Sports

Effort falls short for local driver

By MEYLA HOOKER
Published April 3, 2005

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ST. PETERSBURG - When James Pauly's No.9 car pulled up, his posse was waiting.

Pauly doesn't own a state-of-the-art Honda, Target or Team Penske trailer.

His trailer doesn't have large built-in plasma-screen televisions or fancy furniture and meeting rooms.

There weren't any stylish scooters or bicycles lined up on the side.

Pauly's trailer was unmarked, with a few lawn chairs outside for guests and team members to relax.

His posse consisted of family members, friends and co-workers from Tampa's Cars & Concepts, where he is a full-time mechanic.

The Pinellas Park resident couldn't hold back the tears when he saw his mother, Clarice, eagerly waiting for him outside the trailer.

"I don't know if I qualified," he told her, breaking down.

Clarice cried, as did Pauly's sister, Jennifer.

"It has been such a long month for him," Clarice said. "He had friends make arrangements to come in from out of state without knowing the outcome."

In 1997, Pauly told Jennifer he would one day race in the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

That dream became a reality less than a month ago.

Pauly called SCCA Pro Racing to find out if his BMW 325is was eligible for the race. To his surprise, it was.

With little money and less than a month to prepare, Pauly and his crew went to work.

"It took us six weeks to originally build the car for non-pro racing," said Cars & Concepts co-owner Steve Johnson. "We had to start from scratch. We all just emptied our pockets, dug in and took care of it."

According to Pauly, many cars in the series use $40,000 transmissions and run about an average of 1,300 miles. Pauly's car is worth about $20,000 and has accumulated 225,000 miles. So he knew it would take a monumental effort to qualify. After Friday's practice sessions, Pauly's team went back to the drawing board and stayed up until well after midnight working on the car.

He shaved more than two seconds off his time Saturday but failed to qualify for today's SCCA Touring Car race. Cars with a lap time greater than 110 percent of the average time of the top three qualifiers are eliminated.

"This is his dream," Jennifer said. "If it were up to him, he would race for the rest of his life."

Pauly's car wasn't perfect, but the moment was more special than he could have ever imagined.

"It's overwhelming to have had as much help without having to pay anybody," a tearful Pauly said. "We were happy just to pull in on Wednesday. It's priceless. I won't be able to pay them back."

ANDRETTI LOSES CLOSE FRIEND: It was a rough day for 18-year-old Marco Andretti, son of Michael and grandson of Mario.

Andretti learned that a close friend, William Riehl, had been killed in an automobile accident in Melbourne early Saturday.

Riehl, 18, was scheduled to arrive in St. Petersburg on Saturday night to spend the weekend with Andretti. He had not departed for the trip at the time of the accident.

The Riehl and Andretti families have been close friends for more than 30 years.

Just before the news of his friend's death, Andretti's pole-winning time was disallowed because of aerodynamic violations and was he placed last in the starting field. But after a protest from Andretti Green Racing, his pole position was reinstated.

"The best time he will be able to forget about it is when he is in the race car," said driver Tony Kanaan of the Andretti Green IndyCar team. "He's a good racecar driver. He's a strong kid, he'll get over it.

"I told him, "Look, there is nothing I can say and there's nothing that I can do to help feel what you're feeling right now. It's not going to be any better today and you try to do the best you can.' "

[Last modified April 3, 2005, 00:10:19]

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