Kirtley

Kirtley

From Page 14

she and her husband/crew chief, Charles, campaign.

When the car “blew out its third transmission” it was turned into a race car, she said.

Charles Kirtley recalled that the car was parked in the yard “and stayed there for a while.” The family car was rather more like a lawn ornament.

“We’d been coming to Old Dominion for two or three years,” he said. “We knew the Exlines real well. We just said ‘what the heck, let’s go racing,’ and built the stock car ourselves.”

Exline Automotive, Briscoe Transmission, Chesapeake Furniture Contractors, Maryanne’s company, Graphic Motorsports, supply sponsorship to help keep the car on the track. But there was family discussion about who was going to drive the car once it was raceable.

Charles Kirtley said that the only way his wife could be talked into going racing with the lawn-ornamenttumed-race-car was if she got to drive it every other week.

“A year later we had the car built,” he recalled.

“The first week she did really well with it so we just left her in the car. 1 work on it and she drives it.”

The first race Maryanne Kirtley entered was in May, 1996, and although she started after the beginning of the racing season, she managed to finish 12th in the final point standings. But it can be rough out there on the track. And Kirtley has experienced some “big” hits.

In an accident the second week of the 1997 season, two days after her birthday, her car almost sailed over the turn-two fence.

“I’ve been flying, I’ve been mudbogging — it’s such an exciting thing,” she said, laughing. “My girlfriend asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I said I wanted a white driving suit to go with the car.

“About two days later Charles called her and said we really need [seat] belts because ours were out of date, so she sent a brand new set of Simpsons. We put them in right before

Owens Chevron Station

AUTO & TRUCK REPAIR 540-364-2250 Jackie T. Owens, Jr. Dealer P.O. Box 523

Main Street.

_ Marshall