THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 26, 1995 TAG: 9507260514
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Long : 162 lines
When the season ended at Langley Raceway last October, the end seemed in sight, too, for the old, run-down track that has been Hampton Roads' only source for NASCAR-sanctioned racing for more than three decades.
Joe Baldacci, who had promoted races at Langley the last seven years, left the track gasping for breath when he declined to renew his lease. Baldacci said he would take Langley's weekly Saturday night date and NASCAR sanctioning to a proposed new facility 20 miles away in Suffolk, scheduled to open in 1996.
Langley, where legendary short-track kings such as Ray Hendrick, Sonny Hutchins and Elton Sawyer once raced, and which NASCAR stars such as Richard Petty and David Pearson used to visit annually, seemed ready to close the gates on 45 years of excitement.
Then Wayne Wyatt stepped forward last winter and canceled the funeral plans.
Wyatt, a sometime driver who long ago had watched his daddy, Jim, race at Langley, signed a lease that gives him the option of keeping race cars spinning around the track for another 30 years.
He sold his prospering used-auto-parts business and spent $200,000 renovating the facility - renamed Langley Speedway.
Most of all, Wyatt vowed to retain NASCAR sanctioning and the weekly Saturday night dates, and impressed representatives of both NASCAR and R.J. Reynolds, which sponsors the Winston Racing Series, with his efforts.
``I have never seen a place change so much,'' a visiting NASCAR official said in the spring. ``This looks like an entirely different track.''
Langley fans have noticed big differences, too, and not with just the appearance of the facility.
The energetic, 37-year-old Wyatt has created a carnival-like atmosphere that does not rely solely on the thrills of racing to attract new fans.
It is a twist that pleases some and irritates old-timers, who want only high-speed, fender-banging thrills for their 12 or 15 dollars.
On a recent Saturday night, as some 4,000 fans settled into the bleachers, Wyatt paced in front of the grandstands with a wireless microphone. He was dressed in black jeans and a T-shirt, a small earring twinkling from behind a neatly trimmed beard.
It was 7 p.m., time for the first wave of race cars to hit the track, but they were still idling in the pits as Wyatt conversed with the crowd.
``Before we get started,'' Wyatt said, ``I want to let you know what you'll be seeing later on tonight. . . .''
``We'd like to see some racin','' a heavy-set man shouted. ``We come to see some racin'. ''
Wyatt ignored the heckler and continued on, directing the crowd's attention to the far side of the infield, where an army of junkers were being chained together in threesomes.
``It is called train racing, and you are going to love it,'' Wyatt promised.
``I just want to see some real racin','' the heckler said.
There is still plenty of ``real racin' '' at Langley, of course. But there are plenty of sideshows, too. Train racing, pit-crew races, drawings for big money and prizes such as an autographed Jeff Gordon jacket. Even trackside marriage proposals.
``The old breed coming here, all they want to see is racing,'' Wyatt acknowledged. ``They would be happy if we opened up the gates, run the regular show, and run them out of here. The new fans, though, they like the entertainment side of it.
``It is not that we don't want to cater to the old fans. We do. But to get new faces out here, we got to give them some entertainment as well as racing.''
Wyatt said he frequently gets phone calls from fans who have attended their first race at Langley.
``They are hooked and say they never realized what all went on out here,'' he said. ``A lot of people think this is an old, redneck place where people bring a bunch of jalopies and run. They don't realize the quality of racing that goes on here, or the entertainment we have, until they come out.''
Wyatt, who once raced in Langley's Pure Stock and Late Model Stock divisions, generally draws high marks from former competitors.
``We didn't get along real well when he was a driver,'' Late Model driver Buddy Dozier said. ``But I get along real well with him as a promoter. He treats everyone fairly, something the old promoters didn't do. Wayne is doing a good job, and he is good for Langley.''
Phil Warren, the dominant Late Model driver this season, admits he is pleasantly surprised by the job Wyatt has done.
