EASLEY ─ Easley’s Bob Root finished fourth in the Sportsman division at Greenville-Pickens Speedway, but years ago, he cut his teeth racing on dirt tracks in Upstate New York.

Root, who owns Root’s Tire, started racing when he started racing when he was 22, winning two street stock championships at Brewerton Speedway.

The Syracuse, N.Y. native raced there for about four years before moving to South Carolina looking for work, but he took about 10 years off from racing before he decided to take on the ½-mile GPS oval.

The biggest transition, he said, was getting used to driving into the turns and not going sideways.

“On dirt, you want to do slide, but on asphalt, you want to stay straight or else you loose speed,” he said.

Prior to moving to Easley in 1995, Root said he worked at Syracuse China, but his dad was a mechanic and body man – and he raced a little.”

“So I grew up around it,” he said.

And along with fielding his own sportsman car, he also provides the car for reigning charger division champion Jamie Tate.

Root said he thinks Tate has a good shot at repeating the title if he decides to go for it.

The 33-year-old Easley driver said he got into racing because his wife used to be active in the sport.

He started racing in 1997 but also took a hiatus from racing before returning to racing full-time last year and taking his division title.

Tate is a 1995 graduate of Easley High School and has won about 24 races in his career.

Root said for this season both his and Tate’s car will have the same paint job, and Tate’s number will be changed to #3, and Root’s car is #43 – in honor of the two seven-time Cup champions, the late Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty.

And this year, Root plans to share driving duties in the sportsman car with Ryan Donbroski, who will drive part of the season.

Root said the biggest challenge of keeping a racing team together is finding funds.

“I have a few friends that help, but the economy hurts and people don’t have as much money as they used to,” he said.