In the summer of 1988, the Folice family sold their refuse business,
closed down the kart shop, and moved to Mt. Pleasant, North Carolina.
Unbeknownst
to her children at the time, Gloria was diagnosed with Parkinson's
disease. She had personally chosen the Charlotte area as the target
location because of it's reputation as being a hub for stock car
racing. She knew that she only had a limited amount of time left
and wanted to insure that Jody could achieve her racing dreams.
The family started
a small delicatessen in nearby Concord, NC where everyone pitched
in from 6 a.m. 'till closing. Only after work was completed could
Jody and Joe turn their attention to racing. During business hours,
the deli was and still is frequented by many Winston Cup/Busch Grand
National drivers and team members, so Jody's reputation grew far
and wide within the industry.
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In April
1993, Gloria Folice died of congestive heart failure at the
age of 55. Sadly, due to a clerical error that occurred when
the refuse business was sold, Gloria's health insurance policy
was canceled, and she was unable to secure another policy
due to her preexisting condition. This left the family with
an unfortunate financial burden when the medical bills accrued,
leaving the expensive sport of racing to be placed as a second
priority.
"When
I was younger I raced a lot more because I had the support
of my family. As I got older, I needed to be more self supporting
so the funds haven't been there. Go-karts are pretty inexpensive
to run, compared to other forms of racing. It has been quite
a challenge to find funding to move up into other types of
auto racing"
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