Pursley Wins NASCAR Weekly Series Honors

Greg Pursley got a late start in stock car racing, but it didn’t seem to slow him down as he became NASCAR’s first 2004 champion. The 36-year-old clinched the points title in the Dodge Weekly Racing Series with a pair of wins Saturday night at Irwindale Speedway.

Pursley had to wait until Tuesday to learn that, in NASCAR’s complicated scoring system for short-track racing, his 13 wins in 18 starts was best among 1,600 eligible drivers at 65 tracks.

Today in Daytona Beach, Fla., it will be announced that the veteran driver from Canyon Country will receive the $125,000 champion’s bonus at the NASCAR awards banquet Oct. 30 in Nashville. Pursley also will receive $45,000 as the eight-track Sunbelt region champion.

“It’s something we never expected; we just went out each week with our goal to win races,” Pursley said. “Whatever happened was going to happen, but all of my dreams came true.”

Pursley was trailing Andy Bozell, who drives at Kalamazoo (Mich.) Speedway, by 0.86 points before he won last week’s Irwindale doubleheader. In addition to his 13 wins, Pursley had 15 top fives and 17 top tens.

He drives the No. 13 Chevrolet Monte Carlo owned by David Hays of Bakersfield and crewed by Pursley’s father, Russ. Greg resides in Canyon Country with his wife, Heidi, and son Tyler and daughter Taylor.

“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, if I don’t get a shot at a Craftsman Truck or Busch Series ride next year, I will retire,” he said. “I’m not too optimistic about my prospects because all NASCAR teams seem to be looking for guys in the 20-year-old range.

“I don’t want to come back and struggle, and it would be pretty hard to top what we did this year.”

During the week, Pursley works as a mechanic-instructor at the Performance Race Training Center at Irwindale.

“Most of our clients are people who want to experience what it’s like to drive a race car,” he said. “They get a 10-lap experience after some classroom instruction. One of us will pace them around the track and another one is in radio communication with the driver. It’s pretty much just talking them around the track.”

Pursley will split the $170,000 evenly with Hays.

“Without him I wouldn’t be racing,” Pursley said. “It’s been quite a few days. We knew we had to win both races last week and before the first race, guys we raced against were coming up and telling us if something happened to our car, we could use their car in the second race. We all race hard against each other, but it’s still like one big family. It’s a great atmosphere.”

Jim Williams, president of Irwindale Speedway, said, “This is what we built this track for, to provide a place where champions can show their stuff. Greg and his team were all obviously at the top of their game this year. He’s just an outstanding driver.”

The Weekly Series consists of eight geographic regions with each determining a champion, even though some tracks are dirt and some paved and cars can be as different as late models, street stocks or modifieds. The overall champion is the best of the eight.

A 150-mph crash on a motorcycle while racing at Willow Springs put Pursley in a wheelchair for a month and led to his car-racing career.

“I had raced motocross and desert events since I was in my teens before I started road racing on a bike, but after my crash my dad said that was enough and told me to get in a car,” he said.

Pursley was 25, but he proved to be a quick learner, winning in super late models at Willow Springs before tackling Irwindale and Mesa Marin in Bakersfield. He won the pole for all three Los Angeles street races, starting in 1998, and in 1999 he won nine races at Irwindale.

Since driving in Winston West and Featherlite Southwest Tour events in 2001 and 2002, he has concentrated on super late model races at Irwindale.

His final race this year will be Oct. 2 in a 100-mile finale for super late models at Irwindale.

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Region Rulers

The top-ranked drivers in the NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series’ eight regions:

*--* Driver St. W Top 5 Top 10 ATLANTIC Steve Blackburn 19 14 19 19 Lonesome Pine International Raceway (Coeburn, Va.) EAST COAST Jason Calhoun 19 12 17 19 Myrtle Beach (S.C.) Speedway HEARTLAND Andy Bozell 18 8 18 18 Kalamazoo (Mich.) Speedway MIDWEST Charlie Menard 18 6 16 18 La Crosse (Wis.) Fairgrounds Speedway NEW ENGLAND Ted Christopher 19 8 13 18 Stafford Motor Speedway (Stafford Springs, Conn.) NORTHEAST Doug Hoffman 21 8 19 20 Big Diamond Raceway (Minersville, Pa.) NORTHWEST Bruce Quale 19 15 18 19 Magic Valley Speedway (Twin Falls, Idaho) SUNBELT Greg Pursley 16 11 13 15 Irwindale Speedway

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