Category Archives: Alabama

NASCAR is for Squares

They’re slow, they’re ugly, and other reasons why NASCAR events are less appealing than Indy racing.

October 06, 2005

Several years ago, NASCAR jumped from its long-time affiliation with ESPN to a lucrative contract with NBC, Fox, and TNT. The result? Stock-car racing trails only NFL football in television ratings. What was once looked down upon as a regional “redneck” sport has blossomed into a predictable weekly episode that’s about as exciting as “The Dukes of Hazzard” without a Confederate flag. Even the SPEED Channel, a 24-hour haven for racing enthusiasts, has shamelessly cashed in on the popularity, featuring Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and other NASCAR stars sitting around a table playing Texas Hold ‘Em. NASCAR fans actually consider such parlor games as viable racing coverage. Frankly, I’m getting more than a little bored with NASCAR racing.

Thanks to an intense relationship with television, NASCAR has captured an astonishingly wide audience. The opportunity for prime-time telecasts prompted the installation of lights at some tracks, ending the previous inconvenience of having races postponed to the following day because of rain delays. This summer’s Pepsi 400, a prime-time Saturday night race held each July Fourth weekend at Daytona Speedway, was delayed for nearly three hours, yet TV crews continued telecasting from the track as a captive nationwide audience waited for the track to dry. The race resumed, ending around 2:00 in the morning. Lights also made it possible for a NASCAR race to be an eight-hour event, creating an adult beverage bonanza for fans already legendary for their beer consumption.

One thing hasn’t changed, however. NASCAR devotees continue to shun “open-wheel” racing—the roofless, fenderless race cars typically seen at the Indianapolis 500—for its former lack of close-quarters racing and undramatic finishes. Ten years ago, Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George decided to take on NASCAR’s stranglehold on the racing market. George formed the Indy Racing League (IRL), featuring open-wheel, open-cockpit automobiles on oval tracks as opposed to traditional winding-road courses. Indianapolis Motor Speedway was one of the few oval tracks that the CART series, NASCAR’s rival before the IRL was formed, raced on. Tony George brought the IRL to the South, sometimes racing on short tracks usually associated with stock cars.

For the first couple of years, the closest thing the IRL had to a racing star was NASCAR’s current “angry driver” poster boy—Tony Stewart. Stewart’s temper tantrums made IRL race days memorable. After winning the IRL championship in 1996, Stewart left for the big money and high profile of NASCAR. Finally, George wrestled the Unsers, Andrettis, and other high-profile drivers from CART into his IRL series, but large attendance and television ratings remained elusive. Oddly, NASCAR can put 120,000 fans in the stands at tracks where the IRL draws crowds of less than 30,000.

To fully grasp just how sluggish NASCAR is, switch channels to an IRL race after watching a few minutes of stock cars. At Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a stock car qualifies around 185 mph, while an IRL car qualifies at around 227 mph. Racing experts have speculated that an IRL car could top 250 mph at a high-banked track like Daytona. Of the 111 races run in the past 10 years in the IRL, 50 have had a margin of less than one second between first and second place. NASCAR is lucky if 10 percent of its events are such close races. Moreover, in terms of actual drama, NASCAR’s notorious door-to-door bashing doesn’t compare to the action when IRL cars get wheel-to-wheel at top speed. Often, open-wheel cars become airborne after only the slightest bump. The crashes are the most spectacular moments in sports. IRL races wrap up in a couple of hours as opposed to NASCAR’s typical four-hour extravaganzas.




NASCAR’s stock cars (above) are a sluggish bunch compared to the Indy Racing League’s open-wheel, open-cockpit racing cars (below). (click for larger version)

The IRL also boasts an international flavor, while NASCAR practically regards guys from California as foreigners. The IRL even has competitive women behind the wheel. Danica Patrick, who drives for a team co-owned by David Letterman, almost won this year’s Indy 500 until low fuel forced her to cut back on speed. The best finish for a NASCAR star in an Indy car was Donnie Allison’s fifth place in the 1970s.




