SUMMERFIELD, NC :: After winning seven races and the Limited Late Model Division Championship at South Boston Speedway last season, Bobby McCarty is moving up to the faster Late Model Stock Cars at South Boston in 2013.  McCarty’s optimistic about the opportunity and hopes he can be a contender.

“I don’t know if we can win the championship,” McCarty stated.  “That’s a tall order.  We’ll give it all we’ve got.  I believe we’ve got a top five car.  Right now we’re just looking to get in and see where we stack up.”

McCarty is excited about racing against the likes of four-time NASCAR Whelen All American Series Champion Philip Morris and defending NASCAR Whelen All American Series Champion Lee Pulliam.  He feels he can learn a lot from them racing against them.

“It’s going to be exciting to race Morris and Pulliam,” McCarty said.  “There’s a lot I can learn from them two as well as the rest of the field.  There’s a lot we can learn.  This will be interesting.  I know they’ll bring everything they’ve got and make it hard on everybody.  I’m curious to see how we’ll stack up against those two.”

McCarty has tested at Orange County but, for the most part, he’s spent his career at South Boston Speedway.

“We’ve tested at Orange County before,” McCarty explained.  “As far as racing, we’ve pretty much only run South Boston.  We’ve raced at Ace Speedway and Southern National Motorsports Park before.”

The ‘racing bug’ bit McCarty when he was six years old.

“We started running go-karts as a hobby,” McCarty mentioned.  “When I was six, he put me in a go-kart.  My dad started it and my brother’s run a little bit.  Dad pretty much got me in to it.”

McCarty would love to celebrate when he scores his first career win but it will be a short lived celebration.  For McCarty, it’s celebrate one night, get back to work the next day.

“We don’t do much (celebrating),” McCarty commented.  “We go to win races.  We’ll do everything we can do to win.  But there’s always the next race.  So we celebrate that night but, when Sunday rolls around, we get right back to work.”

McCarty will be racing for a family-owned team.  Champion Automotive Service Center, GCR Online and Axcel are sponsoring McCarty’s efforts.  McCarty will run a Hedgecock chassis with a Banks Racing Engine.  His first race of the 2013 season will be on Saturday, March 9th at South Boston Speedway.