Not Cup, but a few interesting Dash tidbits: Seventeen years ago, Ray Paprota was paralyzed from the waist down in an automobile accident. And in a way, that was the day his life began. Since losing the use of both legs, Paprota has counseled other disabled people, encouraging them to continue to live – not just exist. He has traveled the world playing wheelchair basketball. And this week, Paprota will try to realize another dream. This weekend, Paprota, 38, will attempt to become the first wheelchair-bound driver to make a NASCAR race in Friday’s Georgia-Pacific 150 Goody’s Dash race on the quarter-mile Thunder Ring. Paprota started out helping out a friend, who was racing Legends cars. After a few months of working on the car, Paprota figured if he was going to be at the track every weekend, he might as well try to drive. He refitted a Legends car so that he could drive it completely with his hands, then competed for the next five years on short tracks around the south, including Atlanta Motor Speedway’s Thunder Ring. Paprota’s Legends racing career caught the attention of legendary NASCAR driver Bobby Allison, who lives nearby. “Bobby Allison saw me race Legends cars and saw that I was real competitive,” Paprota said. “He asked if I had an interest in competing at a higher level. We tried to step up and run in the ARCA series, but the controls of a Legends car are completely different, and we weren’t ready to make that leap. We tried, but we never got comfortable with it. So we tabled that for a bit and tried to reengineer things.” That’s when Paprota hooked up with Danny Bagwell, another Alabama resident. Bagwell had a Craftsman Truck that he tried to outfit for Paprota, but NASCAR nixed that idea because of Paprota’s relative inexperience on bigger tracks. Instead, Bagwell – a 10-year veteran of the Goody’s Dash Series – offered to help build a car for Paprota. The two have worked out a system of modifications, which have been adjusted through months of trial and error. They include a CO2 bottle that runs all of the hand controls, a cable throttle that functions as a motorcycle linkage and a clutch system that is located on the shifter. Finally the team has constructed a working model, which Paprota tested for the first time last month at a track in Pennsylvania. After a few laps of real on-track experience, Paprota had a host of changes to make in order to make the car comfortable enough to drive. The crew – made up of a few volunteers, Paprota and Bagwell – went to work, then brought their final creation to Atlanta for an open test. Paprota logged more laps than he ever had before, suggested a few more modifications, and prepared himself to race.(AMS PR) AND Kelly Sutton travels to the Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend to finish her first full season on the Goody’ Dash Series. But, unlike the other drivers, she can claim a victory without taking the checkered flag. The third-generation driver, and 30-year-old mother of two, is the first person with a known diagnosis of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) to compete in a NASCAR series.(AMS PR)(10-25-2002) (10-24-2002)
