THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 30, 1994 TAG: 9411300601
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines
Most auto-racing promoters I have known did not really love racing. What they loved was the money they made from racing. If there was not a dollar to be made, few would walk across the street to see a race.
Hank Hankins was not like that.
In fact, I have never known anyone who loved racing as much as did Hankins, a former promoter of races at Suffolk Raceway, the Creeds dragstrip in Virginia Beach and Langley Raceway in Hampton.
Mhen he died Saturday at his Norfolk home, Hankins had thousands of rich memories from his days in racing if not millions of dollars that he made from the sport.
Hankins provided for his large family with the successful auto-body shop on Colley Avenue that he owned. That was his business. Racing was his passion.
Hankins promoted his last race at the Creeds strip in 1977. He suffered a stroke in 1982 and turned most of the operation of his business over to his sons. He learned about 18 months ago that he was dying of cancer.
``The doctors told him there wasn't much they could do,'' says Brian Hankins, one of his seven sons. ``But he didn't believe them. He thought he was going to beat it, right up until the end. That is just the way he was.''
He never quit loving racing, either, because that also was just the way he was.
Hankins, a native of Darlington, S.C., raced a Funny Car dragster known as ``The Trader'' throughout the Carolinas during the 1960s.
One of his greatest thrills was drag-racing against stock-car great Richard Petty in 1965, the year Petty left the NASCAR circuit because of a rules dispute.
Hankins ended his driving career after his car bolted out of control at more than 150 mph and flipped several times on a strip near Roxboro, N.C.
With his numerous injuries preventing him from continuing to race, he turned to promoting drag races.
In the late 1960s and early '70s, Hankins put Suffolk Raceway on the drag-racing map. The sports' top stars, most of them from California, hauled their cars to Suffolk to race.
Most promoters on the East Coast could afford to bring in only a few top stars for their big meets. Hankins dug deeper into his pocket to bring in a full field of stars for his Dixie Drag Classic, held in the fall.
No one enjoyed watching those races more than Hankins. He watched while someone else took up the money.
Once, a dragster blew an engine at the starting line. Hankins, standing nearby, was struck by a chunk of metal that embedded in a leg.
Friends tried to take Hankins to the hospital, but he refused.
``I'm not going to miss this race,'' he said.
After retiring as a promoter in 1977, Hankins kept going to the races, mostly at Langley and on the Winston Cup circuit.
His only vacation each year was in February. He took a few days off to attend the Daytona 500.
With his health continuing to deteriorate in the last year, Hankins had to watch the races on television. But he wanted to see one more Winston Cup race, to be there and hear the roar of the engine and to smell the aroma of smoking tires.
Brian Hankins and the family planned to take him to Martinsville, but he took a turn for the worse had to re-enter the hospital.
Finally, the only race that he might possibly attend was at Rockingham in late October.
Brian approached his father, who had come home from the hospital only the day before.
``Want to go to Rockingham, Dad?'' Brian asked.
Hankins opened his eyes wide, and nodded his head. ``Hell, yes,'' he said.
So they placed his hospital bed in a van and in the middle of the night took off for Rockingham, about a five-hour drive.
Hankins' favorite NASCAR driver was Chesapeake's Ricky Rudd. Hankins had known Rudd and his family for many years and did a few favors when Rudd was struggling to make it on the Winston Cup tour.
Rudd, who had won the pole position for the Rockingham race, was made aware that Hankins would be at the track.
``We got inside the track early in the morning, and I sent Ricky a note that we were there,'' Brian Hankins said. A short time later, Rudd invited Hank Hankins inside the garage area, where he was taken in a wheelchair.
Brian says Rudd told fans and business associates that he was not to be interrupted while he chatted at length with Hankins.
``They just talked racing,'' Brian said, ``and you wouldn't believe how happy my father was.''
When the race began, Hankins watched from the infield.
``He just enjoyed hearing the cars and smelling the tires,'' Brian said. ``It was his love.''
I always knew that.
Some 25 years ago when Hankins was promoting races at Langley, he accompanied me on a trip to Darlington, S.C., for a NASCAR race.
Most promoters visited the pits before the race to talk business and either went to air-conditioned VIP boxes or left for home once the race began.
Not Hankins.
It was a hot day, but he stood with a smile on his face in the pits for the entire race.
A funeral service will be held today at 1 p.m. at Hollomon-Brown Funeral Home. by CNB