Limited Sportsman Racers Zach Peregoy, Bev Peregoy, Jr. Carry On Peregoy Family’s Racing Tradition at South Boston Speedway

By Joe Chandler

Director, Public Relations

South Boston Speedway

SOUTH BOSTON, VA (May 30, 2025) – A number of racing families both past and present have left their mark at South Boston Speedway. Some of them like Hendrick and Sellers are more familiar with fans than some others.

Among the active families today is the Peregoy Family from Mecklenburg County, Virginia which has family members spanning three generations that either have competed at South Boston Speedway in the past or are currently competing at South Boston Speedway.

Vernon Peregoy, the family patriarch, competed at South Boston Speedway in the 1980s. His son, Tommy Peregoy, raced at South Boston Speedway in the Limited Sportsman Division for the better part of 15 years and raced Late Model Stock Cars on a limited basis. He finished in the top three in Limited Sportsman Division points seven times, was the division runner-up twice, and earned 13 career wins in the division.

Today, Tommy Peregoy’s son, Zach Peregoy of Clarksville, Virginia, and Bev Peregoy, Jr. of Red Oak, Virginia, the son of Tommy Peregoy’s late brother Bev Peregoy, compete in South Boston Speedway’s Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division.

The 2025 season is already a solid season for Zach Peregoy who is in his fourth full-time season competing in the Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division. He won his first career pole in the division and currently has two pole wins. Along with that, he already has four top-five finishes, tying the mark for the most Top-five finishes he has earned in any season, and he has led races in the division this season. In addition, he earned his first career runner-up finish in the division this season and now has three of them as his highest career race finish.

Bev Peregoy Jr. is also showing good progress. After having earned Rookie of the Year honors in 2024, his current three Top-10 finishes ties the number of Top-10 finishes he recorded last season. He has also earned his best career race finish in the division with his sixth-place finish in the second race of a twin-race event on April 26.

A nephew, Chris Elliott, has raced sporadically in the Sentara Health Late Model Stock Car Division at South Boston in past seasons, having logged seven Top-10 finishes in 20 starts over the course of recent seasons.

All four take a great deal of pride in the family’s racing tradition.

“It’s something I definitely want to keep going,” Zach Peregoy said of his family’s proud tradition in racing.

“I take a lot of pride in what we’ve been able to do at South Boston Speedway with every generation that has raced,” Bev Peregoy Jr. chimed in.

“Tommy’s dad used to race, and Tommy grew up around it,” Elliott added. “Myself, Zac, Bev, all of us grew up around racing. When you count the years of experience we have at the racetrack, I imagine we rival the Sellers and others. The years add up quickly.”

Racing is truly a family affair for the Peregoy Family.

“Everybody works on everybody’s stuff,” said Bev Peregoy Jr. “When we come to the racetrack it’s all one team. At the shop we all tackle each car together. With the few guys we have to work on the cars we all come together and get a plan so that at the end of the week both cars are going to be able to make it to the racetrack.”

Elliott pointed out “my wife and kids and Zach’s mom and everybody comes to the races. We’ve got a tailgate spot in turn four. They all sit up there every week and watch whomever it is that’s racing. We’re here 15 weekends out of the year.”

The family’s racing history is a story like that of many other longtime racing families.

“Back in the early 1980s my dad raced a little bit” Tommy Peregoy explained. “He decided he didn’t want to do it as often as he was doing it, so we talked him into letting us start racing. We came over to the track one Thursday and we were both able to drive the car. The deal was whoever (between himself and his late brother) ran the fastest got to race the car that night, and we would swap. The first week I was fastest and was able to race, then the next week he was able to race. I was playing football, and I had a football game the night of the following race, so he was going to race again. I pretty much thought I was going to make a career of football, so I just let him race for awhile.”

Tommy Peregoy and his late brother never raced each other.

“We had never had the money to do that,” Tommy Peregoy noted. “Bev wanted to do the spotting and crew chief deal. He enjoyed spotting. He did that for a lot of guys that raced. I thought we were really good with me driving and him spotting. When he was crew chief, we won races.”

Later, Elliott got involved in racing.

“Tommy and I have always been close,” Elliott pointed out. “I followed racing and grew up watching him. When I was maybe not quite old enough, I was sneaking down into the pits to help out. His car owner, J.B. Rogers, took a chance on me and put me in Tommy’s back-up car. We went to Orange County and tested. We hit it off there and my dad and I ended up purchasing the car and we raced. We always kept it (racing) as a family tradition. Even though the last name wasn’t Peregoy I stuck in there with them.”

