CROSS COUNTRY CHASE; HOOPER PAYS PRICE FOR RACING CAREER.

Byline: Bill Schlotter Daily News Staff Writer

Jenny Hooper had known all along this day would come.

Her race car-driver-husband Lance had won all there is to win racing on the West Coast. To further his career, he had to move east to North Carolina, the heartland of NASCAR racing. And given the uncertainties and instabilities of the racing business, he would have to go alone.

So on the day after Christmas 1996, Jenny and daughter Nicole told Lance Hooper they loved him, then watched him drive off to chase down his dream. And when her husband was out of sight, Jenny Hooper went back inside their Palmdale home and let her emotions go.

``It was just so sad,'' she said Friday at California Speedway, where she will watch Lance race in today's NASCAR Busch Grand National Kenwood Home & Audio 300. ``I just went in the house and cried and cried.''

It's not easy being married to a race driver. Eighteen months after Lance left, the Hoopers are still living apart. They see each other every few months when one or the other catches a plane to the opposite coast. But mostly, their relationship is by telephone.

Lance Hooper grew up in a racing family in Saugus. His grandfather, father and brother all raced. And by the time he was 20, he knew racing was what he wanted to do too.

``I was serving as crew chief for my brother,'' said Hooper, now 31. ``Then my dad bought me a car and I entered a 150-lap enduro at Saugus Speedway.''

He won the race by 12 laps.

``He just started kickin' butt right from the git-go,'' said Ray Hooper, Lance's dad and the 1970 Saugus Speedway street-stock champion.

After that, success came fast and often.

Lance joined the family club by winning his own Saugus title in the early 1990s, just as his father, uncle and brother had before him.

In 1995, he won the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest season title. In 1996, he won the Winston West title and there was nothing left to accomplish west of the Mississippi.

And he knew what he had to do.

``Since I was 20, my goal has been to be the Winston Cup champion,'' Hooper said. ``It's always been my dream and I knew I had to go. And if I fail, at least I can say I tried.''

There was little discussion of the issue. There was no need.

``We didn't talk about it,'' Ray Hooper said. ``He'd already made up his mind. And he's always been the kind of kid that when he makes up his mind to do something, come hell or high water, he's going to get it done.''

It was the same at home.

``I just always knew that he had to go,'' Jenny Hooper said. ``There was never any, `No, don't do it.' ''

The couple decided that Jenny should stay behind. Hooper had no idea where he might wind up. And Jenny, who manages a motorcycle paint company, had a good job in Palmdale, and Nicole, who is 7, has friends and is settled in school.

Hooper spent his first month in North Carolina, sleeping on the couch at fellow Palmdale racer Ron Hornaday Jr.'s home in North Carolina.

He landed a one-race Winston Cup job, driving the Hardee's Ford at Sears Point, blew an engine and finished 42nd.

But mostly, he knocked on doors, shook hands and tried to deal with rejection.

``It was pretty frustrating,'' Hooper said.

Then he met Richard Jackson.

Jackson is a veteran race-car owner, having spent the last 25 years running cars in the Busch and Winston Cup Series.

Hooper heard that Jackson's Winston Cup team had lost its driver so he dropped by to make his pitch.

And over the course of a three-day interview, he made an impression.

``I asked my dad what was taking so long,'' said Lisa Jackson, a vice president with her father's racing firm. ``He said, `I want to find out if I like him or not. If I'm going to continue to go racing, I want it to be with someone I like.' ''

The pair clicked.

The Jacksons put Hooper to work on another road course, Watkins Glen, where he earned the team a 24th place.

Though they felt that Hooper wasn't yet ready for a full-time Winston Cup ride, they saw much in him. They saw a hard worker and a dedicated racer. They saw a skilled driver. They saw a poised, gregarious personality who could win over sponsors.

So they decided to let him race on the Busch Grand National tour for the next two years with the goal to move the entire team up to Winston Cup in 2000.

``My dad says he is going to be a great Winston Cup driver,'' Lisa Jackson said. ``We see and we tell our sponsors that Lance Hooper won't have it any other way than to be in the top 10 and win championships.''

The Hoopers have talked about having Jenny and Nicole move to North Carolina as soon as he finds a ride he can depend on.

He thinks the gig with the Jacksons might be it. But then again, maybe it isn't.

``Racing is a cut-throat business,'' Hooper said. ``One day you've got a job and the next day you don't.''

While he has this one, he hopes to make the most of it.

``He and my dad work 16- to 18-hour days working on the car,'' Lisa Jackson said. ``Sometimes, they're at it all night.''

Not exactly hours conducive to a rich family life.

``I wouldn't want to be back there in conditions like that, sitting home alone in a strange place where I don't know anybody.'' Jenny Hooper said.

So for now, she and Lance dream of better days, when he is driving for a Winston Cup team and the family is together.

``It's hard for people to understand why we're doing this,'' Jenny Hooper said. ``They say, `Why, Jenny? Why aren't you there? Why isn't he here? Why? Why?'

``It's been a long haul, but this is his dream. For him, it's now or never.''

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PHOTO ``Since I was 20, my goal has been to be the Winston Cup champion. It's always been my dream and I knew I had to go. And if I fail, at least I can say I tried.''

- Lance Hooper, who lives apart from his family to pursue a racing career

John Lazar/Special to the Daily News