle won it in 1974, Jimmy Cope won it 1982, Dick Anderson won it in 1988 and 1989. It is the Late Model race of the year in Florida and every Late Model driver wants to win it. Only the best need apply as the competition level rises to a different level, drivers and crews bringing their best to New Smyrna Speedway to compete for the honor of having their name engraved on the Governor’s Cup. The trophy is a huge thing of silver and great wood, beautiful to some less so to others, made in 1965 at the request of then Governor Hayden Burns. 

But last year after outlasting the likes of Jimmy Cope, Jack Cook, David Rogers, Pete Orr, and in the closing stages a fourteen year old named B.J. McLeod, another driver put his name in the ring of legends who have competed for and won the Cup race. That was a Halloween night Billy Bigley, Jr.  will never forget as he stood in the Winner’s Circle at New Smyrna and with intense emotion tried to describe to the Fox Sport South TV interviewer what the win meant to him.

This was my first Governor’s Cup, and as a relative newcomer to the world of short track stock car racing, had only heard of the existence of the Governor’s Cup in May of 1998.  I was doing some PR work assisting Terry Wall who was B.J. McLeod’s PR man at the time. The kid was supposed to race in Alabama on the 31st of October, the same date as the Governor’s Cup. The McLeod camp was interested in having the Southern All Stars race in Alabama televised in order to bring some attention to the youngsters rise, as he was rushing headlong towards dual Late Model Championships at Orlando Speedworld and New Smyrna.

It was along about this time I ran into a great book titled Florida Motorsports Retrospective Pictorial written by long time motorsports writer Eddie Roche, and at the same time began to receive mail from Jim King and Jimmy McKinley, two fellows who have a passion for the history of stock car racing in Florida. Both Roche’s book and the letters did a great job of educating me on the significance and history of the Governor’s Cup.

By early June I went to Terry Wall and convinced him that the Governor’s Cup was not only a better place for B.J. McLeod to race but was the race that needed to be televised.  The Governor’s Cup in my opinion was the race that needed televised, not a race in Alabama. And young B.J. McLeod needed to vie for the Cup, not Alabama glory. In any event Terry Wall and I went on to convince New Smyrna Speedway’s owner Robert Hart and  Race Rock Restaurant owner Bobby Moore that the televising of the 1998 Governor’s Cup was a grand idea. Over the course of the next few months I received hundreds of letters from fans all over the eastern United States about the past Governor’s Cup races, expressing always the pride and love they had for this event and what it had meant to them to see the great wins of the past champions.

The 1998 race had a only 23 starters and about 2500 or so fans. Rather disappointing for a race of such stature and significance to the drivers involved, but the race itself was a good one. Billy Bigley Jr. who had finished second in a 125 lap warm up at DeSoto the previous weekend, was interviewed by the TV folks prior to the race and talked about the prestige and honor he would feel if he could finish 200 laps before the rest of the field. A couple of hours later he stood with tears in his eyes and choked with emotion with the Trophy beside him, and then I knew this was the race. I also know that the effort to help bring this race to a wider audience through television was worth it.

Three weeks ago I saw Pete Orr as a spectator in the pits at a SARA race.  When Orr was asked what he was up to these days he said “ I’ll be at Orlando next week getting ready for the Governor’s Cup”.  Pete Orr is a two time winner of the race, while Bobby Gill has won it three times and Dick Anderson twice. But the most wins have gone to Ed Howe, a Wisconsin racer of legendary status.

This year’s event may be the best field of drivers we have had in some time and if so promoter Don Nerone is the man who will have brought it about. Nerone and the Governor’s Cup go way back. He was instrumental in keeping the Cup race alive at Golden Gate Speedway in Tampa where it ran during 1981-1983, with Mike Eddy, another Wisconsin native winning in ‘81, Jimmy Cope in ‘82, and Leroy Porter tasting the glory in ‘82.

Don Nerone, long time Florida promoter, is now involved with New Smyrna Speedway and is one the Cup’s most passionate supporters.  “We may not have the biggest field, but I want the very best drivers our state has to offer.”  Wayne Anderson, the NASCAR Slim-Jim All-Pro champion, Billy Bigley, Jr. who chased Wayne all year in the Slim-Jim Series, only to finish second will be looking for a different outcome on October 23rd.  B.J. McLeod, fighting for the Southern All Stars Championship (already Rookie of the Year), will be giving his all to become the youngest winner. Jimmy Cope went to Sunshine Speedway two weeks ago and in the words of Sunshine announcer Bill Green, “blew away the competition” leading almost all of the 100 laps on the quarter-mile fast track. Cope will be ready. David Rogers, Darryl Shelnut, Ronnie Burkett, Pete Orr, will all be ready. Expected also are ‘Ironman’ Dwayne Dempsey, David L. Pletcher, Glenn Whitney, and other top drivers.

... ..to be continued

                                                   -Jack Smith