Today, it is Zach Peregoy and Bev Peregoy Jr. carrying on the family tradition as drivers and Tommy Peregoy and Elliott actively carrying a hefty load of the work in the pits and at the shop.

“I started working on the cars when I was old enough to come into the pits,” Zach Peregoy explained. “I was trying to do tires, and I enjoyed doing it. I still enjoy working on the cars and driving them. When I was younger, I thought of myself working on them and not driving. The older I got the more I wanted to drive.”

Tommy Peregoy’s vision was more of Zach working on the cars.

“I always thought Zach would work on the cars,” he remarked. “When he was 16, he came to me and asked could he drive. I said sure, if it’s okay with your mom. He raced a few races, one here and one at Orange County in 2021, and 2022 was his rookie year.”

While he drives, Zach Peregoy enjoys doing a lot of his own work on his car.

“I would say Zach does 70 percent of the work on his car,” his dad said. “He knows every inch of it, can put it together, and is a good fabricator.”

Bev Peregoy Jr., like the others, has been around the sport virtually all of his life.

“Tommy has been racing since I have any memory of life at all,” he noted. “I never could imagine any point in my life that I wouldn’t be doing something racing related whether it’s driving, working on the cars, anything related to racing.

“I try to do things on my own as far as getting into it, buying a car and things like that,” he continued. “We bought a Legends Car and raced that Zach’s second year. We traveled to go racing every weekend. I bought Tommy’s A&E car and got rid of the Legends Car to get where we could all race close to home.”

Nobody had a vision of Zach and Bev Peregoy Jr. racing each other in the same division.

“That kind of came out of left field a little bit,” Elliott remarked. “Everything happened kind of quickly. It wasn’t ever sat down and thought about as a goal for them to race each other.”

“It’s just how it worked out,” Tommy Peregoy added.

Zach Peregoy says there is no rivalry between himself and Bev Peregoy Jr.

“We both want to do well,” he said. “He won Rookie of the Year last year. I missed it by one point my rookie year. That was something we really focused on with Bev. This year I’m trying to win the division championship and we’re trying really hard to get a win.”

Bev Peregoy Jr. said the two of them racing each other can get a little nerve-wracking.

“When we get racing around each other they’re on eggshells,” he said of Tommy Peregoy and Elliott. “You don’t want to tear up both cars together and have to fix both cars. When one is already a little torn up, you’re thinking we really can’t tear both cars up and have to work on both cars between now and the next time we come to the racetrack.”

Zach Peregoy and Bev Peregoy Jr. will be back in action in twin 30-lap Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division races when NASCAR racing returns to South Boston Speedway with the God’s Pit Crew Race Night event on Saturday night, June 7.

Seven races are slated for the God’s Pit Crew Race Night event with twin 75-lap races for the Sentara Health Late Model Stock Car Division headlining the night’s racing action. In addition to the twin-race events for the Sentara Health Late Model Stock Car Division and the Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division, there will be twin 15-lap races for the Dollar General Hornets Division. A 25-lap race for the Southside Disposal Pure Stock Division rounds out the card.

The God’s Pit Crew Race Night event will be First Responders Appreciation Night with first responders including police, fire, EMS, 911 dispatch, and healthcare workers being admitted free with proper ID. A pre-race parade lap featuring police, fire and EMS vehicles will be held as part of the night’s pre-race ceremonies.

Advance adult tickets for the God’s Pit Crew Race Night event are priced at $12. Tickets at the gate on race day will be $15 each. Suite tickets are available for $40 each. Seniors ages 65 and older, military, and students (with ID) can purchase tickets for $12 each at the gate only on the day of the event.

The tentative race-day schedule has registration and pit gates opening at 2 p.m. and practice starting at 3:25 p.m. Frontstretch grandstand gates open at 3:30 p.m. and backstretch and Turn 4 trackside parking gates open at 5:30 p.m. Qualifying starts at 6 p.m. and the first race of the night will get the green flag at 7 p.m.

The latest news and updates about the God’s Pit Crew Race Night event and all of South Boston Speedway events can be found on the speedway’s website, www.southbostonspeedway.com, by calling the speedway office at 434-572-4947 or toll free at 1-877-440-1540 during regular business hours, and through the track’s social media channels.