(click for larger version)

NASCAR fans are a stubbornly dedicated bunch. But their arguments that stock cars are more competitive than open-wheelers collapsed once Tony George’s league got a few years under its belt. It’s not likely that the stock-car masses will ever appreciate the fine art of speed. As a friend once told me, comparing open-wheel competition to stock car racing is like comparing boxing to wrestling. &

Alabama Royalty

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Alabama Royalty

By Ed Reynolds

September 22, 2005

There’s a touch of royalty nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in northeast Alabama. Surrounded by Lookout Mountain, Desoto State Park, the Little River Canyon Natural Preserve, and gorgeous Lake Guntersville, an imposing stone (and brick) castle in Fort Payne is currently on the market for a cool $4.9 million. Built and presently owned by Jeff Cook, guitarist for the band Alabama, the eight-bedroom, seven-and-a-half-bathroom palace is an eye-catcher set on 40 lush acres with a pond. The main foyer includes granite tile floors, a coffered ceiling, crystal chandelier, and a pair of curved hardwood staircases. The grand room features an immense stone fireplace that stretches more than two stories tall with balconies that overlook the immense chamber. A couple of kitchens and a formal banquet room with picture windows offering views of the grounds are sufficient to entertain a few hundred guests.




(click for larger version)

The owner’s suite offers “his” and “hers” bathrooms. A sunken garden tub and a hot tub are the main attractions in the lady’s bath; the gentleman will have to make do with a simple yet immaculate tile shower. The guest suite features an amenity ideal for any overnight company—a heart-shaped garden tub. There’s a game room with a billiard table, an exercise room, and even more bedrooms in case the summer soirées get out of control.

The Fort Payne castle does boast two amenities not usually found in palatial estates south of Nashville: a recording studio and a guitar-shaped swimming pool complete with a two-tier waterfall. Private balconies extend around the courtyard surrounding the pool area. Appointments for those with serious inquiries can be made by calling 205-401-7045. And for God’s sake, if you do qualify for a showing, don’t refer to the pool as a “cement pond.” Fort Payne folks have grown weary of that joke.

City Hall — Transit System Threatens Halt

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Transit System Threatens Halt

August 25, 2005

The Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority (BJCTA) is warning that public transportation may shut down August 31 if the Metro Area Express (MAX) does not receive $2.8 million owed by the city of Birmingham. Of the money owed, $1.1 million is a fiscal year 2003 debt the city has not paid, while the other $1.7 million is for current services in 2005. The BJCTA’s 2006 fiscal year begins October 1, 2005. Phil Gary, chair of the MAX board of directors, said the agency was not aware of the financial crisis until the first week of August, after a recent audit.

At a Birmingham City Council transportation committee meeting on August 17, MAX representatives presented the information to the Council for the first time. Surprised Council members were concerned but said it was the responsibility of the Mayor’s office to execute payment for what the Council had already approved. “The money is there,” said Councilor Elias Hendricks, and transportation committee chair Carol Reynolds told MAX representatives that the issue would be taken to the Mayor. In addition to Reynolds and Hendricks, Councilor Valerie Abbott was also present. None of the three would offer an opinion about the failure of the Mayor’s office to make payments to the BJCTA.

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“The Council has approved the FY2003 payments to the MAX agency, as well as the 2005 payments,” said Phil Gary. “We need the executive office to authorize the finance department to write a check so that we don’t have to stop services . . . It would be a tragedy not to be able to run paratransit [the transit services provided for those with medical needs and disabilities].”

Interim MAX Executive Director David Hill, a former MAX operations manager, said that the $1.9-million surplus MAX reportedly had did not really exist. The miscalculation occurred because lump-sum payments to the transit system had been made at irregular intervals, giving the appearance of more money in reserve than what existed. Citing past “creative accounting” practices, Hill added that there was no three-month reserve supply of money, as had been reported. He blamed the poor bookkeeping on the failure of the MAX board to add a financial expert to the staff. “We had no CPA or accounting professional at all on our staff to provide accurate financial reports,” explained Hill. MAX has since hired a CPA as the new comptroller.

At a specially called MAX board meeting (convened hours before the transportation committee meeting), board member Reginald Swanson demanded to know what authority Birmingham had to delay payments. Swanson demanded that the board take the matter to court as soon as possible. New board member Guin Robinson urged the board to let the city of Birmingham respond before taking legal action. Swanson argued that the transit system was only two weeks away from ceasing operations and said the litigation should proceed if the board got no satisfaction from the Council later that afternoon. Phil Gary was equally irate. “I think it’s appalling that the city will not remit to us [money owed] for services provided,” said Gary. MAX board member Johnnye Lassiter, who represents Bessemer, added, “I would hate to have to go to Bessemer and tell them the system will shut down because the Mayor of Birmingham is not paying his bills.”

