Racing With Lady Luck

"Bud said, 'We'll paint over it.' But Joe said, 'No, you're going togrind that out. If you paint over it, it's still there.'"

Fielden relates another Weatherly story: "One time at Darlington he hadsome brown socks that got wet, and they turned green." Weatherly racedwithout socks that day.

For some, like the Kosiski family from Omaha, fried chicken eaten onrace day is a no-no. "We heard it from Billy Moyer back in about 1980,"says Joe Kosiski, the senior of three racing brothers.

The Kosiskis and Moyer were chat-ting in Florida when Joe's sister,Kathy, suggested the group buy a bucket of chicken and take it to theraces. This is how the conversation played out according to Joe: "Billysaid, 'You never eat chicken on race day!' But my sister replied, 'Oh,don't worry about it.' After the races in Jacksonville that night, Billywas on his way back to Batesville to get a new race car."

One time after that, Kosiski, his parents, and crew were traveling inhis hauler to a race in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. They stopped at a fast-foodrestaurant on the way.

Later, one of the crewmen asked, "Hey, does anyone want any chickentenders? I've got some extra ones here." No one had realized he hadbought chicken. The Kosiski brothers' mother, Grace, glared at the youngman, grabbed the chicken from his hands, and threw it out a window.

"That night in time trials," Kosiski says, "I backed my car into thewall."

Kirksville, Missouri, Late Model pilot Sonny Findling also refuses toeat chicken on race day. Findling, who had run well in several 100-lapspecial events at the former Sunset Speedway in Omaha, says his luckchanged the year he ate some of the track's famous chicken in his pitarea.

"Billy Drake was parked next to us, and he almost moved," says Findling."He about had a fit. Drake was a DNF in the feature that night, and Ibroke the rearend in my car. So I don't eat chicken on race dayanymore."

Despite his superstition about chicken, Joe Kosiski is not fearful ofthe color green. "I always say, 'I carry green all the time.' That'swhat we go to the races for--to get green," Kosiski says.

Some drivers even race green cars. But Iowa-based Late Model driversDenny and Dave Eckrich don't like any green on their machines. Whenevera contingency sponsor's decal has green in it, the Eckrich brothers willdoctor it with a black felt-tip marker. "It's all mind games," admitsDenny. "If your mind isn't set, you aren't doing worth a crap."

But Denny says the family is easing up some on their dislike of green.There have been nights, he says, when they were particularly busy at thetrack. Then, when they returned to the shop after the races, theyrealized there had been some item of green on the car that had goneunnoticed.

"We didn't know it--and if we don't know it, we do better," Eckrichsays.

Wisconsin native Bill Schwader, the 1974 IMCA New Model Stock Carchampion, says he's never been superstitious about anything. "I startedracing No. 13 in 1959 in Green Bay, Wisconsin," he says.

Also, he has often campaigned green cars. The car in which he won thechampionship, however, was an exception. It was a blue No. 29 that hehad bought from Ronnie Hutcherson, the 1973 champion.

"Due to my financial condition," says Schwader, "I couldn't afford anygreen paint."

Does he have a problem with someone eating peanuts and fried chicken inthe pit area? "Only if they don't bring some for me," Schwader jokes.

While some drivers say they aren't superstitious, they admit toperforming rituals before each race. Dave Pembroke, a Late Model regularon the ACT New England Dodge Tour, is one of them. For example, he putshis left glove on before his right glove.

What has happened when he's altered that routine? "If you don't win,you've got something to blame it on--not that I win every time I do itthe same way," he says.

The Vermont driver says he would never want to drive a No. 13 car, buthe has always had green on his cars because one of his sponsor's logosis green.

"Knock on wood, we've always had good luck," Pembroke states. He pauses,thinks about what he has said, then laughs. "I always knock on wood!"

Jim Cooksey, a nine-year Modified driver from Salt Lake City, doesn'thave any superstitions, "now that I've sobered up," he says with alaugh. "Seriously, I just figure fate takes care of everything."

Late Model driver Skip Frey will wear a certain T-shirt again if he'sdone well when wearing it in a race. "But other than that," says Frey,"the way I look at it is, you make your own luck by how you prepare."