The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 30

I 4f Kentucky, which supplied KFC distributer warehouses with essentials such as paper and -iooa items. Rick was the major financier, and it, too, woricea. The company now stocks 26 warehouses coast to coast servicing over 2,000 franchises. But this kind of stock was no longer on Rick mind. He ran the local tracks Jeffersohvil Charlestown and Whitesville, returning occasionally to upper New York state "to get my racing fix.

But by then I needed a racing fix regularly." So, in 1986, he went to Buck Baker's Grand National Driving School, graduated and joined, the Automobile Racing Club of America He wrecked at Daytona that year, the car turned to junk, he got another, finished the season, then became part of a 14-car demolition at Talladega in an ARCA race last May. Had enough? No. Just enough of ARCA. He decided to take the big Winston Cup gamble. He, just missed qualifying for the Michigan 400 last then did qualify for the Delaware 500 at Dover last September, finishing 24th.

Now, while he and Doreen live off the interest ol a personal bank account, they look for a benefactor willing to take a multimillion-dollar plunge. "I've written 150 letters to various sponsors," Jeffrey said. "I've sent resumes and made presentations. I get form letters back or can't get past secretaries Jeffrey has made three starts in 1988, has no top 10 finishes, ranks 36th in points with 231 and has won $22,730. He will not find out if he can cut it up front on the track without someone writing the big check.

"This is day and night compared to three years ago," said Arrington, the 49-year-old sometime driver who has lent a hand to Jeffrey while winding down his own career. "Then you could make it with no sponsor at all. If you ain't got a bundle of money, you ain't going to make it. Ain't no way unless you're filthy rich and got millions to throw away. It's gotten out of hand as far as I'm concerned.

Ask him what I said when he told me his plans. I said, 'Stay home and forget Inflation hasn't caused this change. Research and technological development, wind-tunnel aerodynamics and new players in the tire market have. The need to find a hundredth-of-a-second competitive edge on the track by changing the slope of a windshield an eighth of an inch. Is Jeffrey good enough to put himself in this fish-bowl? "I don't notice him out there," said NASCAR driver Dave Marcis, who has often counseled Jeffrey on the ways of the Winston Cup circuit.

"That's good. He doesn't have a history of wrecks, so I don't go out of my way to find him." Does he run strong, and consistently? "Ilthjnk so," Marcis said. "He's willing to make the effort and knows it takes a lot of work. That's some of the battle." Said Arrington: "He's good enough to do it. He's got the most determination of anybody I've seen lately." STAFF PHOTOS BY KEITH WILLIAMS Rick Jeffrey and his crew shared a lighter moment amid the pressures of qualifying for last Sunday's Winston 500 at Talladega, Ala.

The racer from Prospect chases a dream to Camden, N.J., to Paris, Texas, and to Chicago. Julie Jeffrey got a peek at the future one day in Paris. "He got his driver's license at 14, which you could do in Texas," his mother said. "One day he came home and said, 'Dad, I just learned to shift the car without using the clutch." The family was athletic. It had horses in rodeos.

It went boating "I've had mine up to 75 miles an hour," Rick said. Fred coached youth baseball, then basketball. Rick played those sports early, but he also rode barrels and water-skied barefoot. Next came wheels, wings and motors. The moto-cross.

Go-karts in Kansas. A pilot's license in Kansas. And on to a $500 Chevelle, a $3,000 dirt modified car in Buffalo, N.Y., and the current $20,000 Monte Carlo with the $12,000 motor that he tries to treat like a piece of crystal. But Jeffrey saw the same sort of competition and enterprise in business that he did in sports. He had pened on the track but encouraged at some contacts that might bear fruit before the season ends.

But throttle down a minute, Rick. You've pulled off the self-made millionaire trick. You could always go racing somewhere for a few bucks. Why the big gamble on the Winston Cup circuit? "I'm a very good race car driver," he said. "I drive safely, according to the rules, and I show the leaders respect, but I also drive unafraid with the left foot on top of the right foot and the accelerator to the floor." He pointed to a backup car in one of the trailers of the big boys.

"Put me in that car and I'll run all. day up front," he said. He was standing next to the bus carrying the drivers to the startfinish line for introductions. "Just look around," he said, smiling and energized. "Every seat in the stands filled.

It's like a Kentucky Derby every weekend. And there are only 41 of us in the world good enough to come here and get in the race. How many can say they even tried? I can do this." Jeffrey was born in Pikeville but didn't stay long. Fred Jeffrey worked for Campbell's Soup, and the family bounced from Logan, W.Va., to Omaha, ADMIT ONE Pit (Courier-Journal SPORTS SEcC BYJe3 SUNDAY. MAYTT988 Continued from Page 1 with a finance and banking degree in 1973.

He walked into a Kansas bank a few months later and talked a man into giving him title to a Kentucky Fried Chicken store. Five years later, he owned 15. In 1982, he sold all of them, moved to Louisville and helped his start a new business. Five years after that, in 1986, he and Doreen formed their own group, High Speed Racing Inc. The run at the big boys was on.