In December 2004, the MAX board ended a two-month drama regarding the fate of former Executive Director Mark Stanley. As the director for two years, Stanley boosted ridership, increased routes, added night and weekend service, and increased revenues. But MAX chief Phil Gary criticized Stanley’s financial and staffing management and said Stanley deserved no credit for public transit improvements. After an initial vote last October to fire Stanley, the four dissenting board members refused to attend subsequent meetings to confirm the vote. This prevented a quorum in light of the absence of board member Reginald Swanson (who was in favor of firing Stanley) due to hospitalization. Eventually, a quorum showed, and Stanley was voted out five to four. The minority in support of Stanley then asked for Phil Gary’s resignation, which was voted down. Critics have blasted Gary for wanting Stanley out, saying that Gary—a former MAX general manager who was asked to resign at the board’s request in 1995—can micromanage the agency as he pleases. It should be noted that under Gary’s management, MAX lost money, cut routes, laid off drivers, and increased fares.

Birmingham currently provides $6 million of the $16 million MAX annual budget. The city appoints five of the nine MAX board members. Birmingham Mayor Bernard Kincaid, who was invited to the August 17 transportation committee meeting but was on vacation and did not attend, later said that MAX invoices from 2003 and 2005 had not been submitted. Phil Gary insists that the invoices were turned in. &

All Souled Out — The famed Muscle Shoals Sound Studio closes.

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2005-03-10 Music

All Souled Out

The famed Muscle Shoals Sound Studio closes.

By Ed Reynolds

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March 10, 2005

In the late 1960s, the small northwest Alabama town of Muscle Shoals became a magnet for many top recording stars. Attracted by a phenomenally tight and versatile house band later known as the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, many black rhythm and blues singers, including Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Percy Sledge, and others, flocked to FAME Studios to discover that the studio’s legendary funky sound was created by a quartet of white men—Jimmy Johnson, David Hood, Barry Beckett, and Roger Hawkins. “The Muscle Shoals Sound” soon was in such demand that the four musicians decided to start their own studio a few miles down the road in Sheffield, and in 1969 opened Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in an old casket warehouse. The first sessions at the new facility were for Cher’s album 3614 Jackson Highway, so named because it was the studio’s address. R.B. Greaves’ “Take a Letter Maria” was the studio’s first hit. Leon Russell dubbed them the Muscle Shoals Swampers on the back of one of his albums, and Lynyrd Skynyrd referenced “the Swampers” in the hit “Sweet Home Alabama.”




Mick Jagger twists the knobs on the console at Muscle Shoals Sound, where the Rolling Stones recorded three songs for the Sticky Fingers, including “Brown Sugar.” (click for larger version)

The Rolling Stones recorded three songs there (“Brown Sugar,” “Wild Horses,” and “You Gotta Move”) for the album Sticky Fingers while on their 1969 tour. Bands not from the U.S. had to apply for either a touring or a recording visa to be permitted to work in the country. The Stones’ first choice had reportedly been Stax Records studio in Memphis, but since Memphis had a higher profile in the recording industry, the band opted for the relative obscurity of Muscle Shoals. Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section bass player David Hood recalls that the Stones sessions were supposed to be top secret. “We worked during the day, then at night they brought in the Stones. We were supposed to keep it a secret that they were coming because they didn’t have the proper work permits to record in the United States,” says Hood. “They flew from Miami and had chartered an old Super Constellation four-motor prop plane. It was smoking and leaking oil, so half the group wouldn’t get on the plane (in Miami). So they flew in on Southern Airways, so it was kind of hard to keep it a secret.” The recording of “Wild Horses” is documented in the film Gimme Shelter. (In one memorable scene, Keith Richards smiles through rotten teeth as he proudly flashes a Minnie Pearl Fried Chicken souvenir.) The unassuming life of a small Alabama town was a perfect respite for rock stars accustomed to being mobbed by fans. One story has it that the Stones would tell curious waitresses in Muscle Shoals’ diners that they were Martha and the Vandellas. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards reportedly wrote “Wild Horses” while lounging in the grass in front of the Executive Inn in Florence (right across the river from Muscle Shoals). Hood remembers the Stones being very business-like. “When people come to a recording studio to work, they’re not doing a lot of showbiz stuff, they gotta work,” he explains. “The way [the Stones] worked up their songs, it was different from us. Whereas we were very quick and would learn a song in 30 or 40 minutes and have it recorded in an hour, they worked all night or sometimes a couple of days on one song. They pretty much knew what they wanted, but they would work a long time to get it because they weren’t polished musicians.”




