Bristol Herald Courier from Bristol, Tennessee • 68

Bristol Herald CourierVirginia Tennessean Page 4E riday October 15 Speedway empire started as a dream T'krvo fkof By ALLEN GREGORY Andre TeagueBnstol Herald Courier This dramatic photo shows Bristol Motor Speedway during a recent night race Bl ecutive vice president of NASCAR (Pat Pursell) Moore said said if we had the guts to build a track he would gives us the dates for two races kind of recommended a smaller track Larry and I went to the tracks in Martinsville and Louisville We thought Martins vile was too flat We finally de cided on the half mile layout and we only had 18 or 22 degrees of banking in the comers at The BMS facility covered 100 ing Winston Cup tickets for BMS The BMS pioneers had to search for fans and drivers biggest problems was that we had no points fund and no ESPN Moore said had to get out and promote the race and the media was not very kind to us also had to travel to differ ent tracks and sign drivers to race at our track Some of the drivers would hold out for more money and some just be able to go out of town to borrow money was a pretty big risk Of course those bankers now have suites at the The cost of the land and track construction in Bristol came to $600000 The BMS builders hit upon a goldmine when they de cided to bypass the now dominant 15 mile track layout used in Charlotte in favor of the more in timate half mile design first thing we had to do was get permission from the ex acres with parking for more than 12000 cars The speedway had several weekly sportsman races before the inaugural NASCAR race was set for July 30 1961 almost had a sell out crowd of Moore said made $30000 which made up for the losses we had for the exhibition football game we held at the track between the Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Three years ago there was a waiting list of 84000 fans want At left a photo from the early days hints at its eventual status as one of the most popular facilities in all of motorsports Bristol Motor Speedway The growth of Bristol Motor Speedway over the past four decades has proven to be one of the top success stories in NASCAR Above the track is shown as it appeared before the most recent massive renovations by Bruton Smith race here There that many good sponsors at the time there was no national TV cover age and there were a lot of races back then including some mid week NASCAR promoters had to be creative persistent and bold in the 1960s kind of fell off after the first race" Moore said were always looking at the weath er They hardly come out to the races if it looked like it was going to rain races were called Volun teer 500 and Southeastern 500 for years We worked hard and tried some different things and the crowds started picking Some of the early promotional tactics at BMS include celebrities lots of celebrities Country music star Brenda Lee who was 17 at the time sang the national anthem for the first race at BMS of our major sponsors was Pepsi Cola and their marketing director would bring the winners of the Miss America contest each Moore said had pag eant winners like Mary Anh Mob ley and it brought us all kinds of publicity also had well known folks like Jersey Joe Walcott Johnny Unitas Earl Morrall Rocky Mar ciano and the Wilburn Brothers make appearances We even had a rodeo area on the grounds at one red Lorenzen won the pole for the first Volunteer 500 at BMS with a speed of 79225 mph orty two cars started the debut event but only 19 finished Alt Jack Smith won the $3225 first place purse with relief help from Johnny Allen 1 The speedway was reshaped and remeasured after the 1969 fall race The turns were banked at 36 degrees the steepest in all of NASCAR BMS was sold after the 1976 season to Lanny Hester and Gary Baker Carrier took possession of the speedway again in 1985 after owner Warner Hodgdon filed for bankruptcy Carrier then sold the track to national motorsports power broker Bruton Smith and his Speedway Motorsports Inc in 1996 for $26 million BMS ownership may have changed several times but the ac tion has always been exciting Motor Speedway is something for this whole region to be real proud said Moore whose son Randy has competed in professional drag racing for sev eral years course I would be even more proud if we still owned the track and (BMS general man ager) Jeff Byrd been very good to me and my off for the fantastic job they have done with the track were some pretty excit ing days at the speedway in the A lot has changed since then but still a good Bristol Herald Courier What started as a dream has developed into a national trea sure The growth of Bristol Motor Speedway over the past four de cades has been one of the top suc cess stories in NASCAR BMS builders Carl Moore Larry Carrier and RG Pope thought stock car racing would be popular in the Mountain Empire They expect their half mile track to emerge as one of the most popular facilities in all of motorsports we had no idea the track would grow like it Moore said thought it might be tough trying to fill 18000 seats not 140000 like they have The early days of NASCARhave little in common with thecurrent high tech mass media corporate age Most of the early pioneers of NASCAR were maver icks and risk takers Investingmillions into NASCAR was cer tainly a risk In fact many ideas for the facil ity formerly known as Bristol In ternational Speedway and Bristol 'International Raceway were scrib bled on envelopes and brown paper bags by the three track founders had no real Moore said was a contractor He and Larry actually cut through two mountains to make room for the track just went from one day to the next And things went pretty BMS almost opened as Piney lats International Speedway in 1961 After local opposition in Piney lats the facility was built five miles down the road on land that was formerly used a dairy farm actually had that Piney lats name for the Moore said father Robert was a real estate broker and he found us some land for the race track in Piney lats a