March 14, 1993 - Night Lights Went Out in Georgia - Went to Race & Blizzard Broke Out!
Stock Car Racing History
Forum Activity for @dave-fulton
March 14, 1993 - Night Lights Went Out in Georgia - Went to Race & Blizzard Broke Out!
Stock Car Racing History
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 !
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
NASCAR Should Have Read This 15 Years Ago - What Do You Think?
Stock Car Racing History
"Beware the Ides of March!"
Now, Tim, you have gone and reminded me of the funny times we had watching the late southern humorist, Brother Dave Gardner perform at Green's Supper Club in Greensboro, NC.
Someone has posted on YouTube a performance of his "Julius Caesar" routine very late in his career - 1982 - in Shelby, NC. You Yankees may need a translator!
NASCAR Should Have Read This 15 Years Ago - What Do You Think?
Stock Car Racing History
By the way, we now have the television ratings in for the Waltrip brothers on FOX and their first three NASCAR telecasts of 2014:
EVENT TELEVISION RATING + OR - from 2013
Daytona Minus 43%
Phoenix Minus 3%
Las Vegas Minus 4%
You can only get so many minuses before you reach ZERO. I sure hope NASCAR's target 18 year olds are taking their eyes off their Smart Phones and XBox Ones long enough to watch the parades.
NASCAR Should Have Read This 15 Years Ago - What Do You Think?
Stock Car Racing History
Small world, Bill. Just sent you a note.
NASCAR Should Have Read This 15 Years Ago - What Do You Think?
Stock Car Racing History
24 years ago - back in January 1990, I received a call in my Richmond International Raceway Public Relations/Marketing office from John Barker, who was covering motorsports for the Lakeland Ledger , down in Florida in RR member, Bill McPeek's neck of the woods.
John was excited about a local Lakeland, Florida driver named Joe Nemechek who was entering our February 1990 Richmond Busch Series race the week after Daytona. John was asking about credentials and hotels. He planned to take the train from Lakeland to Richmond to cover Joe's Richmond Busch series debut. Joe did well and we all know him today as "Front Row" Joe .
While looking for information about the race trains we used to take from Richmond to Rockingham back in the 60s, I came across a column by the same Lakeland writer written in 1999 - 15 years ago. He was concerned that NASCAR was turning its back on its short tracks and southern fan base.
I wish the powers that be and the powers that were at NASCAR had read his column back in 1999 and heeded his concerns before the grandstands became empty and the television ratings tanked.
What do you think? Did John have a pretty good crystal ball?
Please note... this column was written a full 2 years before Dale Earnhardt's death, a date many "experts" cite for some reason unknown to me as the beginning of NASCAR's demise.
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/16/16 07:54:05AM
Racing History Minute - March 13, 1966
Stock Car Racing History
I snapped this shot of Peach Blossom 500 winner, Paul Goldsmith's #99 Plymouth a year later in the Bristol infield after the March 1967 Southeastern 500:
Racing History Minute - March 13, 1966
Stock Car Racing History
You can see the sign for the Hot Shoppes Cafeteria where my family used to eat next door to the ticket office in Richmond's Seaboard Railroad Building where friend, Frank and bought our race train tickets to the March 13, 1966 Peach Blossom 500 at Rockingham.
Racing History Minute - March 13, 1966
Stock Car Racing History
Wonder how many times we passed by each other over the years? Bunches, I bet!