FILMAR Racing is a former NASCAR Winston Cup and Busch Series team. It was owned by Fil Martocci and crew chief Gil Martin. The team was sold in 1999 to the Pinnacle Motorsports Group and then to Davis & Weight Motorsports.

FILMAR Racing/Davis & Weight Motorsports
Owner(s)Fil Martocci, Gil Martin, Jerry Davis, Anthony Weight
BaseNorth Carolina
SeriesWinston Cup, Busch Series
Race driversDavid Green, Jeff Burton
SponsorsSquare D
ManufacturerFord, Oldsmobile
Opened1989
Closed2003
Career
Drivers' Championships0
Race victories0

Beginnings

edit

FILMAR began racing in 1989 when they fielded the No. 8 Oldsmobile driven by Bobby Hamilton in the Busch series, winning in September at Richmond. Originally unsponsored, they picked up sponsorship from TIC Financial Industries in June 1990, starting at Orange County Speedway. Hamilton had seven top-fives and finished eleventh in points, but departed for the Winston Cup series and was replaced by David Green. Despite missing a pair of races early in the season, Green won the pole for the season-opening Goody's 300 and won at Lanier Raceway. He finished thirteenth in points and finished runner-up to Jeff Gordon for Rookie of the Year honors. At the end of the season, Green was replaced by Jeff Burton. Burton had four top-fives, including a win at New Hampshire International Speedway, and finished ninth in points.

In 1993, Baby Ruth became the team's sponsor as they switched to Ford, and despite winning at Myrtle Beach Speedway, Burton and the team dropped to fourteenth in points. The team also made its Cup debut that year with Burton at New Hampshire, starting 6th but finishing 37th after their No. 0 Ford wrecked in a lap 3 incident.

Kenny Wallace years

edit
 
The 81 car from 1996-1997.

After Burton left to run for Stavola Brothers Racing's Cup program, Kenny Wallace was hired as the team's new driver for 1994. Wallace won a pole at Nazareth Speedway and won at Bristol, Martinsville, and Richmond late in the year and finished fourth in points. They also ran a Cup race at Michigan, finishing nineteenth in the No. 81 car.

In 1995, FILMAR and Wallace split time between the Cup and Busch Series. In Cup, the team ran 11 races, finishing in the top-30 three times. In Busch, the team ran fifteen races with sponsorship from Red Dog and won at Richmond and finished 27th in points. In addition to winning again at Richmond in 1996, the team moved up to the Cup series full-time with sponsorship from Square D. Wallace had a seventh-place finish at North Carolina Speedway and finished 28th in points. The following season, FILMAR ran its last Busch race at Richmond as the No. 12 Graybar Ford, starting 27th and finishing 26th. That year, Wallace won his first two career poles in Cup at Martinsville and Bristol. Despite two top-tens, Wallace and the team dropped to 33rd in the standings.

In 1998, Wallace posted seven top-tens but failed to qualify twice, finishing 31st in points.

Davis & Weight

edit

Towards the end of 1998, Wallace announced he and Square D would be departing FILMAR and join Andy Petree Racing. After rumors spread that Todd Bodine or Willy T. Ribbs would be the team's new driver for 1999,[1] Marcotti sold the team to an organization called the Pinnacle Motorsports Group. The team planned to run that year's Daytona 500 with Morgan Shepherd driving, but failed to qualify. The group was sold again to Davis & Weight Motorsports late in the season. The team made its Busch debut at the Food City 250 with Brandon Sperling driving the No. 55 Pontiac Grand Prix with sponsorship from the University of Florida. He started and finished 27th. Michael Ritch ran a pair of races for D&W that year, at Rockingham and Memphis Motorsports Park, his best finish a 35th.

D&W hired Ritch to compete full-time in the Busch Series in 2000 competing for Rookie of the Year honors. In addition, they announced they would run the No. 81 in Cup in five races that season to move up full-time in 2001. Ritch made 21 starts that season and had five top-twenty finishes in the UoF/Kleenex Ford Taurus, and finished 33rd in points, but the team did not attempt any Cup races. In 2001, Mark Green took over, and had a best finish of sixteenth at Darlington Raceway when the team announced it was closing its Busch program to focus on Cup. After announcing they would attempt the Brickyard 400, the team laid off all of its employees and did not attempt a race again.

Winston Cup Results

edit

Car No. 81 results

edit
Year Driver No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Owners Pts
1993 Jeff Burton 0 Ford DAY CAR RCH ATL DAR BRI NWS MAR TAL SON CLT DOV POC MCH DAY NHA
37
POC TAL GLN MCH BRI DAR RCH DOV MAR NWS CLT CAR PHO ATL 52
1994 Kenny Wallace 81 DAY CAR RCH ATL DAR BRI NWS MAR TAL SON CLT DOV POC MCH
19
DAY NHA POC TAL IND GLN MCH BRI DAR RCH DOV MAR NWS CLT CAR PHO ATL 106
1995 DAY
DNQ
CAR
20
RCH
DNQ
ATL
DNQ
DAR
DNQ
BRI NWS
DNQ
MAR
21
TAL
36
SON CLT
31
DOV
18
POC MCH
36
DAY
DNQ
NHA POC
37
TAL IND
36
GLN MCH
24
BRI
DNQ
DAR RCH
20
DOV MAR
DNQ
NWS CLT
DNQ
CAR PHO
26
ATL 878
1996 DAY
21
CAR
7
RCH
15
ATL
37
DAR
17
BRI
34
NWS
18
MAR
14
TAL
14
SON
27
CLT
32
DOV
20
POC
37
MCH
33
DAY
38
NHA
19
POC
36
TAL
20
IND
33
GLN
31
MCH
37
BRI
15
DAR
13
RCH
38
DOV
20
MAR
10
NWS
15
CLT
30
CAR
19
PHO
37
ATL
DNQ
28th 2694
1997 DAY
22
CAR
41
RCH
40
ATL
29
DAR
14
TEX
13
BRI
41
MAR
6
SON
36
TAL
26
CLT
39
DOV
27
POC
34
MCH
43
CAL
DNQ
DAY
11
NHA
19
POC
34
IND
30
GLN
27
MCH
32
BRI
39
DAR
24
RCH
24
NHA
27
DOV
38
MAR
6
CLT
28
TAL
15
CAR
37
PHO
35
ATL
30
33rd 2496
1998 DAY
DNQ
CAR
38
LVS
42
ATL
7
DAR
9
BRI
42
TEX
34
MAR
22
TAL
7
CAL
19
CLT
25
DOV
40
RCH
23
MCH
39
POC
39
SON
22
NHA
10
POC
35
IND
43
GLN
26
MCH
DNQ
BRI
42
NHA
6
DAR
10
RCH
11
DOV
43
MAR
43
CLT
16
TAL
40
DAY
35
PHO
8
CAR
16
ATL
34
32nd 2656
1999 Morgan Shepherd DAY
DNQ
CAR LVS ATL DAR TEX BRI MAR TAL CAL RCH CLT DOV MCH POC SON DAY NHA POC IND GLN MCH BRI DAR RCH NHA DOV MAR CLT TAL CAR PHO HOM ATL 79th 1

References

edit
  1. ^ "Jayski's® Silly Season Site - Past News Page". Archived from the original on 2018-01-24. Retrieved 2006-07-10.
edit