To most people driving means taking a spin the family car. F. Todd Wetzel has a different conception. His "spin" is driving in 120-mile-per-hour professional car races.

Last March Wetzel entered his first lap race, the Italian 1000 Kilometers of Vallelunga. Drivers in the field included Mario Andretti.

The overnight race required two drivers for every car; Wetzel and his partner finished 20th.

Wetzel became interested in racing two summers ago, by helping a friend modify a Porsche racing car. "After helping to rebuild the car, I wanted to find out what it was like to drive one," Wetzel said yesterday.

Practice Races

The freshman driver practiced by entering spring and hill climb races. Both events consist of a single car racing the course, with the winner determined by the best course time.

"I wasn't scared until right before I was to race and I watched the other drivers drive through the course all out," Wetzel said. "As a spectator the speed at which they raced around the curves didn't bother me. As a participant, it scared the pants of me."

Second Place Finish

Wetzel does not own any of the cars he drives, instead he is backed by private groups or professional racing teams. A now defunct group of businessmen backed him for the Italian race and the Bill Scott Racing Team backed him last month in the Gold Cup Super V 100, in Florida in which he took the checkered flag in second place.

The freshman will not race again until this summer. He will go back again to the sprint and hill climb races to improve his technique. "I really think I was out of my class, even though I did comparatively well," Wetzel said. "I need to go over and perfect the basics."

Many Stories

The freshman has many stories to tell after two years of racing. He recounted his experience at Duryea Drive, N.C., where the course crests at the top of the hill and then drops off and flows down into a curve.

"When you leave the hill crest you leave the road," Wetzel said. He had been instructed to steer for a telephone pole across the road, which would serve as a bearing to keep him on course when the car touched down. "As the pole loomed in front me, and I got closer and closer, I couldn't help letting out a 'God almighty,'" he said. The race car landed 20 feet in front of the pole and Wetzel pulled through the turn.