Walter Wilkins runs Bay Chevrolet in Norfolk. Three decades ago, he was
tearing up the track
This was the moment Walter Wilkens was waiting for.
He had received a call from Bill Scott, owner of a racing team and Summit
Point Raceway in Charles Town, W. Va. Volkswagen was sending over next year's
car for the last race of the season.
Scott wanted Wilkins to give it a shakedown at Daytona, Fla., the last stop
of the 1974 Super Vee Pro Gold Cup Series, widely seen as a stepping stone to
Indy Car racing and sponsored by VW.
A factory ride and sponsors? Wilkins knew what he had to do. He headed to
Summit Point to test the car, but he wasn't there long.
The Shenandoah Valley in November proved too cold and snowy for testing, so
the team headed to Daytona. They would tweak the car there.
The car had come over in a box and was put together stateside. Everything
needed work: the sway bars, the shocks, the springs, the ride height, the brake
bias. Changes were made, but as Wilkins drove out to qualify, the engine blew
up.
The car was fixed. So was Wilkins' starting position: back of the pack.
That posed a problem. The Daytona race had an usually large field of drivers,
many of them Europeans. Being November, it was too cold to race in Europe.
He and Scott talked it over. This wasn't a NASCAR race where you go for
hours. This was a sprint - 30, 40 minutes tops. It was a big opportunity, and
Wilkins wanted to make an equally big move.
They opted for a "Texas start." Wilkins would lay back, anticipating when the
green flag would drop. He would begin accelerating and take the high side of the
track; the low side would be too crowded. Besides, who would be crazy enough to
take the top side?
He went for it, passing half of the field. Climbing through the gears, his
speed increased as the green flag dropped - 120 mph, 130, 140.
Suddenly, a Canadian driver pulled in front of him. Wilkins turned to the
right. His tires screeched as they hit the wall, launching the car end over end
three times before coming to a rest.
The Wilkins family has deep roots in Norfolk's automobile business. Walter's
grandfather, also named Walter, established Norfolk Motor Co. at 9th and Granby
in Norfolk in 1938, later moving to 1500 Monticello Ave .
Selling Cadillacs and Oldsmobiles, the older Wilkins was both a dealer and a
distributor in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. He also
founded the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association and served as its first
president.
His son Jack, Walter's father, opened his own dealership, Wilkins Chevrolet,
in 1955. But Walter didn't want to sell cars; he wanted to race them.
Instead, Wilkins enrolled at the University of South Carolina.
"As luck would have it, I had a roommate who was into road racing," Wilkins
said. "We started talking about racing, and he said, 'you've got to go to Road
Atlanta to see road racing. It's different.'"
Soon, they found themselves at Road Atlanta, watching a Can-Am race. Wilkins
was hooked. In 1970, he was spending time at the Bob Bondurant School of High
Performance Driving in California in 1970.
"That's what got me going," Wilkins said.
Next, he needed money and a car.
"Fortunately, my family supported me for a while and helped me to get
started," he said.
Wilkins bought a Formula Ford and placed fifth in the Sports Car Club of
America's Southeast Division Formula standings in 1973.
After a couple seasons, he purchased the Super Vee racing car and went into
the Volkswagen Gold Cup Series. The races took him to legendary tracks: Road
Atlanta; Watkins Glen, N.Y.; Daytona; Charlotte, N.C.; Laguna Seca in Monterey,
Calif.; Ontario, Calif.; Mexico City; Rossport, Canada; Elkhart Lake, Wis.
1974 was a magical time for Wilkins. "I was the top rookie that year," he
said.
His best finish was third at Road Atlanta. Elliot Forbes-Robinson, who won
the Super Vee series that year, finished first. Harry Ingle, a former world
champion from Charlotte, was second.
But the crash at Daytona changed everything.
"I remember being launched like a helicopter - it's the same sort of
sensation - and that was it," he said. "The next thing I know I was in the
Halifax Hospital looking up at a group of doctors asking me if I knew where I
was."
The wreck ended his family's financial support. "At that point, I had to sell
anything that I had to keep going with the racing effort."
The lack of money meant Wilkins worked on his car himself, rather than hiring
a mechanic.
"So now I'm going from a good mechanic to a questionable one, but it went on
for a couple years that way and it was a lot of fun," he said.
In the end, the money ran out. It was time to go to work.
"I wasn't crazy about being in the family business, so I left and ended up in
Denver selling Fords and worked out there for about a year and a half," he
said.
Wilkins returned to the family business, Wilkins Chevrolet, in 1978. "My
father called one day and said, 'I'm going to sell this place, I'm ready to
retire. If you want to take a shot, this is your opportunity to.'"
After buying out his father, he renamed the store Bay Chevrolet in 1981,
adding Kia in 2000 and Saab in 2003. But even after becoming a dealer, the lure
of the track tugged at his heart.
It was time for one more lap.
Upon turning 40, Wilkins returned to the Bondurant School, now located in
Phoenix. Behind the wheel of a Mustang, he found himself in the desert when the
driver in front of him spun, creating an enormous sand cloud.
"I'm going into the apex of this 80-mph turn blind," he said. "When you're
20, I wouldn't think twice about it. It never would occur to me that this guy
might be sitting on the other side of this cloud in the middle of the
track."
"Well, now I'm thinking, 'this guy could be sitting there in the middle of
track, and I better back out of it.' Those kinds of things are on your mind when
you're a little older ."
He enjoyed the return to the track but said the experience convinced him he
no longer wanted to compete. Still, he said, racing offers many lessons .
"The first thing it teaches you is that you have to stick to it," he said.
"There's a lot of disappointment. It teaches you how to overcome that. The other
thing it teaches is the importance of preparation. Not waiting till the last
minute to be ready. That applies to everything else in life. If you just show up
and stumble into something, you're probably not going to be too successful."
Being a General Motors dealer, Wilkins will need those lessons as GM
navigates Chapter 11. Like other auto retailers, he must deal with a company
looking to shed dealers and ensure that Bay Chevrolet is not one of them. Like
other area dealers, he wouldn't comment about his dealings with GM.
It's just one chapter in a life filled with many twists and turns.
"It was a great adventure from start to finish," he said. "It was a lot of
fun, especially at that age."