couple ministers in the area thought that stock car racing would bring in undesirable ele Carrier caught the NASCAR bug when he made to the trip to the newly built Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1960 called me from Charlotte and said that I going to believe what was going on down Moore said had about 40000 fans for the NASCAR race and he said it looked like a good business to get involved in was at a University of Ten nessee football game at the time but I flew down later to see what this was all about" Before racing in Bristol Moore and company had to overcome the financing obstacle area banks wanted to work with Moore said had to i vTZri W' i IL Hfy nWMhiW Bristol track offers race fans best show in NASCAR 'This is the only track I know of where yon get cussed out because you don't have any more tickets' Wayne Estes BMS director of communications By ALLEN GREGORY Bristol Herald Courier The World Series the Super Bowl the NCAA inal our the Masters: all high ticket demand events In that category put the NASCAR Winston Cup night race at Bristol Motor Speedway The 140000 seats at Bristol Motor Speedway are always sold out for the two annual Winston Cup races at BMS In fact fans recently gobbled up the tickets for the 12738 new seats at BMS in less than 12 hours now more than 150000 seats Even BMS director of com munications Wayne Estes says he is amazed in the relentless fan in terest in NASCAR racing at the track dubbed the astest Half "This is the only track I know of where you get cussed out because you have any more Estes said BMS was already a popular track when Bruton Smith and his1 Speedway Motorsports Inc (SMI) purchased the faality from Larry Carrier in 1996 for $26 million NASCAR races at Bristol Motor Speedway were a great product and special events to NASCAR fans before SMI bought the track" Estes said races at Bristol have always been a fa vorite not just among NASCAR fans but among drivers and race teams drivers may get frustrated after a wreck at BristoL But if any driver or team member had to buy a ticket for a race Bristol would be the track they would pick fairly universal that the fall nijt race at Bristol is the best show in NASCAR" There is plenty of evidence for that statement The television rat ings for the two Winston Cup races at BMS are annually among the highest in NASCAR And the readers of NASCAR Cup Scene known as the bible of NASCAR selected BMS as the best track on the Winston Cup Se ries this year a vote of confidence from the fans and we pledge to keep our track their BMS general manager Jeff Byrd said One easy way to judge the in terest in BMS races is to check the license plates of Bristol race fans get fans from all 50 states and several foreign Estes said also had media from Japan Germany Great Bri tan and Officials from other NASCAR tracks are envious of the success story at BMS However there is really no secret here NASCAR fans like action and BMS offers plenty fans think back through the years at Bristol they can re member a lot of exciting races and fantastic finishes Estes said example there was the race in the 1980s when Davey and Mark Martin nearly crossed the finish line together SMI has done is make it possible for a whole lot more peo ple to see the races here at Bris tol Over a three year period we have added 75000 seats And the demand for more seats slowed down BMS officials have also brought national exposure to the Moun tain Empire and helped inject mil lions into the local economy almost as hard to find a motel in Bristol during race week end than it is to secure a ticket to the Winston Cup race The extra part of the BMS package is various forms of com munity involvement including Speedway Children's Charities and the stewardship of Racefest Trade officials also work with a myriad youth school and civic groups during race weekends back to die community is a big part of what Jeff Byrd is all Estes said has a quote on his office wall from Luke which says that anyone who has been given much much will be all believe in that very strongly All the staff at BMS feels blessed to be here and conse quently we feel like much is ex pected of rom the addition the 36 degree banking in 1969 to the installa tion of a concrete racing surface in 1992 the landscape at BMS is constantly changing Smith actually proposed putting a dome over the track at one point and an idea to host ing a World of Outlaws dirt track race of us didn't think the lat est seating expansion would be between Turns 1 and Estes said thought the expansion would be on backstraight but Bruton came up with a way to do it I would say a little early to say the seating expansion has topped off goal here is to increase the benefit to the stockholders of SMI and we have to come up with new ways to increase the value of the stock got a lot of support recently with the ($14 million) expansion to our dragstrip We are studying hard at plans to increase the at tendance for our truck race and looking at hosting a differ ent kind of event like the World of Of course the last lap dramat ics between Dale Earnhardt and Terry Labonte in the Aug 28 ood City 500 created even more national interest in NASCAR rac ing at Bristol incident with Earnhardt and Labonte just added to the leg end of Bristol Motor Estes said are not a lot of last lap passes in NASCAR any more but anything can happen Your Tire Needs See Sam Open 8 am 5 pm Mon ri AIM CIWIC An 8 am 12 Noon Saturday Z'C3Alvl LrtUs6H242 676 3253 378 1800 Mrinr DEI" ADDIHIfZ 817W MainSt 300ECenterSt IKE Ok IlELrxi 1 IlwU Bristol TN Abingdon VA Kingsport TN utua Abingdon VA Bu AtfTOWOTTVE SERVICE And Maybe Win a Nice Trunk To Put It In MICHELIN Gkter Game eMi October 31 1999 or wMe tat or prizes ARVX oddL vatueL game car and other delate tee OHtoai Rota in oore or by ymteng a tend prwNed request wh a tetf addreaed stamped erwtope postmarted by October 31 1999 ur Buy a and Score Pramsben PamphtaAtda tCQUBL ro Im (77B OntML towa 0733 Dodge Viper NN $72Mk 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