Casey and Cathy Roberts have worked side-by-side throughout the Southern Nationals
The Southern Nationals mini-series promoted by Ray Cook strings together ten races over a thirteen day time span. The tour began on Monday(July 20) at the Wythe Raceway in Rural Retreat, VA and will end at the Tazewell(TN) Speedway(August 1). In between, race teams have made their way into both North and South Carolina, all over the state of Georgia as well as in, out and back in again to Tennessee.
Cook describes the series travel schedule as “a big U-turn down one side of I-75 and back up the other side.”
One driver who is taking on the Southern Nationals tour with a family based operation is Casey Roberts of Toccoa, GA. To date, the No. 101 car has won two of the six contested races and sits second in the overall standings, just one point behind leader Billy Ogle, Jr.
So how difficult is it to race so many times over the course of such a short time period?
“It’s pretty tough,” Roberts admitted in an interview with InsideDirtRacing.com. “It’s hard to do with no hired help. It’s just me, my wife and kids. We’ve got Glen Owens who’s been going some and Matt Langston from Longhorn has helped us some when he isn’t working.”
Roberts said the experience has given him perspective on another well known mini-series.
“It gives you more respect for them guys that do the Summer Nationals deal. I don’t see how they do it. I’d be on suicide watch if I had to do something like that,” the driver joked. “It’s tough enough if you’re running good, but if you had a streak of bad luck, I’m sure it would be real hard. We’re looking forward to finishing up pretty strong. I hated that Rome got cancelled because that’s one of our pretty good tracks.”
Casey Roberts
Although family members are a major part of the operation, outside help has also proven invaluable to the Roberts effort.
“Glen can drive the truck for us and that’s a big help, especially that night me and my wife stayed up all night,” Roberts explained. “Thank the Good Lord that he was able to go and drive the truck, that was a real blessing. And Matt has went with us a couple of times and he’s a big help.”
With the close quarters of the team hauler primarily occupied by the Roberts family, life on the road has been an adventure.
“We’re having a good time if nothing else,” Roberts said. “I’d like to win a few more races and let the points take care of itself. If we win, fine. If we come up short, oh well. We just want to win some races.”
Competing on the Southern Nationals requires teams to complete work that is often done over the course of an entire week in a much shorter time period. That was especially true for Mr. and Mrs. Roberts during one evening/morning on the tour.
Casey Roberts’ No. 101
“It’s a tough deal,” Roberts reiterated. “We thought we had everything well prepared and then we had a motor go south on us at Screven. That kind of put us behind the eight-ball and we had to get our back-up car out to start on the tail. After that, we went on home that night and didn’t even go to sleep. We unloaded, me and my wife, she stayed up with me and we took the motor out and swapped it and washed all the oil lines and oil cooler and changed all that stuff up.
“We went to Rome with no sleep,” he further explained of the event that was ultimately rained out. “I guess the Lord knew we needed a little bit of rest there. No matter how prepared you think you are, there’s always something that can come up and throw you a curve ball.”
