Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
P. O. Box 3711
204 Broad Street
Martinsville, Virginia 24115
276-638-8801
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From left, student Christopher Wade of Hillsborough, N.C., Martinsville Speedway President Clay Campbell and David Kenealy of the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center are seen Sunday at the speedway. |
Monday, October 26, 2009
By JOHNNY BUCK - Bulletin Staff Writer
Officials at Martinsville Speedway think it is time to bring the grandfather clock trophy back to Southside Virginia.
Track president W. Clay Campbell announced Sunday that the speedway has entered into a partnership with the South Boston-based Southern Virginia Higher Education Center (SVHEC) to produce the trophy timepiece, which has been awarded to Martinsville’s Sunday race winners for more than four decades.
“We are (as) excited about this as we have been about anything in a long time,” Campbell said in a news release. “Our trophy clocks have long been the one trophy all drivers aimed for. Now, it’s going to be more than a clock — it’s going to be a work of art.”
The first trophy clock went to Fred Lorenzen in 1964, and like all but one of its successors, that timepiece was made by Ridgeway Clocks.
Martinsville’s signature award lost its local connection several years ago, however, after Howard Miller Co. bought Ridgeway Clocks and moved its production facility.
Under the new agreement, high school and community college students in the SVHEC’s Wood Product Design and Development Program will build one speedway clock each semester, according to David Kenealy, the director of the department of product design and development at SVHEC.
“We’re in a pilot year of a program in product design and development. That’s a very sophisticated body of work. We take students through the design process, through the engineering process and then all the way through the manufacturing process, where they have a tangible product at the end of that,” Kenealy said. “And the opportunity to do a real-world project like the Martinsville Speedway clock, bring it back to Virginia, we certainly have a lot of pride in helping to do that, too.”
Each clock will feature carvings and designs that clearly link it to Martinsville Speedway. For example, the first trophy clock designed by SVHEC will have the speedway’s logo in the hood and the familiar paper-clip outline of the track’s racing surface carved into the back of the timepiece.
Campbell said that clock will be awarded to the winner of the Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 on March 28, 2010.
In the past, winning drivers have often ordered duplicate clocks to give to family members, crew chiefs and race team owners. Similar orders now will be filled by the Martinsville-based Wooden Creations Inc., a woodworking company owned by Eric Gilbert.
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