Disease Doesn’t Hinder Sutton

It will be special for Kelly Sutton when she puts on her helmet and climbs into her No. 02 Chevrolet Silverado for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series race Oct. 2 at California Speedway.

It will be even more special for many people stricken with multiple sclerosis when the driver known as Kelly Girl speaks to them Tuesday night in Ontario.

Sutton, who turns 33 today, has been afflicted with MS for 17 years, one of which she spent in a wheelchair after having lost all feeling in her right side. “Racing is very dear to my heart,” she said. “It has been since I was a little girl, and it gives me the opportunity to do the other thing that is dear to my heart and that is to help people.

“Traveling across the country with my race team lets me share my story with other MS patients in hospitals and care centers, to encourage them, to show them what I have been able to do with therapy, a good diet, daily injections and working closely with my doctor.”

Sutton’s truck is sponsored by Copaxone, a daily injection drug she uses to control MS and prevent a relapse.

“My message is simple: to have them find the right therapy, the right injections of whatever they choose to take. There is so much that can be done these days with drug therapy. I haven’t had a relapse in five years.”

Her appearance Tuesday will be 6:30 p.m. at Dave & Busters in the Ontario Mills mall.

Sutton earned her way into the truck series, one of NASCAR’s three top-of-the-line divisions. She drove mini-stocks for several years near her home in Crownsville, Md., before moving up to legacy cars, pro trucks and in 2000 to the Goody’s Dash series in NASCAR’s touring division.

She was voted most popular driver five times and received the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award last year from the Women’s Sports Foundation.

“Moving up to the trucks last year seemed like the next natural progression in my career,” she said. “This year started out kind of tough, switching crew chiefs, but when we got Tim Stott, things turned around for me. He came from Joe Gibbs’ Busch team and he has taught me a lot.”

Last week, at Loudon, N.H., Sutton qualified only four-tenths of a second slower than pole-sitter Jack Sprague, 20th among the 36 starters. She was running with the lead pack when her car ran out of gas two laps from the finish.

“Kelly is the sixth woman driver we have had in the truck series, and I would say she has been probably the best accepted among the other drivers,” said Owen Kearns, NASCAR truck series official. “She comes from a racing family, so she is right at home.”

Her father and her husband, Butch, are short-track racers on the East Coast.

In 12 races this year, she has been running at the finish in seven. Her best finish was 20th and she is 25th in the season standings.

When she is not racing, or speaking about MS, she is busy at home as mother to her two daughters, Ashlee and Nicole.

And what about her Kelly Girl nickname?

“My mom and dad had no boys, just two girls and since I was a tomboy, I was their boy. I was always working with my dad on his car, or riding my motorcycles and go-karts.

“My mom said if I wasn’t wearing earrings, she wouldn’t know I was a girl, so she called me Kelly Girl to remind me that I was. I’m still Kelly Girl today.”

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Sarah Fisher, who has raced for four seasons in the IRL series, will make her NASCAR debut when she races for Bill McAnally Racing in the Subway 150 NASCAR Grand National Division, West Series race at Phoenix International Raceway on Oct. 3.

Southland Scene

Johnny Rodriguez and 2000 champion Wally Pankratz will continue their battle for the U.S. Auto Club western midget car championship Saturday at Ventura Raceway.

Rodriguez holds a 90-point margin, 938-848.

Doug McComb has clinched Irwindale Speedway’s NASCAR late model championship, but he will be challenged Saturday night when the track regulars take part in the Villa Roma Sausages 100. Also on the program will be the popular Figure 8s on Irwindale’s infield crisscross track.

Dirt-track road racing will return to Perris Auto Speedway when street stocks, hornets and cruisers compete Saturday night on an eight-turn course inside the half-mile oval.

The abbreviated speedway motorcycle season at the Grand at Industry Hills will have its final race next Wednesday. The promoters plan to hold a 26-week season on the eighth-mile track next year.

Stock Car Honors

Two-time Winston West champion Bill Sedgwick heads a group of six inductees to the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame. From the pre-1970 era, crew chiefs Parky Hall and Clay Smith, team owner Frank Galpin and driver Johnny Mantz were selected. Car owner and crew chief George Jefferson was a modern-era selectee.

They will be inducted Oct. 22 at the Holiday Inn in Monrovia.

Jim Hunter, who went from reporting on NASCAR for the Atlanta Constitution to become an executive with the sanctioning body, will receive the Smokey Yunick Award for lifetime achievement in auto racing during pre-race ceremonies Oct. 16 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.