	Pops and Mavis Staples confer during the recording of the Staples Singers hit “I’ll Take You There.” Pops was reportedly disappointed that he didn’t get to play guitar on the session. (click for larger version)

In 1972, Paul Simon showed up in Muscle Shoals looking for the “black musicians” who had backed up Aretha Franklin. “We worked as a rhythm section together so much that we got really tight. We were very fast,” recalls Hood. “Paul Simon rented the studio and booked us for four or five days to cut one song. And we got it on the first or second take. So that’s what led to us recording ‘Kodachrome’ and ‘Love Me Like a Rock’ and other stuff. We had all this extra time.”




	The tiny town was once a vital component of the recording industry.

Jimmy Cliff came to Muscle Shoals to record “Sitting Here in Limbo” for The Harder They Come soundtrack. “They sent him here trying to make him sound non-Jamaican,” says Hood. “This was before Bob Marley and the Jamaican thing caught hold, so they were trying to Americanize his sound.” Bob Seger cut “Old Time Rock & Roll” and “Mainstreet” at Muscle Shoals Sound. When Bob Dylan was recording there, he brought in Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler to record Dylan’s gospel masterpiece Slow Train Coming. Hood said the Dylan sessions were the only ones to draw a crowd of people hanging around outside the studio. When asked if Dylan, who had just converted to Christianity at the time of Slow Train Coming, exhibited any signs of having become an evangelical Christian, Hood says, “I think more than anything else that was a way to cut a different kind of record, a different style. Jerry Wexler [Atlantic Records] is the one who brought him here. Jerry’s a very shrewd businessman, and he saw that this was a commercial thing here, Bob Dylan changing the message of his songs. He saw it as an opportunity. I’m afraid I’m taking a little of the glamour out of this stuff.”




Cher poses in front of the original studio location.

By 1978, the business had outgrown its Jackson Highway space and the studio moved into a 31,000-square-foot building. The company was sold to Malaco Records, based in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1985. Citing a lack of business, Muscle Shoals Sound Studio closed its doors in February 2005. As to the secret of the Muscle Shoals sound, Hood has a simple definition: “It was our goal not to sound like ourselves, but to sound like the band of the artist we were working with.” &

Sewer Tunnel Proposal Returns

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2004-12-30 News

Sewer Tunnel Proposal Returns

By Ed Reynolds

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December 30, 2004

On December 14 the Jefferson County Commission conducted a public hearing regarding a county proposal to purchase both the Riverview sewer system in north Shelby County and the Moody sewer system from the Birmingham Water Works at a total cost of approximately $27 million. Hendon Engineering, which oversaw the building of the controversial supersewer trunk line that was halted two years ago after public outcry over plans to tunnel beneath the Cahaba River, recommends tunneling under the river to connect Riverview to the county system. Another consultant, Engineering Service Associates, proposes instead to connect the systems by going over the river, replacing the existing 12-inch pipe that runs under the Cahaba River Road bridge.

At the hearing, Hendon Executive Vice President Bob Holbrook warned that any damage or overflow from the pipe above the river would directly discharge sewage into the Cahaba, the region’s main drinking-water source. Hendon’s plan would connect the Riverview system to the county system by running an 18- to 24-inch diameter pipe beneath the river to a portal of the 12-foot diameter supersewer line. A previous tunnel collapse during construction of the supersewer, which was partly responsible for stopping the supersewer project, has drawn a barrage of protest from critics.

Jayme Hill, executive director of the Alabama Environmental Council, serves on the Citizens Advisory Committee for Environmental Services and did not learn of the county’s proposal to tunnel beneath the Cahaba River until she read it in the morning paper the day of the public hearing. “It was shocking because there has been an increased need for transparency since the supersewer, which was why this citizens’ advisory committee was put together [by the county],” said Hill in an interview. “We’ve been meeting for two years now. That plan from Hendon was prepared and ready for distribution, but for some reason that topic [tunneling under the river] never came up at the early December meeting of the citizens’ advisory committee.”

