Bill Elliott Story

Item #6600

(August, 1992) It was a beautiful July morning when a sparkling white Thunderbird drove up to my sculpting studio. The driver was slightly weary. The day before he had driven five hundred miles around a triangular-shaped, baking-hot asphalt track in Long Pond, Pennsylvania at the Pocono Miller Genuine Draft 500. The man who was here to pose for my camera was motor racing’s Bill Elliott.

One of NASCAR’s top drivers and the most popular driver in the sport today, Bill Elliott is the first member of my newest series of sculptures. This series will celebrate a unique type of American hero, the race car driver.

Like myself, Bill Elliott was raised in a small southern town and spent his afternoons helping out in his father’s business. My statue cannot communicate his soft southern accent, but I have tried to portray his reserved manner coupled with his quiet confidence and intense commitment. The logos that adorn his special flame-retardant uniform point to this particular time in Bill Elliott’s career. He holds his massive helmet under one arm and I have incorporated his signature onto the base of the statue. In a challenging and dangerous sport, Bill Elliott is a new American hero whose dreams have come true.

Dr. Thomas F. Clark