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A Lap Ahead...09/24/2015 |
Anyone who knows me or has spent any time reading any of the articles I put on this page or the few others I have written for knows that it comes to NASCAR, I blame my father for everything. After all, he was the one who got me interested in it. His favorite was always Mark Martin, with Rusty Wallace a close second. I think, and I say think because as I get older, the holes of the Swizz cheese that is my mind and memory continue to get larger while the cheese itself seems to be dwindling,…I think that it was early 1989, when he handed me the 1988 season wrap up edition of Winston Cup Illustrated. I took the book home with me (he lived in Virginia, I in Maryland) and I pretty much studied it over the next few months until I returned it. That was the beginning of it all. Within two years he had taken me to my first race at Dover in September of 1991, and followed it up with Richmond and Dover, both twice the following year. He was convinced I was Harry Gant’s good luck charm, as “The Bandit” won the first three races I ever attended live. For the next fifteen years or so, we went to Dover every year in September. He would always get to the track very early in the week and mark out spots, and he had this beer flag that he would put up so we could find him easily when we got to the track days later. But times change and after a while he didn’t come to the track anymore. After all, it’s a long drive from Alabama. (That’s how he got the name “Alabama Fitz”...yeah, that’s my dad.) Anyway, we had a hell of a time, as you can see from the pictures I’ve placed here. I loved going to Dover.
After a while, NASCAR began to lose him as a hardcore fan, mostly due to the inconsistencies. I remember the day he told me he might be done with it, and that was after Kevin Harvick won the Daytona 500. He felt NASCAR should have called a caution as they had so many times before in the same instance. That wasn’t the only one, but it helped. He knew I still loved it, so he stayed interested in it, though he was no longer an “I need to park my butt in front of the TV every Sunday for four hours and watch racing” type of guy.
When I started this website, RaceFansForever.com at the beginning of the 2013 season, I asked for any help I could get from anyone willing to submit content. He told me the only thing he would be able to contribute were old race weekend camping stories, and he knew how much I loved to tell them, so he left them to me to do so. And then my friend PattyKay Lilley came on board, and we decided we needed something more than just a page on a free server. I had the brilliant idea of selling t-shirts with the web site address on them to make money to pay for the site. At the end of it all, when it came time to pay the bills, I didn’t have enough to pay for the shirts, let alone the website. He asked me what I needed, and I said that I had to sell three more shirts to break even on them. He bought the shirts.
He got more involved when we started doing the Fast Forward columns, where, if you knew Alabama Fitz from this site, that’s how you knew him, or from his comments or many articles. He was always very pensive with his selections, usually writing me a few paragraphs about his choices, when all I really needed was the drivers he was choosing. That was until last week. Last week he sent me a text, as he usually does, but instead, this is what I got, and my response:
When I started this website, RaceFansForever.com at the beginning of the 2013 season, I asked for any help I could get from anyone willing to submit content. He told me the only thing he would be able to contribute were old race weekend camping stories, and he knew how much I loved to tell them, so he left them to me to do so. And then my friend PattyKay Lilley came on board, and we decided we needed something more than just a page on a free server. I had the brilliant idea of selling t-shirts with the web site address on them to make money to pay for the site. At the end of it all, when it came time to pay the bills, I didn’t have enough to pay for the shirts, let alone the website. He asked me what I needed, and I said that I had to sell three more shirts to break even on them. He bought the shirts.
He got more involved when we started doing the Fast Forward columns, where, if you knew Alabama Fitz from this site, that’s how you knew him, or from his comments or many articles. He was always very pensive with his selections, usually writing me a few paragraphs about his choices, when all I really needed was the drivers he was choosing. That was until last week. Last week he sent me a text, as he usually does, but instead, this is what I got, and my response:
I didn’t get a response back, but later on I saw he played a game and posted some things on Facebook. The next day my mother, his first wife, called me at work and told me she had some bad news, and she had the unwavering courage and unfortunate responsibility to tell me that my father had passed away very early on September 16th. She feels bad that she had to do that, but she shouldn’t. In fact, I don’t know who else I would have rather heard the news from. My sister unfortunately heard it from me.
One of the most incredible things I have found through all of this is what an influence Fitz had on others. Take, for instance, the staff here at RaceRansForever.com. When I shared the unfortunate news that I lost not only my father, but a member of our staff, the outpouring from the team here was incredible. They have all decided to refuse points in our Fast Forward Championship competition, and make my father the honorary 2015 Champion. I don’t know if they will ever know how much a simple gesture like that means to me.
