Prior to the 1986 season, Johnson convinced Rodriguez to buy a new car. The new chassis would prove pivotal in the development of Rodriguez‘s early success.
“Roland Johnson moved from Tampa to Iowa to work for Challenger. I went to Challenger to have a new car built. When I was there, I met a guy named Deuce Terrell. Deuce and I became buddies. Deuce tells me, ‘When you get this car home and finish it off, call me. I‘ll fly down and help you with the race car one weekend and show you some stuff.‘ I called him up and told him I had a race coming up. He said, ‘Send me a ticket and I‘ll come down.‘
“It rained all week. The fairgrounds were muddy. We went out with my normal setup and the car was OK. The track was rough. He said, ‘Let‘s make a couple of changes.‘ I said, ‘You‘re the crew chief; do whatever you wanna do.‘ When they dropped that flag that thing was like a rocket ship. Him and I became good friends. After he showed me the mechanics of a car then I started doing my own thing. Finally, I got to where I could read a race track and know what the car needed. I could put a setup on it and generally it would be pretty dang close.”
Before the 1986 season was over, Rodriguez would win his first sprint car feature. He would win on five occasions that season and finish fourth in the final Tampa Bay Area Racing Ass’n (TBARA) point standings.
1987 would prove to be another successful season for Rodriguez. He would win six TBARA feature events and finish third in points. He was gaining confidence and was inching closer to his first TBARA championship.
Shortly afterward, a substitution drive in a pavement sprint car created some brief interest in that style of sprint competition. “Robert Delgado, my buddy, had a pavement car and he lived close to my shop. He says, ‘Hey man, Donnie Tanner can‘t come to the track until late because he‘s working at the shop. You wanna hot lap my pavement car at Sunshine (now Showtime Speedway)?‘ I said sure.
“I got there and run the first hot lap session. I kinda took it pretty easy. Donnie hadn‘t showed up yet. Delgado says, ‘Take it out again.‘ I changed the car a little bit, see how it feels. The changes felt pretty good. I start running the car, I‘m passing these guys on the outside through the corner with a wing. These guys are looking at me sideways as I‘m passing them, like, ‘What do you think you‘re doing?‘ Robert says, ‘Damn boy, you scared the hell out of me.‘ I said, ‘For what? It feels good and it stuck!‘
About that time Donnie gets there and says, ‘Hey, what are you doing? I just got here and three people told me you‘re passing on the outside?!‘ I said, ‘You drive it and see what you think. You may not like it.‘” Sam pauses to laugh before continuing. “I just felt comfortable on the pavement right off the bat.”
Shortly after the 1988 season had begun, Rodriguez purchased a Lloyd Shores-built pavement car from Charles Ledford which Tom Bigelow had just run at the Copper World Classic in Phoenix a month earlier. The goal was to compete in the upcoming Little 500.
Sam finished 18th in his first Little 500 after getting caught up in an accident.
“We had a good day for my first Little 500. We had a makeshift pit crew. We had a lot of fun doing it.”
The following season he turned heads with a victory in the 50-lap Little 500 tune-up race, topping a stout field of pavement specialists. He qualified fourth for the Little 500 and crossed the line sixth in the big show.
Two weeks later he would claim another non-winged pavement victory in a Pavement Racing Organization (PRO) event at Lakeland, Fla.
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