Story by: Corey Latham ~ corey@RACE22.com

Winston, Salem, NC(September 15, 2009) -- On Sunday, September 27th the mighty NASAR Whelen Modifieds will once again make their annual trek to the paperclip that is the Martinsville Speedway for their historic North vs. South affair. As rich in history as this event is, it is growing by leaps and bounds in 2009 as the Limited Late Model division has their own race scheduled for the bullring on the same day as the Modifieds. The 50 lap event has drawn interest from far and wide, with veterans and newcomers to the division showing great interest in making laps at Martinsville. One driver who will be making his first ever start in a Limited car is Johnny Burke, but he Isn't going for "experience" as some would think a first-timer would, he's going with the mindset to win. And with the team and equipment he is bringing, there is no reason to doubt him.

Johnny Burke is your everyday guy, a throwback racer, "old-school" if you will. He doesn't wear Ambercrombie clothes or dine with the rich and famous, or have people working on his race-cars for him. He is involved in his family, helps others out more than most, and most importantly, he takes his racing very seriously. Day after day, his mind is on racing, whether it is helping his own car, on the phone helping someone else, or even taking a ride somewhere to be hands-on with someone. This seriousness is what got the Mini-Stock driver a shot at a ride for the big race at Martinsville. Yes, his previous experience is in the Mini-Stock division.

Some may look at that last sentence and wonder, "Why would a Mini-Stock guy be driving a Limited at Martinsville?" Simple answer, because he is a driver. Johnny has been driving Mini-Stocks since 1994, and is the 2000 and 2008 Bowman Gray Stadium champion in that division, with countless (I really mean countless because he can't remember) wins throughout the years. At Bowman Gray the Mini-Stocks are the most competitive division with over 50 cars each week, and starting by a blind draw puts the real drivers to the front at the end. And Johnny is there towards the top 5 each and every week, enough so to catch the eye of car-owner Mike Robertson.

Robertson himself is a racer, running the majority of his career at Bowman Gray also in the Sportsman division. Now Mike has semi-retired, and owns cars driven by his son Ryan on the UARA Late-Model tour, and still has a car in the sportsman division at Bowman Gray driven by former Late Model and Hooters Pro Cup driver Scott Hall. As the rules were put out by the Speedway on the Limited race, ultimately putting Hall and the younger Robertson off the list with their previous Late Model experience, Burke
 

was an obvious choice to the elder Robertson.

"Johnny is one of the hardest working drivers in local racing, and if you notice, his cars always finish up front without a scratch on them, which at Bowman Gray is almost unheard of", said Robertson. "I made the offer to Johnny if he could get the tire money, I had the car, and now we are ready to go racing". And going racing they are in a very good piece.

The car Johnny will be driving is a brand new Greg Marlowe chassis that has never seen the track, it will ultimately end up being a car that Ryan runs on the UARA-STARS tour next season. But it is not the first time that Johnny has been in a full-bodied heavy car, he made the transition for the 4-cylinder power to the mighty V8 earlier this year when he ran a car for Mike in the Sportsman division at Caraway Speedway. And it didn't take him long to adapt, "It took about a practice to get used to it, then we qualified 4th and had an oil leak the whole race, so we slid around best we could to finish 7th", said the smiling Burke.

The road to Martinsville was not paved for him completely though, as just getting money for the tires was a job in itself, as Burke works a regular job as well as building motors for different competitors in the Mini-Stock division. It turned out that some of his competitors were the ones that got him the opportunity to race at Martinsville. "Glen Hamilton, Tommy Stewart, Keith Whisenhunt, KT Jameson, Bobby Beard, and of course my sponsor and owner from Bowman Gray, Robert Moreau, along with a few others, pitched in for the tire money to race there, no way I could have done it without them. Robert really saved me, so we'll have his restaurant, Bib's Downtown, on the hood up there".

When asked about expectations for the race, Burke didn't mince words. "I'm going there with the mindset that I need to get at least a top ten", he said sternly. "I just need to focus on qualifying, and not have to deal with that last-chance race. I know I'm under-experienced compared to some of the other drivers that are going to be there, but I also am confident in my own abilities, and after the practice day I should be right there with them. A win would be great, but that's not completely realistic to me, but it also Isn't out of the question".

This years Martinsville Limited race will bring all sorts of drivers, from all sorts of backgrounds. Burke just hopes to do well in his shot at the track his father took him to so many times for the Late Model/Modified doubleheaders of years past. Now It's his turn to catch some glory in the same type of event, and to make his stake in the "higher" series of racing, this may even open up a few doors to do more of these races in the future. He knows he had better hurry up, his son Tyler will be making his debut against him next year, so the Burke tradition is sure to continue for years to come.