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Revisiting Martinsville, Without Jesse Jones 03/24/2015 |
I
bid you welcome gentle readers, to a bit of self-indulgence as we stroll
together down Memory Lane to a time when your scribe was closer to her youth
than to end of life counseling. In that time, my hair was still dark and there
was enough of it to stuff a Queen-sized mattress comfortably. There was still a
man at my side that delighted in telling the world he had stalked me for 49
years. Now, I tell folks that he just left to avoid that upcoming party.
After
some 30 years of hunting, fishing, boating and all the things that made him
happy, I finally managed to drag him to a race. Of course, like most folks,
once you’ve been, you want to go again… next week! Well, we weren’t millionaires,
or even hundredaires at times, but we managed to
visit many tracks in the Southeast, and good old Pocono, back when Doc Joe and
Rose were alive and running that big girl. Our seats there were in the Terrace
Club, the section up top with the striped awnings offering shade from the
blistering sun, which always seems to be closer to earth when one is in the
mountains.
Yes,
Pocono was great and the seats were unparalleled in our experience, but it was
pretty little Martinsville that won my heart at first glance and kept it
forever. She’s been on the NASCAR stock car circuit longer than any other, and
is the only track remaining on schedule that was there in the first “Strictly
Stock” season. Yes my purists, North Wilkesboro was built first, but in 1949,
that first year for NASCAR, Martinsville ran its first sanctioned race on
September 25 and North Wilkesboro ran its race on October 16. Richmond, which
I’ve seen brought into that conversation, didn’t join NASCAR until 1953. In
answer to a favorite trivia trap, of course Indianapolis is older than most any
track still racing on the planet… BUT… NASCAR didn’t debut there until 1994. I
don’t write IndyCar columns; I stick to the devil I know, and that is NASCAR.
Some
folks reading here today have read my thoughts on the little track by the
tracks so many times they can recite them, but every time I write about her, I
know there are new fans reading, so I try to explain in a couple thousand words
why she is the best of the best. In a quick rundown of what’s gone by the
wayside, the train no longer runs behind the backstretch, so engineers no
longer blow the whistle and wave to race fans. It’s still there, but it’s been
moved behind the camp grounds.
The
azaleas once found decorating the turns on the little paperclip gave way
several years ago to make room for SAFER barriers. We’ll be getting to those in
a few minutes, but two years ago, part owner and President of the track his
Granddad H. Clay Earles built, Clay
Campbell graced us with a letter he wrote in answer to my complaint
about missing those azaleas and was kind enough to let me print it here on Race
Fans Forever. Please do follow that
link, especially if you missed it two years ago. You’ll find there every reason
to know that there are still warm and caring folks in NASCAR, though they may
not be found in Charlotte or Daytona Beach.
Another
awesome memory that’s been lost to “Progress” is the duck pond that was home to
a large and vocal flock of ducks and Canada geese that quickly developed a
penchant for “people food” such as popcorn, potato chips or most anything one
might drop for them. Until recently,
locating a picture of that little pond proved to be impossible. I did include
one of my old pics in one of the older articles, but the pond is not in it and
only a pair of geese. Ah, but a friend posted a cover shot of an old
Martinsville program that clearly shows what I’ve always wanted to share.
Thanks to Dave Fulton for his generosity with this.
The
driver in the picture is Busch Series racer, Mike Porter, but just past Mike
and his car is a fair representation of part of the flock that called that pond
home. The rest, I’m sure, were busy cadging food from adoring race fans in the
park-like atmosphere of the Speedway grounds. If you look closely, you’ll see
the Canada geese, Mallard ducks and a sprinkling of Snow geese as well. So
lovely, aren’t they? Just a beautiful memory now, but one I’m happy that I
have.
Now
gentle readers, it’s time to look over the situation with the SAFER barriers at
pretty little Martinsville. Here then, courtesy of Google Earth and my newfound
friend that delineates these for me, who calls himself Gramps, is the situation
at Martinsville.
Well,
it’s obvious at a glance that little Martinsville has some work to be done.
SAFER is found on the outside of both turns and the inside of both
straightaways. Yes, I know the track is tiny; I know the speeds are lower than
at larger tracks, but once again I must remind everyone reading here today…
it’s not the speed that kills; it’s the angle of impact, and no track is immune
to that. Little Martinsville is not known as a deadly track, but she has taken
a couple of racers home to the Lord. On March 22, 1987, Modified driver Charlie
Jarzombeck lost his life to a supposed stuck
throttle. That might remind one of the two deaths in 2000, Adam Petty and Kenny
Irwin Jr., each of which was blamed on a stuck throttle… on a track almost
identical to Martinsville, but twice her size. Then of course, on October 24,
1985, our little paperclip claimed 9-time Modified Champion and NASCAR Hall of
Fame racer Richie Evans in a practice crash. Cause of death is now listed as
basal skull fracture. Does that sound familiar? SAFER should by now be found on
every inch of every wall at every track on the circuit, where feasible. Once
again, we, the fans that care, acknowledge that there are places on road
courses where it’s preferable to have run-off space rather than a wall of any
kind, and little Eldora, with her dirt surface, has been excluded by Dr.
Sicking.
Dear Clay,
The SAFER
barrier system has been my personal pet project since the inception of the
idea, somewhere back in the late 1990s. No one is singling Martinsville out for
not having full SAFER barrier protection. As I’m sure you know, the major
injuries sustained at Daytona that have sidelined Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle
Busch, have made the fans and even some NASCAR officials aware of the lack of
SAFER and the extent to which it is not in place. With a little help from some
friends, I’m posting, track by track, a Google Earth map of the track, with
SAFER shown in green and concrete in red.
