Sheila Hancock Paints the Tracks

03/01/96

The Associated Press published a human interest story about Sheila Hancock, the woman who paints all the signs at the Daytona International Speedway and at the race tracks in Talladega, Alabama and Darlington, South Carolina. She paints infields, backstretches, and signs on trucks. Just about anywhere a track or a sponsor wants to put a splash of color, Hancock will paint it. Some of the logos she paints are 300 feet long--big enough to be picked up legibly by the TV cameras in the Goodyear blimp that hovers above the speedway in Daytona.

Hancock graduated from Ringling School of Art in 1975, but never pursued a career in commercial art until she started working for International Speedway Corporation's founder William France five years ago. Now her art is seen by thousands of race fans and she works 80-110 hours a week during race season.

Hancock is responsible not only for the original painting of the signs, but also for their maintaining them so they look just like new every day of race weeks.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel