USAR: Woody encouraged by move

Keith Woody of Burlington is very pleased with his move from Nascar Late Model Stock Car (LMSC) racing to the USAR ProCup racing series. Keith raced for the past several years at Ace Speedway where he achieved 1996 Super Stock Rookie of the Year , 1996 Ace Speedway Rookie of the Year, 1997 Late Model Rookie of the Year and the 1999 Most Popular Driver Award. Keith still enjoys racing in the LMSC when his schedule allows. Dennis and Linda Woody, his parents, developed a plan for his racing career based on a dream to be a Winston Cup driver. They are owners of Woody Racing, Inc., and the entire family is involved in supporting his career each step of the way. Keith's father is the business manager and seeks out sponsor support for their efforts. The move to USAR has been very exciting for the Woody Racing Team. Keith drives the number 83 Sandvik Coromant red and yellow Chevrolet Monte Carlo. Although the sponsorship is important for financial support, it is important to have sponsors like Sandvik and Chisholm Service, Woody's Body Shop, Adam Sign and Vinyl and Rus Uniform Rental and Services, all respectable companies. The driver and team focus on a positive image for the sponsors, so they are can advertise and market for their products and services. The race car is a moving billboard and it is critical that it looks good each race even if it had a severe crash and has to be repaired and repainted in only a few days between races. The plan for the first year is to run an eight race schedule to learn the difference between ProCup racing and Late Model Stock Car racing, also for Keith to gain experience and enhance his driving skills.

The season began with a inaugural USAR race at Ace Speedway in Burlington, Keith's former home-track. He qualified 10th in his first ever ProCup race. He remained in the top 10 most of the race until a crash in lap 197 of 250 ended his night. Even with this unfortunate event the team was proud of their first showing. The second race scheduled was at Myrtle Beach Speedway on May 6th. Now away from his familiar hometrack Keith qualified 28th out of 58 cars trying to make the field. Into the race on lap 83 the crew had to open up the damaged ducting and then decided to change all four tires and gas up He worked his way up to 10th position. On lap 228 he was involved in another crash and finish in 21st place. The finish was not reflective of his night of hard racing. Historical Hickory Motor Speedway on July 8th was the third race on the Woody's schedule. Keith was 2nd fastest in practice but missed the set-up for qualifying and did not make the field and had to run a heat race to get in. Keith won the heat race and took the 28th starting position. Once again Keith demonstrated patience and good driving skills yet found his self in the wall on lap 166 after being pushed up in the marbles. He was running in 7th position when his night was over. He and his crew never lost hope and desire to succeed in the ProCup series. On July 22nd the team completed the half way mark for this years schedule with an exciting 6th place finish at New River Valley Speedway in Radford, Va. after qualifying 4th We can see our dream becoming more of a reality as we finally complete a whole race. We are looking forward to watching the race on SpeedVision on Friday July 28 at 8pm & 12pm, Sunshine Network Monday July 31 at 8pm, and on Home Team Sports August 2, 8pm. "We are really enjoying the USAR ProCup series, the management of the series is great to work with and we can't wait till the next race " said driver Keith Woody. "We plan to work hard , give our sponsors a good showing and hope that we can stay on target with our plan to run a full schedule next year" said Dennis Woody.