Inside The Fence

There's nothing quite like getting an up-close view of a race team doing its thing.

Darrell Waltrip (yellow car) takes the checkered flag to win the 1983 Virginia National Bank 500. Next up: teardown, in front of the fans. (Photo: S. Broderick)

Darrell Waltrip guided his Pepsi Challenger No. 11 Chevy across the start-finish line, leading his 296th and, most importantly, the race’s 500th and final lap.

While the two-time defending NASCAR Winston Cup champion dominated the 1983 Virginia National Bank 500, the 33,000 fans at Martinsville Speedway on that cool spring Sunday afternoon 40 years ago got a quality show. A late caution meant the five cars on the lead lap at the end finished within half a straightaway of each other; second-place Harry Gant’s Skoal Bandit was just three car lengths back.

Even better, Waltrip's victory wasn’t the end of the day for those in attendance. About 30 minutes after the checked flag, NASCAR followed its then-common protocol of opening the pit area to all ticket holders.

Back then, team staffers would hand out hero cards, or postcards emblazoned with shots of the car and driver. Then, almost without exception, drivers and even well-known team members would find spots near their haulers and settle in for long autograph-signing sessions.

Collecting ‘hero cards’ and getting them signed has been a racing thing for years. This one, signed by Junior Johnson, is from 1981. (Photo: S. Broderick)

Winning drivers followed a different protocol. Back before every race was televised, radio ruled. On NASCAR Sundays, that meant MRN--the Motor Racing Network. Seeing that day's winner whisked up a front-stretch grandstand to the radio booth soon after the checkered flag waved was common. After the obligatory live post-race interview was done, the winner would often take a seat near the top of the grandstand and sign autographs.

At some tracks, including Martinsville, part of the front stretch was transformed into a pop-up victory lane that also served as a cordoned off tech-inspection area. Fans fortunate enough to experience those events got to watch the top-finishing teams tear down their cars as part of mandatory, post-race examinations.

With car owner Junior Johnson (center) leading the effort, Darrell Waltrip’s winning car is torn down post-race. Ricky Rudd’s fifth place car (No. 3) is seen at left. (Photo: S. Broderick)

Such scenes are long gone from NASCAR's top-level; the ramp-up to the sport's early 1990s boom made them impractical, if not impossible.

But motorsport fans are not completely shut out from such up-close encounters. IMSA and NHRA, the U.S.'s top-level sports-car and drag racing series, respectively, include pit access in the price of a ticket, for instance.

In IMSA, the Roar Before the 24—a multi-day series of practice and qualifying sessions that serves as precursor to the annual season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway—is infield-access only. The iconic track’s 101,000-seat main grandstand remains closed, while the entire garage area is very much open, with nothing more than portable stanchions separating fans from cars being tuned for race day. About the only places a Roar ticket-holder can't wander are onto pit road or the track.

A Cetilar Racing mechanic works to fix front-end damage following a 2023 Rolex 24 practice incident. Fans could get as close as the sign. (Photo: S. Broderick)

But even that changes on race day.

IMSA fans know the pre-race grid-walk is a must, and with people spilling out from behind pit road as well as through multiple front-stretch gates, it's also a must-see. For an hour or so before the green flag, fans, drivers and crew-members swarm around the starting grid. No barriers, no stanchions, no problems.

A view of the 2020 Rolex 24 grid walk from pit road. Less than an hour later, the race was underway. (Photo: S. Broderick)

During the race, the garage stays open, though the only activity is in stalls where cars have unexpectedly found themselves after on-track misfortune.

Attending a race is about much more than having a trackside seat. It's about smelling exhaust and degrading tires, and not just hearing, but feeling, the powerful engines. Getting a firsthand view of how teams prepare for race day adds an ever greater element.

Some forms of racing are simply too popular to permit unmetered fan access to garages or around the circuits outside of designated spectator areas. But those that allow fans to check out the action up close are worth checking out.

Much like there's nothing sports like the smell and sound of a car race, there's nothing in motor racing quite like getting an insider's perspective.

References

"The 33,000 fans...saw a memorable show." — https://www.racing-reference.info/race-results/1983_Virginia_National_Bank_500/W/

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Thanks for reading! Keep an eye out for upcoming pieces on a small-town drag racer’s return to competition and an up-close look at one team’s epic effort to earn a place on the podium at the 2023 Rolex 24. —sb