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| Dave Roberts won his second Late Model track championship at South Carolina's Greenville Pickens Speedway and first since 2007. |
Relishes Track Crown At Home Track Of Greenville
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Winning the track champion title at Greenville Pickens Speedway takes on a whole new meaning for 54-year-old David Roberts.
“It’s my home track,” he said. “I went there as a kid to watch my brother race and I met my wife there, so it really means a lot to win there.”
Win he did as he captured the title of NASCAR Whelen All-American Series track champion in the late model division.
It was his second title at the historic South Carolina track and a long-time coming after his first.
“I was Greenville Pickens track champion back in 2007,” he said. “But the last time I won a race there was back in 2009.”
The Simpsonville, South Carolina native – who also won last year’s track championship at South Carolina's Anderson Motor Speedway – said winning the second time around at Greenville-Pickens was just as sweet.
“Just to win one there is huge,” said Roberts, who collected five wins, 27 top fives and 34 top 10s in 36 races between Greenville and Anderson this year. “And to win the second one was really gratifying. It was still just as hard to win this one as it was the first.”
Roberts finished second in the final race of the season to beat Trey Gibson, 838-758, for the track title at Greenville. Roberts also finished fourth at Anderson and third overall in South Carolina.
Roberts said that with stiff competition, long corners and long straightaways, most drivers don’t go to the flat half-mile track in Pickens County looking for a win.
“It takes a good rhythm to get around Greenville Pickens Speedway,” he said.
Roberts admitted they didn’t set out to win the track championship – just a few races.
“We started the year off under new management so we wanted to see how things were going to go,” he said. “After three to four races, we found ourselves leading the points, so our strategy was to come every week and win the race, and if not, run the best we could.”
A mid-season accident caused some temporary trouble for Roberts’ team.
“We were struggling around mid to late season,” he said. “Then at the very end we came back and won some more races. We worked hard to get the car better every week and get the best finish.”
With four out of his five wins taking place at Greenville, Roberts said his season was not only good – but consistent.
“Even when we were off, we still pulled through,” he said. “When we didn’t have the speed, we still had a decent car. We made good decisions both on and off the race track and had good finishes.”
Roberts said the best thing about winning at Greenville is the “Wall of Fame” tradition that started in the 1970s, after which all track champions got their name etched into the back-stretch wall.
“We were at the banquet a week later, just sitting there and looking at the wall that afternoon with all the different winners – it was so neat to know we had won too,” he said. “Anytime you can get your name on the wall at Greenville Pickens, it puts you in a different class.”
Roberts will be honored for his Greenville crown along with other track and state/province champions from across North America as part of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Awards on Dec. 11 at the Charlotte Convention Center and NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C. First, he'll be in the spotlight on Friday, Dec. 4, as Greenville hosts its 2015 year-end awards at the Legacy Pines Golf Club in Greenville.
Established in 1982, the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series is NASCAR’s national championship program for weekly short track auto racing. Competitors at 58 paved and dirt tracks throughout North America vied for track, state and province, and overall series championships in Divisions I-V throughout the 2015 season.
The series’ title sponsor – Connecticut-based Whelen Engineering – is a leading manufacturer of automotive, aviation, industrial and emergency vehicle lighting. NASCAR tracks and pace cars are among the many showcases for Whelen products.
- Credit to NASCAR Home Tracks for this article.
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