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CLOSE: Inaugural Event Provides Career Thrill
Written by: John Close
CloseFinishes.com   http://www.closefinishes.com
11/16/2009
Charlotte, NC
 
Every so often, you get to be a part of something special.
NASCAR Race Hub airs Monday-Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Eastern on SPEED. (Image: SPEED) ยป More Photos

For this writer, auto racing has provided a lifetime of thrills, travel, highs, lows and best of all, friends. A passion that was my father’s long before I was born, I have been able to live his dream – and mine – experiencing a now almost 25-year career chasing something that drives me like no other activity, auto racing.

That said, it was with great anticipation that I left the NASCAR ranks this year to be a part of the management team for the all-new Gresham Motorsports Park in Jefferson, GA. The former Peach State Speedway was completely plowed under in March and over the past eight months, the facility has changed from an old, dilapidated raceway into one of the nicest, fastest, and most forward thinking short tracks in the country.

This past Thursday-Sunday, we swung the gates open on GMP for its inaugural event – the 26th-Annual World Crown 300. The historic race was one of the few things we retained from the old track. Why not? With a former winner’s list that includes the initial event winner victor Dick Trickle in 1983 to others like Darrell Waltrip, Rick Crawford, Rich Bickle, Freddy Query, Bobby Gill and a host of others, it made sense to keep the race.

It also made sense to reopen GMP with something people would remember. We gave them that Sunday, too.

From the pre-race show where we had an amazing Drifting exhibition, totally radical Motorcycle stunts, a live rock and roll band, and a fly-in across the street at the Jackson County Airport to the race where the action ranged from breathtaking inches apart racing to Bubba Pollard sliding down the main straight upside down and on fire, fans were treated to an incredible show.

They came in droves, filling the grandstand and ringing the trackside parking spots in just about every kind of imaginable vehicle. It didn’t hurt that we were blessed with perfect, sunny skies and unseasonably warm November weather either.

In the end, you can’t imagine the immense sense of pride I had standing in the middle of all of it Sunday. Along with General Manager Dan Elliott and the rest of the GMP crew, we’ve spent countless hours over the summer preparing for this moment. Lately, everyone has been on stun working as much as 80-90 hours a week to be ready for the opening. I’ve been living in a suburban Atlanta hotel for the last three weeks solid, returning to Charlotte for just two days during that stretch. You know you’ve been gone a lot when you miss the cats and cutting grass.

If you’ve chosen racing as
a career, you accept the long hours and inconveniences. It comes with the deal regardless if you are a driver, crew member, media, marketing or management. Most of the time, you don’t mind because you get to do something that most people who are fans of the sport only dream about.

Sunday was one of those days for me. All the sleepless nights, bad meals at all hours, and time away from home came together in a perfect storm – a great race in front of a huge crowd on an amazingly beautiful fall Sunday afternoon. Seeing all those people have a great time in an amazing speedway that will hopefully outlast its 40-year Jefco/Georgia International/Peach State predecessors was very, very gratifying. Knowing our GMP team had given back something to the sport and its fans will always be among the signature moments of my career.

It’s refreshing to know that after all these years, there are new challenges, goals and mountains to climb in the sport. To that end, I’d like to thank Mr. Jim Gresham and the Gresham family for their great gift to the sport and fans of auto racing – Gresham Motorsports Park – and for letting me be a part of it.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or Speed Channel

John Close worked his first NASCAR race at Bristol, TN in 1986 and since then has staffed NASCAR events as a journalist, public relations and marketing representative, team manager and race day spotter. Prior to his NASCAR association, Close covered as many as 75 auto races a year as the Sports Editor for a daily Associated Press newspaper in his native Wisconsin. Close has been a regular contributor to several top racing publications including Stock Car Racing, Circle Track, NASCAR Illustrated and Speedway Illustrated magazines. In 2004, Motorbooks International published Close’s first book – Tony Stewart –From Indy Phenom To NASCAR Superstar. MBI released a second book by Close – NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – Desert Dust To Superspeedways, in 2007. Close is a regular guest every Wednesday on Tradin’ Paint on SIRIUS NASCAR Channel 128. His work can also be found on multiple racing web sites including CloseFinishes.com
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