Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 7, 1993 TAG: 9302070022
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
SPEEDWAY BUILDS ON PAST SUCCESS
Every year, the question at recession-proof Martinsville Speedway is, "Where do we build next?"This year, it's above the first turn.
Despite a Dec. 3 construction fire that destroyed a luxury suite and damaged the press box, the speedway expects to have a new, $500,000 high-rise grandstand looming over the first turn in time for the April 25 Hanes 500 Winston Cup race.
The 3,000-seat addition will give the speedway about 55,000 total seats. But even with the track's repeated grandstand expansions, the Winston Cup races continue to sell out, setting attendance records with almost every event.
Advance ticket sales are ahead of last year's pace, so the trend seems likely to continue.
"With the location of the new seats, there's no question they will be popular, as high as they are in elevation," speedway president Clay Campbell said.
Part of the charm of the short track is that one can see all the action no matter where one sits. And in these high-rise first-turn seats, fans will hardly have to turn their heads, Campbell said.
Hanes 500 tickets for the new seats, at $45 each, will go on sale March 1 and probably will sell quickly, since the popularity of first-turn seats is eclipsed only by start-finish line seats, Campbell said.
In fact, those seats are the best left at this point, since only scattered reserved seats, at $35 and $45, remain for sale in the existing grandstands.
The speedway, of course, will continue its long-standing practice of selling 10,000 unreserved backstretch seats for $30 each on race morning.
Martinsville Speedway's other big change for 1992 is the elimination of Modified races, a staple at the short track since it opened 46 years ago.
The early Modifieds were coupes that looked much like stock cars. But even as the style changed to the present low-slung, boxy, open-wheel vehicles and became primarily a Northeastern-based division, the Modifieds returned to Martinsville several times a year.
Modifieds brought Martinsville its most exciting finish - when Richie Evans rode the wall on two wheels past the checkered flag after a knock-down, metal-bending, last-lap duel in 1981.
Modifieds also brought the speedway its only two racing fatalities - Evans in 1985 and Charlie Jarzombek in 1987.
"Basically, it was strictly a business decision," Campbell said of the Modifieds. "Crowdwise, we weren't doing what we felt was adequate. We didn't feel like we were bringing in the fans from the North like we were at one time."
Before the Modifieds became a NASCAR touring series largely confined to the Northeast, Martinsville was the track where the Northern and Southern drivers battled it out.
In the South, however, the Modifieds slowly are being overwhelmed by Late Model Stock Cars in popularity. Martinsville will focus on that series. "It is unfortunate and we hated to [drop the Modifieds] because we've had Modifieds here since Day One," Campbell said.
So the traditional season-opening and season-closing tripleheaders will be doubleheaders, but with the same 500 laps of racing.
The Miller 500 on March 21 will feature a 200-lap Late Model race and a 300-lap Grand National race. That format will be repeated for the Winston Classic on Oct. 17.
Replacing the traditional Late Model race on Saturday, April 24 - the day before the Hanes 500 - will be the Hanes 150 for NASCAR Daytona Dash series four-cylinder cars. The speedway is lowering Saturday ticket prices from $15 to $10.
The Saturday support race for the speedway's fall Winston Cup event - the Goody's 500 on Sept. 26, will continue as a 150-lap Late Model race.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING