Racing brings out family feud

But the Wilsons don't let their cars get in the way of their relationship.

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 28, 2000

Brotherly love or sibling rivalry -- how you describe the relationship between Wes and Sport Wilson pretty much depends on what day of the week it is.

Most weekdays, you can find them working side by side at the family business in Floral City, where they craft intricate, hand-made cypress lawn furniture.

But on Saturday evenings, when the brothers roll their respective race cars onto the hot asphalt of Citrus County Speedway, they would just as soon not share the same last name.

Because when the green flag drops, so starts a no-holds-barred wrestling match as they bang door-to-door down the front stretch. "I don't give him an inch if I don't have to because I know he wouldn't give it to me," said 28-year-old Wes of his brother, Sport, who is one year his senior.

Though they have been racing together for five years, never have the two been so close to the same goal. Currently, Sport, who won the division crown in 1997, leads his brother by eight points in the hunt for the Street Stock championship.

All of which amuses their father, Harley Wilson Sr., known affectionately to speedway regulars as the patriarch of "The Floral City Gang," which includes his sons, and at times, their mother, Virginia, and Wes' wife, Erica.

But watching his sons dominate the division this season has brought the elder Wilson both pride and frustration.

"It's a little tough because I've got to run against both of them every week," said Harley, who has scored two victories this season and is fourth in the division. "They're both great drivers, and they race me just as hard as they do each other."

Winning at Citrus County Speedway so impressively this season has been a welcome experience to the Wilson clan, who collectively sat out last season while Wes served a yearlong expulsion from the track for a post-race altercation with another driver.

"We missed it a lot," Wes said. "We've known everybody at the track for so long. It was good to get back racing with our friends again."

However, Harley was less enthusiastic when testing time came in the spring. Because they hadn't run on the resurfaced track, the Wilsons soon found that the proven chassis setups they once relied on no longer worked as well.

"It made us look like idiots," Harley said. "I told Wes and Sport we needed to get off our a---- and get working or we weren't going to win anything."

By the opening night of the season, things began to click. Wes scored his first win, with Sport finishing third. To date, the Wilsons have 11 victories between them, including four top-three routs, the latest of which came Saturday night.

"It's been fun for all of us," Sport said. "It gives us something to brag about to each other for a week."

Wes and Sport are betting that the race for the championship will come down to the last night of the season, quite possibly with their father included in the mix.

And though the battle on the track is apt to get pretty heated, all of them agree that keeping the right perspective on the action is the most important aspect of racing against family members.

"Whatever happens on Saturday night doesn't really matter on Sunday," Wes said. "It's just not worth losing your family because of a race car."

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