Tricia Sheets, administrative director of the Cahaba River Society who is also a member of the citizens’ advisory committee, was disturbed that the committee was not notified of the tunneling proposal. Sheets was baffled that Hendon Engineering was more concerned about the risk of a pipe leaking into the Cahaba River than the peril of attempting to tunnel beneath the area’s drinking source. “I thought that was a red herring,” she said of Hendon’s apprehension about connecting the systems above the river. “The bigger issue is that all the pipes in the watershed have a potential to leak. That particular pipe is pretty visible and should be pretty easy to repair,” she added.

County officials argue that purchase of the Riverview and Moody systems would add customers and therefore reduce the amount that ratepayers are currently paying. Rates have increased substantially since the county borrowed $3 billion after a federal consent decree in 1996 forced sewer improvements due to damaged pipes and direct discharge into the Cahaba River.

At the public hearing, community activist Peggy Gargis expressed disappointment at the proposal to purchase the systems. “The general public that I’ve heard are distressed at the prospect of the sprawl and the threat to the watershed that this project would generate,” said Gargis. “We do wonder why a program that has visited so much grief upon the ratepayers and has been run by management which has assisted in that, why you’re still taking the advice of those people [Environmental Services Department].

Adam Snyder, executive director of the Alabama Rivers Alliance, also serves on the county’s citizens’ advisory committee. Snyder told county officials at the hearing that he had no problem with the county purchasing the systems, but was disturbed about reintroducing the tunnel proposal. He is also troubled that the county’s Environmental Services Department would continue to oversee any sewer expansion. “I am concerned about the management of the system,” said Snyder. “I have no problem with the county expanding and buying this system. And I think it’s probably advisable to consolidate a lot of these sewer systems — to have one sewer authority. But I am worried about who’s guarding the hen house. I’m worried about the leadership of the Environmental Services Department. I am very concerned about giving them more power and more sewers to manage, as far as their track record has been in the past.”

In October 2004, federal investigators served search warrants at the home of Jack Swann, director of Jefferson County Environmental Services, and Roland Pugh Construction, which received much of the sewer repair work. According to the Birmingham News, FBI agents photographed and searched Swann’s Vestavia Hills home, which has had $350,000 worth of remodeling and improvements, including installation of an elevator, since Swann bought the home in 1997. The FBI also confiscated boxes of records from Pugh’s construction office. County officials learned of the investigation of the sewer program in 2002. &

Benefit for Gulf Shores Musicians

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2004-11-04 Music

Benefit for Gulf Shores Musicians

By Ed Reynolds

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November 04, 2004

On November 17, the Moonlight Music Cafe will host a benefit for Panhandle musicians who performed at the fabled Flora-Bama Lounge in Gulf Shores. The ramshackle bar was made even more so after Hurricane Ivan huffed and puffed to blow the place down in September. Among the performers at the Sunday afternoon benefit (2 p.m. to 8 p.m. as of press time) will be Rock Killough, Rusty McHugh, Gove Scrivenor, The Larry Wilson Trio, Elaine Petty, and others. Proceeds will also be donated to various Gulf Shores charities. For more information, call 205-822-1400.

All Aboard!

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2004-10-07 Diversions

All Aboard!

Little engines that could are rolling into the Bessemer Civic Center.

By Ed Reynolds

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October 07, 2004

For those who never grew up, the Model Train Show at the Bessemer Civic Center on October 16 and 17 offers a fantasy journey to the strange, Lilliputian land of trains. Weaving through diverse landscapes dominated by miniature downtown buildings, tiny trees, diminutive but cascading mountain ranges, and minuscule hobos hovering around fires, toy trains will whistle and chug to the amusement of both the curious and the enthusiast.

“I got my first set when I was 8 years old,” says Whit Fancher, chairman of The Wrecking Crew, a local model train club. “And like most people, you’re super-involved until you get a car. And then with girls and everything else going on, you kinda get out of the hobby, but the seed has been planted. Once it gets in your blood, it’s there.” The Wrecking Crew, a branch of the Steel City Division, which is a smaller division of the National Model Railroad Association, keeps a model train layout set up in West Lake Mall, where the trains run every Saturday. At both the Bessemer Civic Center and West Lake Mall, 10 model tracks will be available for public viewing the weekend of the show. Clinics for constructing landscapes from scratch (including how to make such native foliage as crape myrtles, oak leaf hydrangeas, and nandinas) will be conducted. “You can make your own trees for a penny, and they look better than any commercial tree you can purchase,” says Fancher.