NASCAR ROOKIE I i iiW -iJ Buddy Arrington, left, gave Jeffrey his first break at Talladega, helping him secure a sponsor, Pannill Sweatshirts, for his Chevrolet Mnnta Carlo. Jeff rev had driven one of Arrington's cars in earlier races at Rockingham, N.C., North wiikesDoro, n.u, ana Aiiania. 1 i a gift for it, a combination of intelligence and reason that made ideas work and presentations easily understood, and an unusual voice inflection that ended sentences on an uptick. He looked like a man who should be wearing a vest, not a helmet and goggles. "In Camden, he'd gather apples that fell off trees and kindling and sell them door-to-door," Julie said.

"In college, he and Jeff Montgomery, his roommate, set up a used-car lot," Fred said. "They'd buy cars for $90, fix them up and sell them for $200 to 300. Without a license." It was no shock, then, when Jeffrey walked out of Arkansas and into a Kansas bank at age 21 and asked to take over ownership of a faltering KFC store in Wellington. By then, in 1973, Fred had left Campbell's, joined Kentucky Fried Chicken and moved to Louisville. Rick came to town after graduation, learned about the KFC operation while cleaning up the kitchens and taking out garbage, then got wind of the Wellington opportunity.

"A guy my dad had known had the store and about 10 others," Jeffrey said. "It was losing $2,000 a month. I asked to assume the note. The bank said it couldn't give this store to some college kid without collateral. I got the owner, Hugh Stevens, to keep his name on the note.

When we came out of the bank, he said, 'You really got No. Jeffrey just got started. "It was a converted gas station," Rick said. "We cleaned it up and did some promotions. The first month it earned $1,400, the first year $20,000 to $22,000." Soon Jeffrey had purchased four other franchises in Kansas and Oklahoma.

All turned profits. He looked around for other opportunities. Many existed in snow-locked Buffalo. He bought 10 more there. Then he moved there.

Then he put a car prominently on the North East Dirt Modified circuit. He met Doreen Leonardi in Lancaster, where she was managing one of his stores, and they fell in love. The more he raced, the more he had to race. It had been a fun hobby. Now it was something else.

In 1981, Rick moved to Louisville when Fred opened his own business, Jeffrey Enterprises of Do his personality and his background fit with the good ol' boys? "As far as I know, he gets along pretty well with everybody," Marcis said. "He fits right in, no doubt of that," Arrington said. Jeffrey is 36. "He was a millionaire at 32," said his father, Fred. Is that a beer budget? Yes.

The Allisons, Pettys, Elliotts and Waltrips can't afford to go racing. Miller High Life can. Crown Petroleum and Havoline Motor Oil can. So can Tide and Kroger and Skoal and Country Time Lemonade and, for goodness sakes, Slender You Figure Salons and Underalls. pantyhosepanties because 38 percent of the fans are women.

The top teams are working on $6 million deals for the season, the average teams $1.5 million to $2 million. An associate sponsor might pay $750,000 to get a half-foot-by-foot decal on the front quarter-panel of a car. When Jeffrey arrived at Talladega two weeks ago, he had one sponsor, Slenderizers Figure Salons. "They've given me two sets of tires for five races," he said with appreciation. For that, Slenderizers gets lettering near the rear door handle.

The rest of the car was undecorated. But Jeffrey had also worked a deal with Arlington to run with Arrington's sponsors, mainly Pannill Sweatshirts. For that financial pick up, Jeffrey be- came just a driver, carrying Arrington's No. 67 on the car instead of 86. But it was Jeffrey's car and his driving ability and his opportunity to touch some more corporation bases.

He qualified at 189.537 to pole-sitter Da-vey Allison's 198.969, lost eight laps when an oil line broke early and a tire blew late, ran near the back of the pack otherwise and finished 30th. He came away angry at some things that hap In a garage in Hunting Creek, a race car sits Idly. In his den, Jeffrey paused and considered who he is. "I have an image problem," he said. "The 'rich kid who has everything' concept." TIa olnnrpd tnwarrl the caraee.

1 "Nothing I've gotten from business is close to what I need to suDoort that little baby out there," "WW he said. "My ability to succeed will be based on raising money. I have no doubts about my driving ability. I have many doubts about raising money, I because it looks like 1 don't neea neip. I "My success in business should help me in this.

Why I have not been able to do it is beyond me, Before the race Jeffrey got a good-luck kiss from his wife, Doreen, his partner in High Speed Racing Inc. of Prospect, Ky. because it not line 1 naven 1 inea. "I want to compete i 11 .1,1.111 BWWB'WWf WJWWJWWWgW'j: mm mr 1 k-. 1 iftiiiWii1.iHifrflHfr yfvYr.fr-fhftWitf rSi-iV" s.

SWfeJiW mm ff I a blown tire sent Jeffrey to the apron late in the race. Early on a broken oil line had sidelined him for eight laps. He finished 30th, 12 laps behind the winner. throughout the race, Jeffrey ran near the back of the pack Jeffrey's car, which bore No. 67 instead of its usual 86, started the race in the 33rd position on the inside of the 17th row.