March 14, 1993 - Night Lights Went Out in Georgia - Went to Race & Blizzard Broke Out!

Recently, during early 2014, all the national television network newscasts portrayed Atlantans as a bunch of bozos for getting stranded on Atlanta area highways during snow and ice.

I am here to tell you that it's happened before in Atlanta and its suburbs during what the Weather Channel and Washington Post still refer to as "The Storm of the Century" - the century being of the late 20th variety.

On this date - MARCH 14 - the 1993 edition of the Motorcraft 500 NASCAR Winston Cup Series race was scheduled to be the next Atlanta Cup event since Alan Kulwicki claimed the Cup Championship crown over Davey Allison and Bill Elliott in November 1992 at AMS.

That race would NOT be run on March 14, 1993, but rather 6 days later on Saturday March 20.

I flew out of Richmond to Atlanta on Thursday of Motorcraft 500 week, blissfully unaware that a catastropic blizzard was about to descend on the speedway near Hampton and Jonesboro, as well as the entire Atlanta area.

I'd been snowed out and iced out before at racetracks in Richmond and Rockingham, but never in Atlanta.

Rusty Wallace claimed the pole position in qualifying, but both the Saturday Busch Series and Sunday Cup races were snowed out.

This wasn't just any snow, this was a BIG snow. Atlanta-Hartsfield Airport closed.

Restaurants closed. Power went out. Streets were blocked.

I was staying at the Atlanta Airport Marriott Courtyard in College Park on Sullivan Road, along with the MRN Radio crew.

We were stranded there together as the snow piled up, the power went out and the food supply in the Courtyard buffet ran out, as did the booze in the bar supply.

It was bad, really bad.

The Rome Times-Tribune has a few headlines and blips online in newspaper archives that paint a portrait of how bad it was:

Twenty years later, here's how the Washington Post characterized the March 14, 1993 Atlanta race weekend:

Just last March, in 2013, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution remembered that memorable March 14, 1993 NASCAR weekend in Georgia:

Although the radio was telling us to stay off the roads, by late Sunday morning the MRN Radio crew and many of the rest of us had tired of the Marriott Courtyard's remaining supply of link sausage and scrambled eggs from cartons.

One of the MRN crew calling from the yellow pages reported he'd found a pizza joint not too far away open and former NASCAR driver, Dick Brooks volunteered to drive my rental car to the pizza joint.

During the course of my lifetime I've ridden in vehicles driven by drivers Dale Earnhardt , Tim Richmond , Little Bud Moore , Danny Lee , Davey Allison , Kyle Petty , Derrike Cope , Dave Marcis and maybe a couple of other drivers I'm forgetting. But, I'd never been in a car driven in snow by a fellow who had spectacularly crashed some of Junie Donlavey's finest #90 Fords & Mercurys, as well as his own airplane at the Dover airstrip.

Dick Brooks with the Junie Donlavey #90 - Billy Kingsley photo posting

It's amazing what claustrophobia and boredom will allow the mind to agree to!

Brooksie did get us safely to our destination without tearing up my rental car. Back in the 80s I'd had a bad experience with my rental car when I was sideswiped by a tractor-trailer between the Atlanta track and College Park.

After pizza, and enroute back to the motel, we made the worst decision of the weekend. Someone spotted an open single screen movie theater and we pulled in. Bram Stoker's Dracula may not be the all-time worst movie I ever saw, but it ranks among the worst.

Although the theater had power to run the projector and had lights lit, there was NO heat. Somehow, being really cold is compounded when you're watching an awful movie.

I couldn't get a flight out of Atlanta until Tuesday back to Richmond.

I was not at Atlanta Motor Speedway when Morgan Shepherd drove the Wood Brothers CITGO Ford #21 to a popular 1993 Motorcraft 500 win on Saturday, March 20. Pole sitter, Rusty Wallace brought the Penske Miller Duece in 3rd.

So, these days when I hear somebody tell how bad the weather is at the track, I kind of yawn and figure they most likely don't know really, really bad racetrack weather like we used to get in February and March at Richmond, Rockingham, and - yes -even  Atlanta !

Great post Dave. Maybe I need to rethink my pending move to North Georgia. I remember it was 19 degrees in central Florida and killed thousands of acres of citrus trees. A bad movie with no heat has to be something to remember.

Dam Dave that was a Story but the bad part is they ran out of Booze Thats Bad LOL

Great story Dave! I've heard many stories of the "Blizzard of 93'". I remember about 2008 or so in Atlanta, Busch practice was cancelled because of snow but was able to clear off in the afternoon.

With the cold-snowy-icy weather that has blanketed much of the northern, eastern & southern states, I thought it might be a good time to bump Dave Fulton's post from a year ago.

Bump as Atlanta race is this weekend. Was living in Chattanooga at the time. Got 24" of snow. We lost electricity and water. Had meager amount of firewood. My wife, my dog and I slept in the living room for a couple of nights. I recall taking for granted our modern conveniences. "No TV? No big deal - we'll get our news and WX info from the radio. Let me plug it in right... Oh. Wait." We had a fridge and freezer full of food. But when the power is out, the oven and microwave are of no use AND our bountiful supply was suddenly at risk. 

The one individual who loved the snow, however, was my lab Winston. He jumped from drift to drift in the woods behind our house, and he nipped at the heels at every kid who sledded down our street after the snow packed down a good bit.

Yep, that was one of those unforgetable racing (non) weekends for sure. By the way, Chase, was your black lab's name by any chance a reference to the Cup sponsor? If so, RJR should have paid you a stipend from their special events budget!😃

Was indeed Dave. I remember my wife and I brainstorming names for our new pup. First thought was King - obvious reference - but she kind of waffled. Then I went off the ranch with suggestions such as Dogtona and Talladoga which earned me a less-than-impressed sneer and glare. It was my wife that suggested Winston, and I said "That's it! Perfect!" Think it's too late to file a retroactive marketing stipend claim from RJR?