Wearing Sr. king of racing at Lernerville

By JOHN ENRIETTO Eagle Sports Editor

July 13, 2004 Last Updated: January 06, 2005 12:14 PM Amateur

When it comes to running No. 1, Bob Wearing Jr. is playing a waiting game.

He'll have to play it a little longer.

"I keep asking Dad if he's definitely retired yet," the younger Wearing said. "He keeps saying 'I probably am, I probably am.'

"In the meantime, he's considering coming back home and running a couple more races. He says he wants to 'sweat it up' one more time to get it out of his system," he added.

Bob Wearing Jr. has 96 career feature wins - Modified and Late Models combined - while racing the No. 11 Late Model and the No. 152 Modified.

Bob Wearing Sr. raced car No. 1 and his son wants to do the same - but not until his father is finished with it.

"I can't take it over until I know he's through with it," Bob Wearing Jr. said. "That number belongs to him."

And rightfully so. When Bob Wearing Sr. retired from local dirt track racing in 2001 to move to Port Orange, Fla., the Callery driver was No. 1 all-time at Lernerville Speedway, where he won nine points championships. He won more Late Model features (117) and overall features (179) there than anyone else.

In 1979, he won every Late Model feature run at Lernerville. No other driver has dominated a division like that at the Sarver track before or since.

Wearing won 623 feature races overall from 1961 through 2000.

"I look at that total and sometimes I don't believe it," he said.

Now 65, Wearing lives just seven miles from Daytona Speedway and three miles from the ocean. But if he returns to racing at all, it will be in Western Pennsylvania.

"They're behind the times down here on dirt tracks," he said. "Their Late Models are more like our Pure Stocks back home.

"I almost came back to race at Lernerville earlier this year, but my son drove the car and said it wasn't that good. If I come back, it will be to run up front, not in the back," he added.

Wearing Sr. knows all about the former. He teamed with car builder Dan "Dunk" Pakozdi for 30 years and dominated the Late Model division.

"Bob was a finesse driver, good on all types of tracks," Pakozdi said. "He really shined on hard, slippery tracks when nobody else could do anything.

"He was a natural … Such a smooth driver, in control all the time," he added.

"We were ahead of the competition during our era, I suppose," Wearing said. "It was like Richard Petty was in his day. We knew how to put together a race car."

Pakozdi estimated they built 10 cars together.

"Bob was an excellent welder and did that kind of work on the cars," he said. "He was one of the most respected names in the game in this area, one of the guys who built the sport up, that's for sure."

Longtime dirt track racing journalist Walt Wimer said that "Bob and Blackie Watt were big rivals and people came to the track to see that.

"It's similar to Ed Lynch Jr's name today. Race fans knew Bob Wearing Sr. was going to be at Lernerville on Friday nights and he was worth coming to watch," he added.

Wearing said he misses the old days of racing, when money didn't play as big a role.

"We used to spend all winter building a race car," he said. "Everybody had to do that. I don't see anybody doing it now. It's so expensive to race today. It's crazy."

Wearing won four consecutive Hillbilly 100s - a 100-lap race in Pennsboro, W.Va. - during the early 1970s. The winning purse was $2,000.

When that race was discontinued a few years ago, the winning purse was $50,000.

When he raced at Butler Speedway, Wearing said he'd start in the back and still win consistently.

"I remember winning from the 24th or 25th starting spot," he said. "You had to bump and fight your way through, but you could get it done.

"Nowadays, if you don't start near the front, you're not going to win, unless you have a super car."

Regardless of how his sport has changed, Wearing admits he is itching to return.

"I miss the thrill of just driving the car," he said. "I watch (sons) Bobby and Brandon race and think of how I'd run the race differently. … But I'm not the one in the car."

Wearing got involved in racing when he joined Jim Irvine's pit crew in the 1950s, working with a Ford Coupe.

"That's when he first got behind the wheel (of a race car), too," Bob Wearing Jr. said. "Jim went to a driver meeting and by the time he came back, Dad was in the car doing hot laps on the track. That's the story I was told.

"I was helping him (at the track) when I started walking. I grew up with racing," he added.

Now his father is one of his biggest fans.

"I follow him and Brandon over the Internet when I'm in Florida," Bob Wearing Sr. said. "I keep up with what's going on with them.

"They're in a great sport. And I miss it."