Race Team

David Wisner of Millers and Steve Rill of Westminster make up one of the more interesting teams in stock car racing. They started racing at the end of the 1994 season in the street stock class at Trail-Way Speedway.They share everything from the driving to the expenses.Wisner and Rill always have enjoyed watching races at local speedways. They also attend the Winston Cup races at Dover Downs International Speedway every year. They often thought about what it would be like to get behind the wheel.

Roy Kidwell won't have to keep an eye on a sirloin steak sizzling on his barbecue grill this Independence Day.Instead, the Chartwell resident will be watching a kitchen wall clock installed in a 1934 Dodge rumble seat coupe and helping to keep his race team on time.Mr. Kidwell and five other Maryland residents will be participating in the Interstate Batteries Great North American Race, a road-rally-style contest for pre-World War II automobiles.This year the course runs from Toronto to Mexico City.

LONG POND, Pa. -- If this were a football team, former Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs would have called it a rebuilding year. But this is Winston Cup stock car racing, and while running a race team is similar to running a football team, a turnaround can occur much faster. It certainly has for Gibbs, who says the members of his team have performed like veterans.They have melded a new garage, four new cars, a new car design and a new driver into a winning combination in six months.At the moment, the team with Bobby Labonte behind the steering wheel is on a roll, and Gibbs seems to have regained his magic touch.

DOVER, Del. -- If anyone needed a victory in the Miller Genuine Draft 500 yesterday, Kyle Petty and his crew chief Barry Dodson did.It had been two years since Petty had won a race. The lack of success had been especially hard on Dodson, who wanted a victory in memory of his two children, who were killed in a car accident nearly seven months ago.And so, with a record crowd of 101,000 packed into Dover International Speedway, Petty and his Grand Prix dominated the race.Petty led 271 laps and beat Bobby Labonte's Monte Carlo to the finish line by .22 of a second.

Joe Gibbs may have caught the NFL off guard yesterday when he announced his retirement as Washington Redskins coach, but in the garages at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway, crew chief Jimmy Makar wasn't surprised."I saw it coming for a long while," said Makar, who runs Gibbs' Winston Cup stock car team. "And he's been thinking about it ever since the NFL season ended. It wasn't a snap decision by any means. He's been thinking about it a long time."Makar said that in particular, Gibbs had talked about wanting to spend more time with his family.

It takes teamwork to be a winner in auto racing.But it takes time for a team to become cohesive, whether on the NASCAR circuit or a local dirt track.After something of a down year in 1991, members of the 4-year-oldGlen Falls Racing Team think they can field a winner this year. Witha new sponsor and better equipment, they hope to win the late-model track championship at Potomac Speedway in Budds Creek, Charles County.After working together on other cars at various times, members decided to band together to form their own team.

Doug Devilbiss of Westminster knows what racing is all about.TheDevilbiss name is well-known on the area's oval tracks. Doug's olderbrothers, Slim and Butch, were household names in the 1960s and '70s.Slim won track titles at Lincoln Speedway in Hanover, Pa., in 1967 and 1971. It was only natural for the younger brother to follow in those footsteps.But Doug didn't rush into racing. At first, he was satisfied working on his brother's cars. He says he still would be working on cars if it wasn't for friend, Butch Lewellyn.

The two pedal-powered submarines didn't exactly travel far in the Naval Academy's giant tow tank.But even though the day had a few surprises, Saturday was far from wasted for a team of midshipmen learning the ropes to become repeat champions in an upcoming international race.The commander of the group of young engineers hopes mistakes madeat the test tank will save the team from losing the race in Florida."We at the Naval Academy will make mistakes, but we won't make mistakes twice," said Lt. Cmdr.

Jim Epting's hobby is racing a BMW 2002 several weekends a year, and after 22 years of racing, he has taken on an unlikely driver as part of his team.The Glen Burnie resident's 19-year-old daughter, Leah, has been joining him at road courses like Summit Point in West Virginia and Watkins Glen in New York.Leah Epting always has been around racing. It would have been only natural for her to become involved -- that is if she had been born a boy.But she didn't let being a woman stop her from joining a sports world dominated by men.She started helping her dad work on his cars when she was 14. She worked on the cars during the week, and on weekends she worked in the pits at the track.

DOVER, Del. -- Bill Elliott cured two droughts in one race yesterday, and it took a record run to do it.Elliott beat Mark Martin by 1.38 seconds to win the Peak 500, ending his 23-race NASCAR winless streak. He became the first driver in 14 years to win from the pole at Dover Downs International Speedway."There's been a little joke going around the fans, that I got caught breaking into a Chevrolet dealership because I wanted to see what the front end of a Lumina looks like," Elliott, who drives a Ford, said.