The Model Train Show pulls into the Bessemer Civic Center on October 16 and 17.

Several sizes of model trains will be on display, including the quarter-inch-high Z scale (“$300 for a locomotive that you can’t see,” laughs Fancher), the popular HO scale [the most familiar], N scale [one inch high], and the mammoth garden railway scale [locomotives up to three feet long that are operated outside]. “Some people just like to run the stuff, some like to build, some like to collect,” explains Fancher, who regards himself as more of a collector and a builder. “I’m not that much of an operator. I can run it around the track a few times, and I start to get bored.”

Fancher admits that model trains can be amazingly elaborate. “You’ll see some hobbyists that construct a building board by board—a little building that may be six inches tall with the same number of pieces of wood as the actual-size structure. They’ll cut the wood themselves and build them from scratch. Some people do that with the cars and locomotives; spend thousands of hours on something that you can buy for $13. It’s really bizarre, people going to that extreme.”

The Model Train Show will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, October 16, and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, October 17. For more information, call 746-0007.

Racing in Alabama — Talladega Celebrates 35 Years of NASCAR

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2004-09-23 Features

Racing in Alabama

Talladega Celebrates 35 Years of NASCAR

By Ed Reynolds

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September 23, 2004

October sports talk in Alabama is traditionally geared toward football. But this year a pair of high-profile automobile races promises action that’s three times faster than a Brodie Croyle bullet pass, and light-years quicker than a Cadillac Williams touchdown run. Talladega Super Speedway celebrates its 35th anniversary the weekend of October 3 with the EA Sports 500. NASCAR has gone through numerous changes since an unknown named Richard Brickhouse drove to victory in the first race at Talladega in 1969. (Brickhouse’s golden opportunity came about only because the usual contingent of NASCAR stars, led by driver-turned-organizer Richard Petty, boycotted the race due to safety concerns at the world’s fastest speedway.) In place now is a new points system that places the top 10 drivers a mere five points apart as they begin what is billed as the Chase for the Nextel Cup, a playoff of sorts designed to make the final 10 races compete head to head with Sunday afternoon NFL football.

Gone is longtime series sponsor Winston due to the straightjacket imposed by the government on tobacco advertising. NASCAR’s top series now races under the title Nextel Cup, but apparently this current version of “legislating morality” doesn’t stop there. Network television’s old-fashioned squeamishness and double standard about advertising liquor has made Crown Royal whiskey the forbidden fruit of the NASCAR circuit. What Crown Royal does sponsor is the International Race of Champions Series, which features NASCAR drivers competing against Indy car and sports car stars in identically prepared racecars, each emblazoned with the purple and gold Crown Royal logo, at NASCAR tracks such as Talladega Super Speedway.




150,000 NASCAR fans can’t be wrong. (click for larger version)

But booze is booze. Budweiser sponsors Dale Earnhardt, Jr. The first thing Earnhardt often does on network TV when celebrating a win is to chug a Bud tall boy before telling the interviewer that he’s going back home “to drink some more Bud.” Coors Light sponsors Sterling Marlin. Miller Lite sponsors the car of Rusty Wallace. Wallace has announced that the 2005 season will be his last, and what has he titled his farewell tour? “Rusty’s Last Call.” Bobby Allison used to drive a gold Miller car that looked like a can of Miller zooming around the track. The NASCAR series that often runs on Saturdays in tandem with Sunday Nextel Cup races is sponsored by Busch beer. Rednecks running moonshine whiskey on the back roads of North Carolina and Virginia in the 1950s and ’60s were grooming themselves to become some of NASCAR’s greatest drivers ever. (Check out Tom Wolfe’s enticing 1965 Esquire essay about stock car legend Junior Johnson, “The Last American Hero is Junior Johnson. Yes!”)

