Fan's Eye View ~ The Dover Experience Continues
6/02/2014
Jim Fitzgerald
Good day my friendly Race Friends! It’s a sunny Sunday in Dover as I
type this. I sat on the steps of the
media center at about 7:10 this morning and all of a sudden, it washed over me
like a wave on the beaches of Ocean City, Maryland, about 90 minutes south of
here. The wave built, crested, and
washed so gently over me like a blanket, and it said, “Hey Jim…you’re at Dover.” I make no secret that Dover is my favorite track. It is fast, unique, close to home…it’s my home
track, and I have been coming here for more than 20 years. Up until the last few years though, when I
watched a race, it was from the other side of the fence. Allow me to back up some of those 20 or so years. In 1991, in my early years of racing fandom,
my father called me out of the blue one day and asked me if I wanted to go to
Dover. Oh, sure. I’m in.
So, when September 13th rolled around (Dover was earlier in
the year then), I packed up some clothes and a cooler of beer into my 1974 Ford
van and drove to Dover. We camped, of
course, and back then, there was no hotel or casino, and the camping area was
between the highway and the track. There
was a Denny’s on the highway, with a tree line behind it, and we snugged
ourselves into a rather private corner of the campground. We did the usual camping things, like play
horseshoes, and such, and sit around the camp fire. Then on Sunday, it was race day, and it was
my first race, and it was awesome. Harry
Gant won, as he did the day before, and he lapped the field. It was also the third of four consecutive Cup
races Gant would win in that month, earning him the name of Mr. September. And so it went for years.
Our campsite moved from its spot next to the highway to the complete
other side of the track after a few years.
Dover Speedway had gobbled up as much property as possible and was
making campsites and parking everywhere.
We found Lot No. 9 and that became home for a few years before it was
declared that tent camping was no longer allowed. Tent camping has since returned to the
grounds of the Dover Speedway, and if you’re interested, Dover will even
provide the tent! When we moved off of Lot No. 9, we found a nice lady who let
us camp in her back yard for a modest amount of cash for the weekend. She has since turned it into a business she
runs twice per year, and runs it as a complete camping ground, with water and
spot-a-pots available for all. We’ve
been there ever since. My father doesn’t come to the races anymore, nor do most of
the folks we have camped with over the years.
For a while, it was just me, my best friend and his wife. Then we met up with some youngsters one year
and we’ve been stealing their thunder for a few years now, although that group
seems to be dissipating through marriages and childbirths as well. Then I got the opportunity to come to the
other side of the catch fence and do what I’ve wanted to do for quite some
time. So, then, thinking about all of this made me a little sad, and I wanted
to return to the old days of Dover. And then today I met Bob. As I sat on a bench outside the
media center looking at some pictures I had taken, deciding what was trash and
what was treasure. I was soon joined by
this gentleman, as he sat down on the bench, short of breath. I greeted him with a “How ya
doin?”. He said he was fine, and then asked me who
was going to win today. I decided to
have some fun with him. He was wearing a
Jimmie Johnson T-Shirt, so I told him if he believed the hype,
look for Kyle Busch to sweep the weekend.
But then I said if you believe the history, he should look for Jimmie
Johnson. He finally laughed and said
that’s what he wanted to hear. I chatted with him for a bit. Bob has never has garage passes or pit passes
before. He has also never been to Dover
before. In fact, Bob has never been to a
race before. Bob’s family got him pit and garage passes for Dover this weekend
as a gift for his 80th birthday.
I told him that sounds like a great gift, and he said it was an
excellent gift. I told him we should
really enjoy this race, and he said he will, because it may be his last
one. You see, Bob is having some health
issues. His heart is not strong, and his
breathing is labored. He asked if I was
alone here, and I explained that I was working from the media center, and his
ears and eyes perked up. I gave him my
Race Fans Forever business card and he thanked me and said that it would be a
great addition to his daughter’s collection of celebrity business cards. I didn’t want to burst his bubble, but I did
let on that y card my not really belong in that collection. We parted with a smile, a handshake, an
exchange of names, and well wishes for all known. I do hope I see Bob again, because he had in his eyes the
look of someone experiencing something new, and cherishing every moment of it, almost
like a child. But if I don’t see him, I
hope he’ll know, perhaps if he reads this, that even 23 years after my first
Dover experience, his first Dover experience is continuing to add to mine.
Until next time, my friends...
Feel free to leave comments below, and be sure to follow me @RaceFansJim on Twitter, because sometimes I give stuff away!