In 1988, promoter George Echols debuted a new series, the American Winged Outlaws Sprint Car Association (AWOL) — a winged 360 series competing at several tracks in the southeast. Echols‘ series offered Rodriguez the opportunity to do more travelling and he earned several feature wins over the next several years with the series.
“When George Echols started AWOL, he called me up and asked me if I‘d run the series and I said, ‘Sure.‘
“‘We‘re gonna do a lot of two-day events,‘ he said. He started going to a lot of different race tracks. George had some really good races and he paid good money. It was a chance to go to new tracks outside of Florida.”
1990 was a breakout season. Rodriguez would finally capture his first of three TBARA championships. In addition, he claimed 15 feature wins with the series. It would also be the first year he would tow north to do some 410 racing, competing in the All Star Circuit of Champions‘ (ASCoC) Ohio Speedweeks.
“The first night we‘d been traveling, and we got there late. They were already qualifying. They said I could start at the back of the D-Main. I transferred out of the D to the C. But the track was getting out of control and there were a lot of wrecks. Deuce comes over and says, ‘What do you think?‘ I said, ‘I think we‘re done for the night. We gotta start in the back. The way they keep wrecking these cars, it‘s too early in Speedweeks to be crashing a car.‘ It was a good thing I made that call.
“They dropped the green and they destroyed eight or 10 cars. Deuce said, ‘That was a great call!‘
Then we went to Attica and I think we ran fourth. We went to Chillicothe and it started getting slick. Sammy Swindell was leading and Bobby Allen was running second. I got up to third and then ended up passing them both. I ended up leading and then, with three to go, a red flag comes out. I ran over something and had a pin hole in the tire. You can‘t change the tire or you‘ll go to the rear. Deuce tells me, ‘We got a little problem. We can let air out, but we can‘t put air in. The right rear tire‘s got a leak.‘ We wound up third and Bobby Allen ended up winning. If it wouldn‘t have been for that flat tire, we would have won.
“We went to Eldora for the final night and qualified about 15th and the track was going to crap fast. We got into the A and got up to second; Kevin Huntley was leading it. The bleeder in the wheel unscrewed itself. The left rear tire got so hot it exploded and knocked the shock, nerf bar, and took the wing like a hatchet and cut the sideboard right off the wing. If my arm would have been out, it would have ripped the arm off my body. I had a good Speedweek, but once again I had help.
“At that point, Deuce and I had a pretty good relationship.”
The following season Rodriguez would head out on the road for three weeks of racing that concluded with his first Knoxville Nationals.
“Before going to Knoxville, we had a TBARA race at Phenix City, Ala. We ran it because we were leading the points. We then packed up and headed to Granite City, Ill., put my 410 motor in and ran. The night didn‘t go that well. A few gremlins — this, that, and the other. But everything stayed together. From there, we went on to Knoxville.
“Deuce said, ‘Come on to Knoxville and I‘ll help you out.‘ Deuce was, at the time, helping Kenny Jacobs. I still had a good relationship with Deuce. He said, ‘We‘ll probably be on opposite preliminary nights, so I‘ll be able to help you.‘
“We won the heat race on our preliminary night. We started on the front row with Bobby Allen. Right before the heat race, I was in the car strapped up. Kenny Jacobs come up to me and said, ‘Look here. When you drive it into that first corner, the clay here is like super gumbo. If you get up on that cushion, don‘t you lift the gas because you‘ll turn right to the wall and you will destroy the car.‘ I said no problem.
“So, I drove into the corner, I left the corner ahead of Bobby Allen and never looked back. Steve Kinser ran second. In the feature, I was running fifth and a red comes out. Deuce had put a 25C compound on the right rear; we were just experimenting for Saturday. The tire was hot and we‘re sitting there. He comes over and says, ‘Man, you‘re gonna have a bit of a handful the last few laps. The tire‘s sealed over and it‘s all oiled.‘ I said, ‘I‘ll drive it on the cushion.‘
“I drive into the corner and then Ron Shuman drove inside of me and we gassed it up together. The tire just gave up and I missed the transfer for Saturday‘s A-Main, but I was in the B-Main. I didn‘t transfer Saturday and don‘t even remember where I finished, but I remember I never got so much money for finishing in a B-Main.
“The funniest thing about that weekend is I remember Sammy Swindell came up to me after the heat and said, ‘Thanks for staying ahead of Steve (Kinser). You gave us a few extra points tonight,‘ Rodriguez remembered with a laugh. “All of these hot shoes that were there; you can‘t expect to go there and just dominate. Not that you can‘t, and not that it can‘t happen, but the chances of it happening won‘t when you slip up. Those guys were almost unstoppable.”
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