Catchfence

Driving upwards of 190 mph on Daytona International Speedway, the most prestigious venue in a sport Brad Lloyd began doing professionally only six months before, he suddenly lost radio contact.

The 2009 Vintage High graduate was trying to communicate with Stan Hover, a Warren, Ohio-based stock car owner who, on Dec. 19 at the Daytona Beach, Fla. track, was testing Lloyd’s ability to race for his American Race Car Association team.

“We had a little problem with my microphone in the beginning,” Lloyd recalled Thursday. “When he told me to pit, he couldn’t hear me and I couldn’t hear him, so I’d stay out a couple of extra laps. I just worked on different lines and things I thought would make the car go faster. It wasn’t that bad. But if it happened in a race, it would be a major problem, especially having never driven on a track that big in a car that fast.”

The way Lloyd dealt with the snafu was just one reason Hover, after seeing Lloyd test for only a few laps in his No. 80 Ford Fusion car, invited him to drive for him in 2010.

“He was really smooth,” said Hover, who used to own a team that raced at NASCAR’s top level, the Sprint Cup, when it was called the Winston Cup. “The first day (of testing on Dec. 18) was rained out, but everybody got to know each other; no matter how ready you are, you’ve got to keep working on things in the garage. We got him comfortable in the seat, the seat belt, steering wheel and helmet adjusted.

- Napa Valley Register