ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 6, 1997 TAG: 9704070145
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ROANOKE, TEXAS
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER THE ROANOKE TIMES
Dale Jarrett will start on the pole for the inaugural Winston Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway.
In years to come, when stock car racing fans recall how they went to the first NASCAR Winston Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway, it will be interesting to hear their stories.
Because the first real day of racing at this lavish new speedway Saturday seemed to reflect the best and worst of what can happen with an inaugural race at a new track.
The fortunes of the new track rose and fell all day here as officials tackled a myriad of problems both off and on the track on the day before the Interstate Batteries 500 Winston Cup race.
Officials from the track, NASCAR and local agencies overcame some of the problems, were stymied by others and coped with the rest.
By 8:30 p.m. EST, four hours after Mark Martin won the Coca-Cola 300 Grand National race, the speedway's first stock-car race, traffic in the infield was still gridlocked. Some vehicles moved less than 10 feet in 45 minutes.
Speedway Motorsports Chairman Bruton Smith personally began directing traffic as the crisis intensified.
``I don't know why they aren't moving, because the interstate and the main highway are moving,'' said Eddie Gossage, general manager of the speedway.
On the positive side, the track staged a full race on a warm Saturday afternoon under bright blue skies. An estimated crowd of about 100,000 watched the show and most things seemed to be working, including the big Magnavision television screens that telecast the race to the grandstands.
Traffic was no problem at all Thursday and Friday, when it rained. But the crunch varied from good to ugly Saturday morning. And it was expected to be worse this morning because today's crowd was expected to be twice as large as Saturday's crowd.
The heavy rains made the track's dirt parking lots unusable. Sixty percent of the potential on-site parking was on dirt. Officials then scrambled to create a massive bus shuttle system from satellite parking areas. It worked well in some cases, and didn't work well in others.
Gossage said the emergency busing plan was a good example of why Texas Motor Speedway will work well in Fort Worth.
``What we had is a dilemma, and everybody pitched in,'' he said. ``Everyone put egos and jurisdictions aside and we solved the problem and it worked.''
Well, sort of. Some people waited hours for shuttle buses and finally gave up. In some cases, fans walked five miles to the track.
The track. Ah, yes, the track.
The drivers were no happier about the track Saturday than they have been all week. It's a one-groove track that's too tight in some places. And the consensus among drivers, at least privately, is that this facility was designed with a priority on the grandstands, and that the actual racing surface came second.
Because it is a one-groove track, some of the asphalt at the bottom of the groove in turn one began breaking up Saturday. It became bad enough that the morning Winston Cup practice had to be red-flagged about 10 or 15 minutes before its scheduled end.
But workers patched the deteriorating asphalt and there were no more problems the rest of the afternoon.
"'It's not bad, but I don't know how we're going to pass,'' said Bobby Labonte. ``Of course, if nobody can pass, maybe we won't get passed. It's going to take luck to win this race. Luck and more luck.''
Labonte's crew chief, Jimmy Makar, said, ``I didn't see but two passes in that hour and a half of practice we had this morning. I tell you, it's going to be tough.''
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS. Randy Porter's car bursts into flamesby CNBafter hitting the wall during Saturday's Grand National race at
Texas Motor Speedway in Roanoke, Texas. Mark Martin was the winner.
Story on C2. color. KEYWORDS: AUTO RACING