MOORESVILLE, N.C. - It's called the English wheel, and Bob Hubner says that if you know how to use one, you're a hot commodity.

"Anybody who can use an English wheel to form sheet metal is a valuable person," Hubner says of the tool, which allows fabricators to turn a flat piece of sheet metal into a smooth, rounded piece for a bumper or quarter panel on a NASCAR racing vehicle. "Every team can use a fabricator."

Hubner knows this because it's his business to know. He runs Race City Resumes and Recruiting, an agency that matches an applicant's skills and experience to a job somewhere in the broad range of motorsports opportunities that exist in Mooresville, which calls itself Race City USA.

Hubner, 30, has an office right at the gateway to Mooresville's thriving racing community. He's located in a new office building right inside the entrance to Lakeside Industrial Park, which houses the headquarters of several dozen race teams and other racing industry-related businesses.

Hubner wants to help all of those teams and other businesses find qualified people to do the work that needs to be done. He also wants to help people in the industry or thinking about trying to get into racing find the opportunity that fits them best.

And, of course, he wants to help his own business grow by doing that enough times to make the business he started out of his home in 1998 a successful one.

"Nobody had a handle on the resume thing, nobody had it controlled," Hubner said. "Some teams handle thousands of people faxing in resumes or mailing them or coming by the shops with them. The pile gets so big and there could be a lot of experience in the middle of the pile. Nobody has the time and resources to sit down and go through these resumes every day. I do it for them."

Since 1993, Hubner has been helping people streamline their resumes into a one-page document that is concise and accurate. In 1998, he began categorizing the various jobs available within the racing industry and identifying people who might have the abilities to fill them.

After being caught in a layoff in the engine-building shop where he had worked full time, Hubner turned his sidelight business into his primary job and believes he's providing a valuable service to both sides of his customer base - potential employees and employers, who both pay a fee for his services.

"I have it organized, I have sifted through resumes and I have prequalified people," says Hubner, who does a preinterview with people who come in seeking work to verify their experience and qualifications. "When somebody gives me a description of a job they have I will match it as best I can. ...Things can happen really quick. A team might call me at 9 a.m. and they need a guy at the shop by 2 p.m. If I know somebody and if I can find somebody, that's great, and I've done that."

Part of Hubner's job is also bursting a few bubbles. Most people who walk in want to go to work in Winston Cup racing, and Hubner says that's often not a realistic goal.

"There's a difference between what you can do and what you want to do," Hubner says. "If somebody comes in the door and says he wants to be a car chief, I will talk to him to see if he's really qualified to be that.

"I am honest with everybody. I don't try to hurt people's feelings, but I can't just send somebody over to a race team because they want to go. I am honest with both people. If not, word will get around. If I send people to teams that aren't qualified, that team isn't going to call me again."

The idea of starting a career in racing with a Winston Cup is not very much different from looking for an entry-level job in Major League Baseball or the NFL.

"There really aren't that many entry-level positions," Hubner said. "Do they have time to train you? How many pieces of sheet metal can they let you ruin before you know how to make a crush panel? They can't afford to take that time to train people. They need somebody who can come in and go right to work."

Hubner often refers people without experience to training programs in certain areas that are beginning to pop up in the Carolinas. Some might find work with Truck or Grand National series teams or on cars, sometimes as volunteers, in smaller series such as NASCAR Dash.

"Go there and get some experience," Hubner said. "Find out how stuff works, then put it on your resume and build from there."

Or see if anybody you know has an old English wheel sitting around.