``I was unsure of what he would do when he came in here,'' Warren said. ``But to this point, he has done better than a good job. He comes around the pits, talks to everyone, and acts like he is glad to have you here. You have to like the way he has improved the facility, too.''
Wyatt not only visits the pits and often conducts the prerace drivers' meeting, he also seems to be everywhere - greeting fans at the front gate, checking the concession stands, talking on the public-address system, just wandering through the stands or engaging in a water-gun fight in the pits.
``I can do any job out here if someone doesn't show up for work,'' he said. ``That is the kind of person I am. I haven't changed since taking over the track. I have always been a hands-on person. I like to get out with the drivers and the fans, and if someone walks up with a complaint, I listen to everything.''
While Wyatt is at ease running the track, he still would rather be running around it in a race car.
``I have been in racing all my life. I was born and raised around it. I remember the first time as a kid that I went to Daytona and to Rockingham and Charlotte. When we didn't go the races, the family gathered around the television on Sundays to watch.
``I have always been a racer, tinkering with cars. I guess I was destined to wind up doing it.''
Wyatt's driving career was brief. He sold his cars last year when he began preparing to obtain the Langley lease.
Wyatt said he finished second 16 times in Pure Stock, a beginners' class, and had ``four or five'' top-10 finishes in Late Model, the top division, in only a dozen starts.
Driving is still in his blood, and he is toying with idea of renting a car to drive in the big Late Model race at Martinsville in the fall.
``If it's a good car, I feel I can make the field,'' he says. ``Not bragging, but I have always known I could drive a race car.''
Warren, who travels at the front of the field, said he never raced close enough with Wyatt to determine how good he was as a driver.
``With the level of experience he had, though, he did all right,'' Warren said.
Dozier recalled a couple of run-ins with Wyatt on the track but said they probably were his own fault.
``He was OK as a driver, but he never had good enough equipment to see what he could do,'' Dozier said.
Wyatt has three sons who race. Nineteen-year-old Danny is building a Pure Stock car. Casey, 11, and Dusty, 8, race go-karts on Sunday at Langley.
``Casey is the points leader, but Dusty is a real terror,'' Wyatt said. ``This is his first year, and he's won his last five races.''
Wyatt, who gets away from Langley about 2:30 a.m. after the Saturday night races, is back at the track by 8:30 a.m. to help his kids race their go-karts.
``I always said I wanted a seven-day-a-week job in racing, and I that's what I got,'' he said with a laugh.
``But one reason I wanted to take over Langley was I figured it might open some doors for my kids in the future if they want to go Winston Cup racing. Danny has the drive and the ability to do it. I just don't know if he has the dedication.
``Casey and Dusty are race freaks. Both will tell you that they want to be racers, and I feel they have what it takes to be winners.''
As for his own future, Wyatt is full of plans and ideas.
He and fiancee Linda Terry have scheduled a November wedding, but Wyatt doesn't think they will wait that long.
He wants to open a restaurant with a racing theme near Langley for his daughter to manage. He is thinking about building a racing theme park, and there are more improvements he wants to make to Langley.
But what if the Suffolk track is built and Baldacci takes the NASCAR sanctioning for Saturday nights away from Langley, as he says he will do?
Wyatt has insisted from the start that he does not believe the Suffolk track will be built. But if it is, he feels NASCAR will leave the sanctioning at Langley, where it has been for more than 30 years.
``I feel really good about NASCAR staying, and they have assured me that they have made no commitment to the Suffolk track, if it is built,'' Wyatt said.
If there is a fight for the sanctioning, it could get nasty. The transition from Baldacci to Wyatt at Langley was not smooth.
NASCAR officials have steered clear of the controversy so far because, as they point out, there is not a track yet in Suffolk.
There is one in Hampton, however, and the heartbeat has never been stronger. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Martin Smith-Rodden, Staff
Wayne Wyatt
by CNB