THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 28, 1994 TAG: 9408280189
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BRISTOL, TENN. LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
He was able to chuckle about it Saturday, but the comedy of errors that Ricky Rudd endured Friday trying to get to the hospital for the birth of his son seemed almost out of a made-for-TV movie.
Rudd, as it turned out, arrived at Forsyth Memorial Hospital in Winston-Salem, N.C., with time to spare. He was there by 4 p.m. and his wife, Linda, did not deliver their first child, Landon Lee, until 10:02 p.m. The 8-pound, 3-ounce baby and his mother were doing fine Saturday.
But Rudd's experience proves that the best-laid plans can sometimes go awry, and that even NASCAR stars are not immune from life's little horrors.
Rudd was so certain the baby wouldn't arrive Friday that he had told the relief driver he had lined up, Larry Pearson, that he probably wouldn't need him.
He had talked to Linda at 11 a.m. Friday and all was well. But one hour later, she wasn't feeling so well.
At about 2 p.m., Rudd happened to be walking back toward the lounge of his race-car hauler when the cellular phone there rang. It was Linda. She had gone to the hospital and was in labor.
``It's time,'' she said.
``I'm on my way,'' he replied.
For Rudd, there was a special urgency to get to the hospital as fast as he could because the women in Linda's family had a history of quick deliveries.
The first thing he had to do was page the pilot who had agreed to fly him to North Carolina. And for about 20 nerve-racking minutes, he had to sit in his hauler and wait for the pilot to return his call.
After the pilot called, Rudd couldn't find his spotter and assistant, Dale Cagle, who had his car keys. Cagle, who had been around all day, suddenly had disappeared. Rudd finally grabbed his crew chief, Bill Ingle, and asked for his keys. Rudd's car was in parking spot No. 48 outside the track; Ingle said his vehicle was in spot No. 47.
Rudd sprinted out of the track, but when he arrived at the parking lot, spot No. 47 was vacant.
``I'm running around in circles,'' Rudd said. ``My car is there, but Dale's got the keys. And Bill's car is not in the parking lot.''
Ingle, as it turned out, had parked in a spot numbered 47, but it was in another lot - the wrong lot - on the other side of the track.
Cagle, meanwhile, had been checking Rudd's souvenir trailer, parked outside the track. An employee there heard commotion on Rudd's radio frequency and Cagle figured out what was going on. He sprinted halfway around the outside of the track, up and down hills, and arrived to find Rudd ``dancing around and looking all over the place.''
Cagle gave Rudd his keys. And Rudd drove off toward the airport, escorted by a friend, Tom Sharp, who knew a shortcut on back roads.
``We get on this back road about a lane and a half wide and all of a sudden traffic was backed up about a quarter-mile,'' he said. ``They were moving this house trailer on the back road.''
When the house trailer got stuck trying to make a turn, Rudd and his escort took to the shoulder and passed the entire mess in one fell swoop.
After that, things went smoothly. In fact, when Rudd reached Winston-Salem, he had his choice of three rides to the hospital.
But he will not soon forget the first part of the trip.
``It looked like something you'd see on TV,'' he said. by CNB