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Februar 2, 2009

2009 Speedweek edition of Late Model Digest features Austin Pickens

For much of this decade, Limited Late Model racing in Florida revolved around Jason Boyd. The two-time World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing champion, who swept every feature in the 2002 edition, is the all-time leading feature winner in FASCAR’s old touring series for the division. Boyd also has a Sunbelt Super Late Model championship, spent half a season in the now-defunct ASA tour, and was a semifinalist in the last Roush Racing Gong Show.

Boyd has been out of the spotlight lately as a driver, but he found a way to emerge from behind the scenes. Last season he began working with a 15-year-old truck racer named Austin Pickens. Pic’s Motorsports made the jump to Late Models last fall, and Pickens is primed for a breakthrough. Boyd is showing the way, and no one was prouder of Pickens after runner-up finishes in the first two Limited features at Speedweeks.

“With this car, we’ve been running great,” Boyd said after the Feb. 6 race. “This was only his fourth or fifth race in Late Models, and to qualify fourth and finish second … what else could you ask for? Plus it’s in one piece. That’s a hell of a way to start the week out. I just built a brand new truck for him, and he went two or three tenths faster than the track record the other day.”

The Pickens family, sponsored by the DiscoverTec web development company and its motorsports offshoot Victory Marketing, went searching for a mentor once the teenager graduated from quarter midgets into full-sized rides. The young Pickens won in his fourth outing in a Late Model, coming in a New Smyrna weekly show.

“My dad just got together with him,” Austin said. “He talked to some people that were in Late Models already and they said (Boyd) was good. He’s been a real help, especially with this car. It handles better than the truck.” His most impressive drive of the weekend came Feb. 7, after Pickens and fellow front-row starter Drew Brannon were sent to the rear before one lap was recorded. It took Pickens only 10 laps to climb back to third, and once he reached second he came within a whisker of robbing Jessica Murphy of her first Speedweeks win.

Having Boyd’s knowledge also paid off when things didn’t go well. The next night after the close call, Pickens couldn’t dodge a first-lap accident with Brannon and he dropped out with damage, but the off-night Monday allowed the team to regroup and get back at it for the remaining six nights on the schedule.

Boyd sings Pickens’ praises every chance he gets. His effort for Pickens is the main way he climbed back into the sport following the passing of his father, noted engine builder Dennis Boyd, just after Speedweeks last year. The families are working together to build Jason Boyd Motorsports a new shop in Winter Garden, Fla.

Boyd does occasional work on other cars, including former truck racer Scott Bishop’s modified at Speedweeks, but what Pickens does is his priority. “Basically it’s my full-time job; I just mentor him and do all his stuff,” Boyd said. “I fix a few here and there, but you’ve gotta give 110 percent to one person if you’re working like I am with him.”

Republished with permission from Late Model Digest