Commentary by Joe Williams: Franklin folks mourn the Fairgounds, too
By Joe Williams, for the Williamson Herald
news@williamsonherald.com
One of the first things you learn in the newspaper business to write an obituary. You just hope it’s never for someone you know. That is not always the case:
SPEEDWAY, NASHVILLE FAIRGROUNDS, age 108. Preceded in death by Fairgrounds Speedway, Nashville International Raceway, Nashville Raceway, Nashville Motor Speedway, Nashville Motor Raceway, Fairgrounds Speedway at Nashville and Music City Motorplex and internationally known events including the MUSIC CITY 420, NASHVILLE 420 and the “Super Bowl of Short Track Racing,” the ALL AMERICAN 400. The track is survived by thousands of fans across the globe.
Let me first admit this is like writing the obit of a family member. Since 1982 I have worked at the Fairgrounds in one capacity or another, from public address to public relations and everything in between. I met my wife there, proposed there and I’ve been carried out of the place on three occasions in an ambulance.
I love the place just as I do my adopted hometown of Franklin.
Living in a community that sometimes seems consumed about preservation, it is hard to understand how the big city to the north can act in what appears to be an arbitrary and capricious manner, shuttering for redevelopment the Tennessee State Fairgrounds and, in the process, the State Fair, the race track, and so many other activities that reached beyond the borders of Davidson County. For us, it’s the equivalent of killing cows on the streets of New Delhi.
A quick history of the place will show it began life in 1901 as a one-mile dirt track for horse racing, and hosted its first automobile race in 1904. Led by long-time Williamson County resident Bill Donoho and a group of investors, the dirt track was replaced by a one-half mile, 24-degree banked asphalt racing surface in the 1950’s. In 1972 the track was redesigned into its current .596-mile, 18-degree bank configuration.
After years of great success, the track suffered a near fatal injury in 1985 when the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) pulled out of twice-annual events with the bankruptcy of absentee leaseholder Warner Hodgdon of California. In stepped Franklin’s Gary Baker, who rescued the track, but with the influence of the Fair Board still overseeing the property, he was unable to resecure the coveted, and lucrative, “Cup” events.
Several operators have tried to work the magic for local events in the years since, with several generating great success. There were others who did more damage than good and, combined with the changing professional sports landscape in Middle Tennessee that include the Titans and Predators, Danny Denson’s last ditch effort this year was good, but almost doomed from the start.
And why is this important to Williamson County? Ask R.C. Alexander, auto magnate, who moved a brash youngster from Owensboro, Ky., into his home to give him his start, or Alexander’s son, Mike, who won championships at Nashville and across the country. Or ask that brash youngster, now a Hall of Famer and business icon, Darrell Waltrip, himself.
More than that, ask the Bufords, the Crowells, the Buttreys, the Smiths, the Thonis, the Valentines, the Fords…any number of your friends and neighbors who over the years have raced and won on the internationally known stage.
The Fairgrounds Speedway may have been in Davidson County, it was ruled and owned, on the track, by Williamson Countians.
Despite all its history, the method of passing for the track may be its final legacy. One individual, the mayor of the big city to the north, has decided that the land has better uses, that the State Fairgrounds, which receives no tax dollars and operates by generating its own revenue, is better replaced by a corporate headquarters or some other development.
What’s next? PUD’s at the Parthenon? Condos at the Capital? Maybe a convention center on the Cumberland? What else is on the front line at Karl’s Used Kar Lot?
And my old friends wonder why I moved to Williamson County.
Posted on: 11/12/2009
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