Wells Headed for North Carolina

Cal Wells III, whose South Orange County off-road racing empire grew in recent years to include CART and NASCAR teams, will move the bulk of his operation to Hickory, N.C., at the end of this season.

Wells made the announcement Wednesday at his Precision Preparation Inc. facility in Rancho Santa Margarita, which is home to his increasingly successful PPI Motorsports CART Champ car and Toyota Atlantic series programs.

“My wife [Sandra] is not thrilled about it, but it just doesn’t make sense for me to stay if I’m going to race cars for a living,” said Wells, 44, a native of Southern California who lives in San Juan Capistrano.

About 80 employees attended the announcement at the 54,000-square-foot facility. The reaction, Wells said, was like watching “deer caught in headlights.”

He said he hopes to move his employees to Hickory, where the CART and NASCAR programs can have a central fabrication, carbon, machining and parts shop, rather than having separate shops on different coasts. PPI will field six cars out of that shop in 2001--two Champ cars, two Atlantics and two Winston Cup stock cars.

Wells’ Precision Service Racing Group, the North American distributor for Yokohama racing products, will remain in Southern California, as will the PPI off-road racing operation that has yielded more than 75 victories and 23 manufacturer/driver championships.