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Chris Weiss wins inaugural Jeff Sandlin Legacy Award

Matt Wolfe
Chris Wiess of Fivestar Bodies was named the Inaugural winner of the Jeff Sandlin Legacy Award.


When you walk through the pits at Five Flags Speedway, familiar faces of crew guys, owners, drivers and the vendors make up the cast of characters at the Snowball Derby. This year, a legend of the sport was sadly not present. In July of this year, Jeff Sandlin passed away.


Jeff wasn’t just a “vendor” for Strange Oval. Jeff was Strange Oval. Jeff was also the epitome of what a parts guy should be. He was always willing to help out anyone, even pitching in with teams and drivers to help work on the cars.


“You can’t fill that void. You can’t replace that friendship. You can’t fill his shoes… I mean sandals. But what we can do is honor his legacy,” said Matt Wolfe, who was a key part in getting this award created.


“The whole goal of the award is to raise awareness of how important the vendors are to this sport. The vendor never gets enough credit. The racer needs the parts yesterday. The racer needs the parts cheaper. The racer wants to put a sticker on their car in exchange for parts. But nobody really appreciates the vendors for what they bring to the table, the travel cost of getting to the track. The support in contingency. The list goes on”Matt stated. As a vendor himself not only known in the spotter world, but ad the “air gauge guy” or once even called the “air pressure checker dude”


Matt has RaceSence High Accuracy Tire Gauges and Tire Management Software. After 25 years in the air gauge business, his equipment is used from short track racing to aviation. Matt also knows what it’s like being a competitor in the garage and wearing a vendor hat.


The Jeff Sandlin Legacy Award represents sales, service, technical support, and contributions to motorsports., both on and off the track. Everything listed describes Jeff Sandlin perfectly. The trophy itself is very unique, being a hand blown glass trophy from Lexington Glass Works in Asheville NC that takes 4 days to make.


This award will be presented every year at the Derby, honoring his memory.


This year’s winner Chris Wiess was nominated alongside Brannon Earnest of Earnest Performance, Tim Sheets of Hellraizer Jacks, Joe Marko of HMS Motorsports, Steve Doer of Racecar Engineering, and Todd Davis of Factory Canopy. All notable names in short track racing.


Chris was joined by Corey Schultz who made the trip as a surprise to support the award and the prestige to go with being the inaugural winner. Fivestar has plenty of customer service this week as almost the entire field is running a Fivestar Body.


“With all Fivestar does for racers, tracks, and series, Chris Wiess and company will be a good champion of the Legacy Award,” said Matt Wolfe in a press release. “The trophy will be on display at the PRI show next week in Indy with a Happy Hour in their booth, Thursday night after the show. As well as plans of building up the Award up into a prestigious award, vendors will strive to achieve just as our friend. Our brother. Jeff Sandlin did week in and week out.”

Scotte is from North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, living just a few minutes from the historic race track. Scotte has raced at local dirt tracks for five years, as well as covering NASCAR and short track races for nearly a year now, and has a firey passion for all motorsports, working to achieve a career as a driver.

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