Track Star

By Charles Sowell  

FEBRUARY 24, 2011 8:55 a.m. (0)

The 20-year-old Bayne’s grandfather, William Bayne, raced in the Upstate circuit for years both against Eddie Hawkins and as a member of Hawkins’ racing team, the now retired veteran racer said.

“Trevor’s daddy, Rocky, and his brother both played with my boy around the shop when there were kids,” Hawkins said. Both Baynes graduated from Hillcrest High School and lived in Simpsonville.

William worked for J.D. Hollingsworth when he wasn’t racing.

Back in those days racing was a family affair, Hawkins said.

And it remains true today with Trevor who won the nation’s oldest, biggest stock car race just one day after his 20th birthday.

Bayne is a young 20, scarcely needing to shave once a week. He celebrated his birthday the night before the big race with the combined Roush Fenway Racing and Wood Brothers teams that were behind his winning car.

Fame struck home quickly for the young racer. When he went to bed on Sunday he had 6,000 followers on Twitter. When he woke up Monday there were 21,000.

According to reports from Knoxville, where most of the Bayne family lives today, Trevor started his love affair with speed at an early age. He had a dirt bike with training wheels at the ripe old age of three.

The training wheels came off at age four and the youngest of the racing Baynes soon graduated to go-cart racing.

One of Trevor’s treasured possessions is a photo of his grandfather helping him work on his racing go-cart.

William Bayne died in the late 1990s, Hawkins said.

“I was a pallbearer at the funeral and I met Trevor then, of course he was little,” he said.

Trevor’s dad, Rocky, at one time owned the Bayne’s Hooters Pro Cup racing team and was crew chief for his son.

“He’s never missed a lap on the track,” Trevor said of his father.

Hawkins, who retired from racing in 1983 after hitting the circuit since the late 1960s, said Trevor’s granddad was a fierce competitor. “I raced against him many times through the years before he retired and started helping me.”

The youngest Daytona winner seems to have inherited that competitive streak.

“We have always had speed in our family,” Trevor told a Knoxville television station.

Trevor worked his way through the various lower-level racing circuits until at age 15 he moved out of his family’s Knoxville home and moved to Mooresville, N.C., to pursue a career with Dale Earnhardt Inc. as a driver in the big time.

“Whey I first moved (to North Carolina), I had an apartment and then my crew chief would actually have to come pick me up because I didn’t have a driver’s license,” Trevor said.

In 2009 DEI had to let Bayne go because there was no sponsor to fund his ride. It was the first time in the young man’s career that he was out of racing.

It proved to be short-lived, however.

A trip to Florida connected the young diver with Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) and that led to a commitment to a multi-race deal with the company and then on to Daytona where he raced as part of the Nationwide Series.

Bayne said he’s not moving up to the Winston Cup series, yet. The premier racing circuit is where the cream of the stock car community pits their skills against one another.

He’d like to drive the rest of the year with Nationwide and see where that takes him, Daytona win notwithstanding.

Speaking on CNN on Monday, Bayne said, “I never thought in a million years we were gonna win our first (big) race. It’s incredible.”

The young driver took home a purse valued at $1.4 million and said he wasn’t sure what he would do with the money. “I don’t know if I’ll splurge. I am definitely not putting it up for retirement yet. I am going to stay around for a while.”

Bayne’s parents Rocky and Stephanie were in the stands cheering their son on to victory.

The Wood Racing team last won at Daytona in 1976 when Spartanburg’s David Pearson took the checkered flag. Bayne’s car carried decals honoring the racing veteran for his induction into the racing Hall of Fame.

Pearson said, “Yeah, I was listening to it on the radio in the car. That’s good. I’m proud of them. I figured they had a chance after seeing that boy race in the 150s (Gatorade Duel). I talked to him (Bayne) this morning. I told him to keep his head straight and not to do anything crazy. I told him to stay relaxed. That’s the thing; stay relaxed. I knew he would because he was relaxed in the qualifier. I’m proud of him. I don’t understand what has taken them so long to return to Victory Lane. The car has always been capable.”

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