Major Overhaul Little Will Drive Pontiac In Winston Cup Return

Chad Little was back in town for the holidays Friday with news both professional and personal.

First, he and the Mark Rypien Motorsports team are returning full time to the major league of stock car racing.

The 33-year-old Little, who now lives in Charlotte, N.C., has left the Busch circuit for slightly smaller Grand National cars to focus on his first season of Winston Cup racing since 1991.

On a personal note, Little and his wife Donna are expecting their first child in April.

If he was disappointed by not winning a Grand National event in 1996 - his first season in a Pontiac after a career year in a ‘95 Ford - Little didn’t show it.

In what has become an annual Christmas holiday appearance and autograph session in the Spokane Valley where he grew up, Little said, “We struggled through the first half of the season, maybe a little bit more, with the new Pontiac.

“We had some setups that worked well with the Ford. We had to learn how to adapt those to the new car.

“The Pontiac had a real tight characteristic through the middle of a corner. It just didn’t have enough front down-force,” Little said. “The key is to get the balance right so at the end of a long run, when the tires are worn out, you’re still running well.

“We had to find that balance. I don’t think any of us anticipated how difficult a transition it would be, but the last third of the season we got pretty competitive.”

After winning six races and $529,056 a year ago, Little slipped to $317,394 in ‘96 in the No. 23 Pontiac Grand Prix sponsored by John Deere tractors and equipment. He had two finishes in the top five and seven among the top 10.

He was fifth in Busch Series points behind champion Randy Lajoie, David Green, Todd Bodine and Jeff Green, all Chevy drivers.

“In the short term, changing (to Pontiac) was a tough decision,” Little said. “But when Pontiac offered wind-tunnel time, access to engineering, parts and a perk to the sponsors with help on auto shows, trade shows and publications, it was an offer you don’t turn down.”

In the second year of a two-year sponsorship with John Deere, Little’s ‘97 budget is in excess of $4 million. That’s “very good,” he said, about mid-pack in Winston Cup spending and more than $3 million more than he tried to get by on in ‘91 when he and his father, Chuck Little, owned the team.

The organization has grown to 22 full-time employees - including two engineers - and six volunteers.

“We now have people specializing in brakes and transmissions and wiring,” he said. “They do other things, too, but they specialize. I don’t have to work on the cars anymore.”

As well-financed as he is, the top half-dozen Winston Cup teams spend the equivalent of Little’s entire budget on research and development alone, he said.

“It’s important not to expect too much too soon,” Little cautioned. “You won’t compete against them overnight. The difference between now and ‘91 is there are more teams with more resources and more competitive drivers. The goal is to get in a few good runs here and there and build some consistency.”

Pontiac builds consistency may not have the same ring as Pontiac builds excitement, but “We’re taking the right steps,” Little said.

“John Deere knows how important a contract extension is to us. They invested in us to get to be a top-10 or top-12 team at the end of a five-year plan.”

The competition between racing’s Big Two - Ford and Chevy - and Pontiac will start at Daytona in February on more of a level racing surface, Little predicted.

Two pro-Pontiac signs are Bobby Hamilton’s win in the Winston Cup race in Phoenix in a Grand Prix and car owner Joe Gibbs trading Chevrolet Monte Carlo for Pontiac.

“Coach Gibbs is a good politician with a lot of power (with NASCAR, the governing body of stock car racing),” Little said. “He’ll probably have the No. 1 or No. 2 Pontiac team next year.”

Gibbs could lead the way in politicking for rules interpretations that dictate the fine-tuning, or “tweaking”, of a race car as Little describes it.

“The Pontiac has an advantage at some tracks, a disadvantage at others,” he said. “On any given weekend any of the three will complain that the other two have an advantage. NASCAR has been very good at pushing for parity among the manufacturers.”

He reaffirmed his ties to the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery here before signing autographs at University City. Little said he and his wife are happy to continue their commitment to this community.

Little continues to cultivate long-term local ties. He said he and a high school friend, Scott Hoover, are planning to develop and build 10 homes on 60 acres in the Charlotte area with Hoover’s dad, Ron.

The race team co-owned by Rypien and Greg Pollex of Detroit also expects to move into a new 21,000 square-foot shop in suburban Mooresville, N.C., in February, Little said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo