Owner McAnally doing it the right way

By Mark Billingsley


Special to The Bee

Published: Saturday, Oct. 16, 2010 - 12:16 am


Eric Holmes said there are three types of team owners in auto racing. There's the guy who's selling his home to keep the race car on the track; there are the rich guys who can't buy a clue and there are owners like Bill McAnally, a team boss who knows racing as well as the drivers he employs and who runs his team like a business.

And it's big business, too. McAnally's annual budget exceeds $2 million.

"Bill is the hardest working guy I know," said Holmes, who leads NASCAR's K&N Pro Series West standings with two races remaining. "We're not the highest funded team and certainly not the lowest. But I always know that whatever I need, Bill will get it for us."

McAnally will field three teams tonight for the annual Toyota/Napa Auto Parts 150 at Roseville's All American Speedway. Joining Holmes in McAnally's stable is 2009 K&N Pro Series West Rookie of the Year Paulie Harraka and Moses Smith. Harraka is third in the standings, 47 points behind David Mayhew. Smith is in fourth, 52 points behind Harraka, who won the Toyota/Napa Auto Parts 150 last season.

Holmes can all but clinch the series title with a win tonight. He leads Mayhew by 141 points. Holmes won the title in 2008, one of four series titles for Bill McAnally Racing.

"I raced against Eric when he first started racing and he has always been a driver with a lot of ambition and who always worked hard," McAnally said. "Plus he can drive his butt off."

McAnally, 45, grew up in Ukiah but moved to Roseville at age 17 to attend Sierra College. He got a job at All American Speedway as a sound meter operator, making sure the decibels didn't exceed the limit. The racing bug bit him, he said, and in 1986 he and a friend, Chris Alexander of Newcastle, bought a car and were co-drivers in the Bomber division.

In 1990, McAnally bought a Late Model and won the track title. In 1998 he got the opportunity to become a car owner and hired Gary Smith to drive for him. The team finished third in the Winston West Series. Sean Woodside would give McAnally his first championship in 1999, wrapping up the title while racing in Motegi, Japan – the only NASCAR championship ever clinched outside the United States.

McAnally fielded two cars in 2000 and 2001 and Brendan Gaughan won back-to-back titles. With Gaughan as the pilot, BMR spent the 2002 season on the Craftsman Truck Series and won two races. Gaughan won Rookie of the Year honors and now drives in the Nationwide Series.

"I liked seeing the country and seeing all the famous tracks back East, such as Daytona," McAnally said. "But the constant travel got to be too much with young kids, and I quickly realized I wanted to stay closer to home."

McAnally took the team to three cars in 2004. One car was driven by Clint Bowyer, who is now on the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit. Other drivers who have been BMR team members include Brian Ickler (Camping World Truck Series) and Kerry Earnhardt, the eldest son of legendary NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt.

McAnally said he'll wait until his two children, Hailee and Alex, a senior and freshman at Woodcreek High School, respectively, both graduate before he entertains any offers to join a major NASCAR team or to consolidate BMR and enter NASCAR as a team owner.

For now, he said he's content guiding BMR to another season of success and perhaps its fifth series championship.