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BRANT JAMESAric Almirola, 20, earns a spot in Joe Gibbs Racing's minority development program.
CONCORD, N.C. - Aric Almirola looked his mother in the face and told her he wanted to abandon his pursuit of an engineering degree and quit college. He wanted to work on cars during the week and race them on Friday nights.
If everything went right, maybe one day he'd race on Sundays.
Susan Lynette cried.
She hardly ever had been so proud.
It came as no surprise that Almirola, a Tampa native, wanted to be a racing driver. Since his grandfather, local standout Sam Rodriguez, put him in his first go-cart at age 8, he had pursued that dream.
Now 20, Almirola has his best chance to make half a life's endeavor pay off as one of two drivers from hundreds of applicants picked for Joe Gibbs Racing's minority development program.
"This is amazing," said Almirola, who is Hispanic. "There's a lot of people out there who would never get this kind of opportunity without something like this, but once somebody opens the door, you have to do something with it. Now, I'm going to do my damndest to do something with it."
In being hired as a weekend driver and weekday mechanic in Gibbs' Late Model developmental operation, Almirola and the program's other driver, Chris Bristol, a 26-year-old African-American, have the backing of an organization that has won two of the past four championships in NASCAR's top series. They bear the weight of expectation from Gibbs and team co-owner Reggie White, a former NFL defensive lineman who has been trying for a year to put together a race team to develop minority drivers and team members.
White expects Almirola and Bristol to be more than drivers.
"I hope they know they're ambassadors, too," he said. "This will give them a drive they never would have had. This could change the face of their community. This could be other people's chance. They could be pioneers."
Almirola withdrew from the mechanical engineering program at Central Florida after the fall semester. He had long wanted to race but did not know how to break in until his mother found an advertisement for the Gibbs initiative in a racing publication. After his family helped put together a portfolio of his career and aspirations, he mailed an application and waited. And waited. And waited.
"We called to see if they got it, waited for confirmation," Almirola said. "I said, "Okay, nothing is ever going to happen, I better go make some more resumes."
But patience had its reward.
"He came (from college) and said, "I guess that thing is not going to pan out,"' said his mother, who owns a scrapbook store in Carrollwood. "I said, "Be patient."'
A week later, in December, Gibbs invited Almirola to an on-track test in Hickory, N.C. Almirola demonstrated his interest and aptitude with a heavy foot and steady hand, beating the track record for a lap.
"That was a pretty good run," Almirola said.
Good enough. Gibbs called Almirola a few days before Christmas to offer him a job. From there he withdrew from school, sold off equipment from the team his grandparents had run for him, and rented a U-Haul bound for North Carolina. He began work Feb.2 and had his first race April 2, finishing sixth of 14 in the Late Model Stock division at Ace Speedway in Elon, N.C. Late Model Stocks, considered the top division in local tracks, are similar in make and appearance to Nextel Cup cars, but with less-powerful engines.
The possibility of testing a Gibbs Busch Series car hovers in his mind as the ultimate incentive.
Almirola's career began to accelerate as his grandfather's racing hobby wound down 12 years ago. Rodriguez, who owns an area auto body repair facility and Dirt Devil Speedway in Land O'Lakes, was a successful local racer who never pursued the sport beyond recreation because he "got started late and had three kids to feed. Racing as a profession was the furthest thing from my mind."
Almirola was tagging along with his grandfather at a track in Lakeland in 1994 when they came across a couple of former crew members selling an old go-cart. Rodriguez put Almirola in the seat for fun, and his grandson's face lit.
The go-cart went home to Tampa soon after.
"What we bought wasn't much of a go-cart," Rodriguez said, "but it was something to work with, a learning tool."
Apparently, Almirola learned well. After finishing fourth in the World Karting Association in 1998, he graduated to Open Wheel Modifieds at 16 and was named rookie of the year in two series (Florida Modified and Southern Automobile Racing Association) in 2000. In '02 he was second among rookies in the Sunbelt Super Late Models.
With the various parts of the family team now sold off - Nextel Cup rookie Kasey Kahne bought their truck and trailer for his USAC team - the family is out of the racing business and into watching Almirola make it a profession.
"This is a dream come true for him," Rodriguez said. "A lot of people would give everything they had for this chance."
Almirola's mother and step-father, Robert, an employee at TECO, have made the nine-hour drive - at excessive speed - to watch his first two races, and are considering buying a condominium in North Carolina. His grandparents flew up on Friday and Rodriguez immediately began tinkering with the setup on his car. A door from the car he used last week, complete with tire marks from another driver, will soon be mounted in Rodriguez's shop.
"This is what I live for," Lynette said. "This is my kid."
Now, Almirola is completely immersed in North Carolina racing culture. He's a racer even when he leaves the Huntersville shop.
"When you move up here you meet everybody, from race car drivers to engineers," Almirola said. "This is where it all happens. It's like, if you want to be in country music, you move to Nashville.
"I saw (Nextel Cup driver) Jeremy Mayfield at the Home Depot the other day. He looked lost."
Almirola could not empathize.
"I think it's just sunk in this could be a long journey," he said.