With driver Mike Looney, the Billy Martin Racing Team plans to run the full 2019 schedule of races at Motor Mile Speedway near Dublin, Virginia. Billy has been involved with race cars since 1968 when he began working on them and since 1975 when he began driving them. He first practiced on the old Asbury Speedway, a dirt track literally cut out on the side of a hill in the Asbury community, a few miles southeast of Mount Airy, NC. His first race was in the Hobby Division at 311 Speedway, a dirt track in Madison, NC.
For the first few years of his driving career Billy raced on dirt tracks in Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee. After twenty years of driving on dirt, he decided it was time to switch to asphalt. He won his first asphalt race at Franklin County Speedway in Callaway, Virginia in 1996 and followed that up with his first track championship in 1997.
Billy won the final race of the 2001 season and then quit driving to look after his aging parents. He sold his car and it was gone a year before he bought it back. Over the next few years, Billy rebuilt and repainted the car and around 2010 he came back to racing and drove for a few more years winning several races along the way. In 2012, he entered the final race of the year at Franklin County Speedway needing a win to claim the track championship and that is just what he did. Winning the race that night gave him his second track championship.
Whitey Taylor, the owner and promoter at Franklin County Speedway, has been quoted as saying Billy has the largest fan following at the 3/8 mile asphalt track. Taylor also said, "About everyone loves Billy Martin. They like Billy because he races everybody clean. Billy will never wreck anyone on purpose."
Billy not only runs fast in a car but he also has been fast on his feet. When his weight ballooned to 238 pounds, he realized he needed to make a change for his own health. He said he was eating too much and smoking three packs of cigarettes a day. He changed his lifestyle, began running, started eating healthier and quit smoking. Six years later, and in great physical shape, he ran the Los Angeles Marathon in 1989 at age 42.
He said, "I started in the rear of 18,000 runners and finished 2,553rd. That's not bad, I thought." He also ran in the 1990 Marathon.
After the 2012 season, Billy cut back on his racing schedule and only ran periodically. He realized that after all these years of racing the time to step out of the car was approaching. He had been watching another Virginia driver, Mike Looney, who he thought would be a good fit for the team. At that time, Mike was driving for another late model team and when sponsorship problems forced him out the car, Billy offered Mike a ride and they have been together since 2014.
The team has enjoyed much success at several tracks but 2016 has so far been the best year. After two wins at Franklin County Speedway, the team went to Martinsville Speedway intent on qualifying for the Valley Star Credit Union 300, the largest and most prestigious late model race on the east coast. Not only did Mike qualify on the pole on Saturday, he went on to win the race on Sunday. (See details on separate page).
For 2019, the team will have two cars available, one of which is newly built and is being tested. The older car is a proven winner and the new car is expected to be even better.
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