My father was into a lot of things. He owned his own business along with his wife. He loved to watch movies, and they had several horses. He was also a race fan, even though his interest level was not as high as it once was. And now, his race is finished. He’s made his laps, and crossed the finish line for the last time, and he’s won his race. He’s a lap ahead of the rest of us.
When we would talk on the phone and get ready to end the call, or when we saw each other and said our “see ya laters,” for the longest time, we always ended the conversations in the same way. He’d say “Love ya, Man!” and I’d say “Love you too….” And wait for him to finally counter with “but you’re not getting my Bud Light.”
As a friend said at the service, when we get to where we’re eventually going, Fitz will be waiting there with a beer and horseshoes.
I love ya, Man….and save me a Bud Light.
One of the most incredible things I have found through all of this is what an influence Fitz had on others. Take, for instance, the staff here at RaceRansForever.com. When I shared the unfortunate news that I lost not only my father, but a member of our staff, the outpouring from the team here was incredible. They have all decided to refuse points in our Fast Forward Championship competition, and make my father the honorary 2015 Champion. I don’t know if they will ever know how much a simple gesture like that means to me.
My father was into a lot of things. He owned his own business along with his wife. He loved to watch movies, and they had several horses. He was also a race fan, even though his interest level was not as high as it once was. And now, his race is finished. He’s made his laps, and crossed the finish line for the last time, and he’s won his race. He’s a lap ahead of the rest of us.
When we would talk on the phone and get ready to end the call, or when we saw each other and said our “see ya laters,” for the longest time, we always ended the conversations in the same way. He’d say “Love ya, Man!” and I’d say “Love you too….” And wait for him to finally counter with “but you’re not getting my Bud Light.”
As a friend said at the service, when we get to where we’re eventually going, Fitz will be waiting there with a beer and horseshoes.
I love ya, Man….and save me a Bud Light.
James
Bruce “Alabama Fitz” Fitzgerald, Sr.
November 3, 1945 ~ September 16, 2015
November 3, 1945 ~ September 16, 2015
Keep a fire burning in your eye
Pay attention to the open sky
You never know what will be coming down
I don't remember losing track of you
You were always dancing in and out of view
I must have thought you'd always be around.
Always keeping things real by playing the clown
Now you're nowhere to be found
I don't know what happens when people die
Can't seem to grasp it as hard as I try
It's like a song I can hear playing right in my ear
That I can't sing, I can't help listening
And I can't help feeling stupid standing 'round
Crying as they ease you down
'Cause I know that you'd rather we were dancing
Dancing our sorrow away
(Right on dancing)
No matter what fate chooses to play
(There's nothing you can do about it anyway)
Just do the steps that you've been shown
By everyone you've ever known
Until the dance becomes your very own
No matter how close to yours another's steps have grown
In the end there is one dance you'll do alone
Keep a fire for the human race
Let your prayers go drifting into space
You never know what will be coming down
Perhaps a better world is drawing near
And just as easily it could all disappear
Along with whatever meaning you might have found
Don't let the uncertainty turn you around
(The world keeps turning around and around)
Go on and make a joyful sound
Into a dancer you have grown from a seed somebody else has thrown
Go on ahead and throw some seeds of your own
And somewhere between the time you arrive and the time you go
May lie a reason you were alive but you'll never know
For A Dancer - Jackson Browne
Pay attention to the open sky
You never know what will be coming down
I don't remember losing track of you
You were always dancing in and out of view
I must have thought you'd always be around.
Always keeping things real by playing the clown
Now you're nowhere to be found
I don't know what happens when people die
Can't seem to grasp it as hard as I try
It's like a song I can hear playing right in my ear
That I can't sing, I can't help listening
And I can't help feeling stupid standing 'round
Crying as they ease you down
'Cause I know that you'd rather we were dancing
Dancing our sorrow away
(Right on dancing)
No matter what fate chooses to play
(There's nothing you can do about it anyway)
Just do the steps that you've been shown
By everyone you've ever known
Until the dance becomes your very own
No matter how close to yours another's steps have grown
In the end there is one dance you'll do alone
Keep a fire for the human race
Let your prayers go drifting into space
You never know what will be coming down
Perhaps a better world is drawing near
And just as easily it could all disappear
Along with whatever meaning you might have found
Don't let the uncertainty turn you around
(The world keeps turning around and around)
Go on and make a joyful sound
Into a dancer you have grown from a seed somebody else has thrown
Go on ahead and throw some seeds of your own
And somewhere between the time you arrive and the time you go
May lie a reason you were alive but you'll never know
For A Dancer - Jackson Browne
Until next time, my friends...
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