The fans were
told long ago that NASCAR had “mandated” the use of SAFER barriers. What we
were not told is that in this instance, mandated refers only to the most
obvious places, as chosen by NASCAR. In a series of what might otherwise have
been routine crashes, Lady Luck came along and began pointing out how many
places a car could go and not be cradled in the loving arms of SAFER when
meeting unprotected walls. You’re a racer yourself, as well as having been a
part of the racing scene from the day you were born, so I don’t have to explain
to you the importance of having SAFER in place. I’m aware that ISC now holds
controlling interest in Pretty Little Martinsville, but you still serve as
President and as such have the authority to see it done… “It” being the move
toward SAFER barriers everywhere. Quite honestly my friend, this needs to
happen before we must say goodbye to another driver, not because of it.
God bless,
PattyKay
Now
then, gentle readers, it’s time for some current events. In the past week, Clay
Campbell made an announcement that Jesse Jones hot dogs would no longer be the
dogs of choice at Martinsville Speedway. Oh, the horror! Oh, the humanity! Oh,
the wringing of hands and predictions of impending doom! Say it isn’t so Joe!
Oh, BS!
Have
you ever tasted one of those things? If that brighter than Maraschino red dye
doesn’t kill you, the gluten-laden cereal fillers probably will. Somewhere on
this vast waste… er… wonderland we call the Internet,
I saw some genius posting about “selling out” to “some Chinese company.”
Please… that thing in front of you is a computer. It holds a wealth of
information that is yours for the reading. Go for it!
The
“new” hotdogs will come with the “Valleydale” brand, but Valleydale has been
around the Southland much longer than most anyone reading this today. You can
take a little trip back to the beginning by clicking
right about here.
Valleydale was bought up by Smithfield in 1992, and there should be no one past
the age of two that has not heard of Smithfield. They are everywhere and own a
huge percentage of meats sold in the Southeastern United States and elsewhere.
Their labels include Valleydale, which is now a division of Gwaltney,
also owned by Smithfield, John Morrell, Eckrich,
Farmland, Armour, Cook’s, Kretschmar,
Curly’s, Carando, Margherita and Healthy Ones. If you click here, you can
learn of the humble beginnings of Smithfield Foods, where they began and where
they are today, which is still Smithfield Virginia, known as the “Ham Capital
of the World.” Chinese? Really?
All
Clay has done is improve on an already well-known product, allowing it to live
up to its reputation as a great hot dog. I’ve had my fair share of hots bearing both the Valleydale
and Gwaltney brands, and any dog in either line is a
hands-down winner over Jesse Jones. Really kids, it’s not the end of
civilization as we know it if Martinsville Speedway chooses to serve a
palatable hot dog rather than one that drips red stuff down your chin and stains
the bun a disgusting shade of cerise.
Believe it or not, there are just as many folks that wouldn’t bite into one of
those weird dogs as there are folks that claim to “love” them. Besides, who are we fooling? Almost anyone
ordering a hot dog at Martinsville is ordering for the toppings, onions, chili
and slaw… mustard I believe is optional. Those remain unchanged, and with a
more traditional type hot dog lying beneath them, they should taste just the
same as those I recall from oh, so many years ago at North Wilkesboro, where I
enjoyed my first, and second, and third, and… well, you get it… “Southern style
hot dog.” I literally left the track with a purse full of toppings, but I ate
several that day and loved every bite. The purse, alas, was pretty much a total
loss.
Dirty
little secret: Shh! Don’t tell anyone, but even if
you despise hot dogs of any sort or color, you can order up those toppings on a
burger; they are just as good and quite possibly better! Try it! You’ll like
it!
Clay,
thanks again! Some of us… the ones with the best palates… commend you for
improving the Martinsville Hot Dog! I truly wish I could join the throng at
Pretty Little Martinsville this weekend, but age does take its toll, and I’ve long
since conceded that the climb to where we used to sit, right under the old
press box, would probably be the death of me these days, so weighing those
odds, I’ll remain in my living room and watch on TV… but my heart will be in
Martinsville.
And
now gentle readers, it’s time for our Classic Country Closeout. Today we’ll be
doing a bit of bar hopping with some of the best of them, so grab a stool,
belly up to the bar and away we go! First up, we’ll hear George Jones and Merle
Haggard singing about “Yesterday’s Wine.”
Next,
we’ll hear an encore from the Possum, this time sharing the stage with Willie
Nelson as they intone the ever popular, “I Gotta Get Drunk.”
Are
we feeling good yet? OK, you’re getting the idea. Here’s a guy that sounded as
if he’d had one too many when he was perfectly sober. In retrospect, he didn’t
have the best voice in Nashville… or Texas, but you just had to love Ernest Tubb. I guess it was a personality thing. Here’s Ernest
doing one he made famous a l-o-n-g time ago, “The
Warm Red Wine.”
It’s
amazing! YouTube tends to offer related songs to whatever we ask for, and every
page I’ve pulled up with drinking songs has George Jones all over it. Wonder
why that is…
Anyway,
we’re going to reach WAY back for this one. This was introduced I believe for
the first time in a 1936 movie called “Song of the Gringo.” It’s been recorded
by many artists over the years, and several times by the man who sang it in the
movie. I had it on my copy of “Blood on the Saddle.” Here then is “Rye
Whiskey” as only the incomparable Tex Ritter can do it.
And…
one more… because I was reminded that there was no Closeout on the Lady in
Black article that ran late last week. There is nothing this man ever sang that
I didn’t love, and this one is no exception. From 1959, here is the awesome
talent of Hank Thompson with “Teach ‘em How to Swim.”
Be
well gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling. It looks so good on you!
~
PattyKay