For the past four weeks, Bill Elliott has traveled to the federal courthouse in Atlanta to sit in silent support of his long-time and close friend Curtis Colwell, who was convicted Wednesday on four counts that prosecutors say involved falsifying company records to save money on worker’s compensation insurance premiums. Elliott said Colwell was there to help when several members of his pit crew were struck and injured at Riverside in 1987, and he was there trying to get help for crewman Michael Rich, who was killed at Atlanta in 1990. “He was with me at Evergreen Speedway in Washington state in the 1980s when I wrecked and the car caught on fire,” Elliott said. “I was coming off Turn 4, and a guy hit me in the left front and caught me on fire. I was sitting there in the middle of the track burning, and Curtis came running across the race track and drug me out of the car.” Colwell spent countless hours with Elliott’s nephew Casey before the youngster died of cancer in 1996, and he was there with Elliott when Elliott broke his foot at Charlotte last month. “I don’t know that I’ve slept a wink this week until last night,” Elliott said Friday, adding that the distraction of the trial has hampered his ability to refresh himself between races. It’s not just the time I spent at the trial; it’s the anxiety, the worry, not just for Curtis, but for what this has done to his parents, Carlton and Odetta,” he said. “I just don’t think they’re bad people.” Elliott said that in recent years, the elder Colwells, who were not charged, have treated him like one of their own. The Colwells maintained that they trusted their insurance matters to others, including their agents and consultants Bill Plemons and Russell Smith, who both pleaded guilty in the case and testified against the Colwells. Elliott plans to speak for his friends at their sentencing hearing, even if it means missing qualifying or possibly a race.(see full story at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution )(6-29-2003)
