Friday, Sept. 19, 1997 | 11:13 a.m.
He plays a football coach on the hit television series "Coach" but, in real life, actor Craig T. Nelson's passion is auto racing.
Just don't call him a celebrity racer. The 52-year-old Nelson, who will be driving in Saturday's SportsCar Grand Prix at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, takes racing every bit as seriously as his "day job" -- maybe even more so.
After being named Most Improved Driver of the Year at the 1995 IMSA (now Professional SportsCar Racing) awards banquet, Nelson said the honor "was better than winning the Emmy."
A life-long racing fan, Nelson got involved in the sport during a celebrity race in Long Beach in 1991. Today, he owns his own race team -- Screaming Eagles Racing, named after the fictional Minnesota State team he coached on his TV series.
Nelson will be one of three television celebrities competing Saturday, but the only one driving in the series' premier event, the two-hour Exxon World SportsCar Championship race. Actors Jason Priestley of "Beverly Hills 90210" fame and Tim Allen of "Home Improvement" both will drive in the 1-hour, 45-minute Exxon Supreme GT Series.
Because of limited sponsorship, Nelson pays virtually all the bills for his race team. As a result, his acting career keeps him away from racing far more than he would like.
Footing the bill
"It's hard," Nelson said of juggling two careers. "I'm shooting a movie now in Vancouver and it's really difficult but we find time to test -- but it's not the same as actually being in the races. We're having problems with sponsorship and picking up dollars to be able to compete effectively, anyway.
"We've got a couple of problems; one is that we're a private team, meaning that we're privately funded, and the other one is that the person who is privately funding it has to work to be able to privately fund it, so that takes you away from what it is you want to do. But, heck, this is a fantastic sport and I really like it and we want to do the best we can."
So far this year, Nelson has run four of the seven WSC events and posted two top-10 finishes, including seventh-place showings at both Sears Point Raceway in July and the 12 Hours of Sebring in March. He also took 11th at Road Atlanta in April and posted a DNF at the 24 Hours at Daytona.
"This series has some really good drivers from all over the world and you have to spend a lot of time in it and (devote) a lot of your attention to it," Nelson said Thursday during a break in practice at LVMS. "It's really hard to dabble in it and not get fully competitive. To get fully competitive costs you a lot of money.
"Like I say, we're mid-pack right now; we're in the top eight and at some tracks we'll be in the top five when we're running really well and the car is really set up good. The problem is that we can't get out as often as we want to; you don't get the testing time, you don't get the track time, you can't be at every race ... but that's just the way it is."
Welcome participant
Because of his diligent approach to racing -- he paid his dues by working his way up to the World SportsCar Championship class in a methodical manner -- Nelson said he encountered little resistance from his fellow drivers when he joined the WSC series in 1995.
"When I came (into the series), I made sure that we had spent enough time doing other series in cars that were somewhat similar and at least there was a proclivity to do it, at least there wasn't a huge jump," he said. "Our first race, we qualified sixth, in Phoenix, so (gaining acceptance) was OK.
"I paid attention to what I was doing and I felt if there was ever going to be a problem, (the other drivers) would certainly verbalize that and make it known. They weren't about to hide any of their critique or anything like that about what I was doing. I'm pretty competitive and I really welcomed the challenge to get to a point where I could race with them. That has happened to a certain degree but it could certainly get better."
Nelson also was hoping the setup on his Ford-powered Riley & Scott MK III would get better during this morning's final practice session before this afternoon's qualifying run.
"We're trying to get set up on the car and it's been a little difficult," Nelson said. "I think (this track) could be really good for us. When we tested here (earlier this year), I thought we ran a pretty good track except for maybe one or two corners.
"Right now, we've got a couple of corners here that I just don't think are right. We went around the track (Wednesday) night with our competition director and spoke to a couple of those corners and some of the coning that has been done and there were some things that they just hadn't done yet. They addressed those things and now we'll see what happens."
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