Day Motor Sports Driver Profile: Bo Perry gaining speed in 2022
BOSSIER CITY, Louisiana — Among the incredible talent pool in the beautiful state of Louisiana is a young man who often rises above the competition. While his father is busy building some of the nicest chassis available in the Deep South, he’s busting his hump at a restaurant to earn a living.
For 28-year-old racer Bo Perry, the Factory Stock division has been home for close to a decade. After a high-profile win last year, he’s gaining speed now and hitting full throttle. In six starts, he’s earned two top-five and five top-10 finishes. It’s clear his return to Victory Lane is just around the corner.
“I won’t say we’re happy with how this season has gone, but we’re not disappointed, either,” Perry said. “We had gone back and pretty much rebuilt our car for this year. So we’re just trying to get everything figured out; learning what works and what doesn’t.”
Perry put in a solid effort this past Friday night at Sabine, wheeling up to third from 12th on the grid.
“I think we’re finally starting to get on the right page with everything now. We’re finding that speed.”
In his 10 years of battling on the dirt ovals, Perry has won a few big-money events filled with talent.
“I haven’t really ventured off to many other places, it can get to be kind of an expensive hobby,” Perry explained. “But we’ve had some fair success here in this area. I won the Louisiana State Championship race last year, and I had a big win at Sabine a couple of years ago that was probably my career best.”
In 2021 and throughout the first half of this season, we’ve discussed the high level of competition in Factory Stock. Perry lives and works in a part of the country where iconic names compete every week.
“You can’t get away from the big guns down here, no matter where you go,” he said. “You’ll have guys like Dalton Faulkner, Justin Whitehead and Neil Kemp, and they’re the best there is out there. You’ll have at least five or six of those big guys at every one of these big-money races out there now.
“Wins are definitely hard to come by. I will say that Dalton is one of my favorite guys to race with; we actually had a race last year at Boothill where we went door-to-door for the last 18 laps of the feature. That’s one tough racer right there. He gives 100 percent every time out and is always a threat to win.”
When Perry puts on his safety suit, grabs his helmet and gets ready to race, he climbs into an older car than what you might imagine, despite his father being one of the region’s top chassis builders.
“I drive a Lazer chassis of course, since my Dad is the one who builds those cars,” he explained. “What may surprise you though is the fact that my car was actually the second chassis Dad ever built. I believe he’s built over 40 of them now; every time I think a new one is coming it gets sold out from under me.
“So I get these old antiques, but we just rebuild them and put them back on the racetrack. We show them these cars don’t become obsolete; with updates they can remain competitive for several years. You can keep driving them for as long as you want. My Dad builds some very solid, durable race cars.”
Perry’s father has decades of experience and is regarded as one of the south’s top builder/fabricators.
“My Dad started building race cars when he was 16 or 17 back in West Texas,” Bo explained. “When we moved over here to Louisiana, it was like riding a bike, he picked it right back up. Between him and Jody Prince, they have our cars going in the right direction. I’m blessed to have them in my corner.”
Along with his immense natural talent behind the wheel, Perry has a few key people who keep his program on-track and successful.
“I need to thank my Mom, Leann, and my sister, Brandi, for all of their support. I couldn’t do this without them. I also want to thank our values sponsors, including Lazer Race Cars, Jody Prince at J&J Motor Sports; Myers Automotive, who builds a strong, reliable motor; Jeff Lewis at JRP; Bryan Cook Trucking, TSM Shocks, Superior Grill, where I work in Shreveport; Superior Graphix and Dale’s Pavement.”
With summer now upon us and plenty of red-hot races dead ahead, Perry knows what he wants to do.
“We’re completely focused now on getting back to Victory Lane,” he concluded. “We don’t chase points anywhere, we missed the first two months of the season so that put a damper on doing that this year. But we’ll go after some wins and those big checks; we’d like to bring a few of those home in 2022.”
RaceON.com Staff Writer
Photo by Scott Burson