According to AutoWeek magazine, NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter has this explanation: “Yes, TV plays a big part in it. Over the years it [NASCAR] has taken the stance that it’s not in their best interest to advertise liquor and spirits. But climates change, and it’s not like we said we’d never consider it. Network TV doesn’t accept it, and they account for a big portion of sports revenue. It makes sense for us to track that. If it’s acceptable to them tomorrow or later on, that would put a different light on it.” Never mind that Jim Beam currently sponsors an Indy Racing League [IRL] car, or that the IRL runs many of its races at tracks affiliated with NASCAR, and it telecasts races live on ABC.

Some things never change, however, such as that strange twist of human evolution known as the drunken NASCAR fan. Last spring at Talladega, Jeff Gordon, the most despised driver, beat the most popular, Earnhardt Jr. But most disconcerting to the inebriated was that a crash that occurred with a handful of laps remaining forced the race to finish under a caution flag, a situation in which drivers must reduce their speed and maintain their positions, except for pit stops. Feeling deprived of the possibility of a last-minute race to the finish line, hundreds of intoxicated louts hurled Budweiser cans at Gordon’s car as he slowly took the checkered flag. Several weeks later, a race at Pocono Raceway also ended under caution, prompting one irate drunk to toss a cooler at the flagman waving the checkered flag.

Some drivers don’t change, either. Tony Stewart punched rookie Brian Vickers after a race at Sonoma, California. Stewart has a history that includes shoving matches in the garage area after races, throwing things at competitors on the track during cautions, trying to pull racers from their cars, and once knocking a tape recorder out of a reporter’s hand. After Stewart wrecked rookie Kasey Kahne at Chicagoland Speedway this year, Khane’s entire crew charged down pit road during the race to confront Stewart’s crew in a free-for-all. “He definitely needs to get suspended, and he should have his ass beat,” assessed Khane’s car owner Ray Evernham. “That’s the problem with him. Nobody has ever really grabbed him and given him a good beating.” Evernham then offered to administer the whipping himself. Tony Stewart’s legendary temper is refreshing, however, in light of NASCAR’s perpetual attempts to clean up the sport’s image. Ironically, Stewart has often said that Talladega race fans are the worst-behaved on the NASCAR circuit.

Porsche 250 at Barber Track

Birmingham’s lush new Barber Motorsports Park will host the Rolex Grand American Sports Car Series on October 10. The Porsche 250 won’t pack in 150,000 like Talladega does (and George Barber is probably fine with that), but staging this year’s race in October instead of May is expected to attract more than last year’s weekend attendance of 25,000. And while it won’t make network TV, it will be broadcast around the world on the international SPEED Channel.

The racing entry field is expected to be larger this year, as the Rolex Series has more than doubled the number of Daytona Prototypes to almost 20. Sports-cars typically race several classifications on the track at the same time. This year the Grand American Series will have three classes—the futuristic Daytona Prototype (the fastest), GT, and GTS. It’s basically three races held at once, and the added excitement is that they get in each other’s way from time to time.

Several high-profile names have entered the Grand American fray this season. NASCAR and Indy Racing League team owner Chip Ganassi, who will have his drivers Sterling Marlin, Casey Mears, and Jamie McMurray racing at Talladega, has a Daytona Prototype with former Indianapolis 500 stars Max Papis and Scott Pruett sharing driving chores. (Sports-car racing typically has a driver change during a race.) Hurley Haywood will compete with co-driver J.C. France (son of NASCAR magnate Jim France) in the renowned Number 59 Brumos Porsche, winner of last year’s race at the Barber track. Haywood is world-famous for his three wins at Le Mans and his five victories at the 24 Hours of Daytona. The addition this year of NASCAR stars Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and Kyle Petty to Grand American races when there isn’t a NASCAR event has increased the racing league’s profile in 2004. If that doesn’t impress you, movie star Paul Newman drove with Petty at the Rolex Series opener, the 24 Hours of Daytona. Appropriately, Newman’s car number matched his age—79.

For those NASCAR fans who have a tendency to snub sports-car racing, it’s more compelling than you realize. Watching two or three Daytona Prototypes banging one another as they compete for one of the Barber track’s numerous tight corners is a thrill you’ll never experience at Talladega. And if the weather’s bad, just bring an umbrella. Unlike the NASCAR boys, the sports-car men aren’t afraid to race in the rain. &

The Ride of a Lifetime




The view from inside. (click for larger version)

Seven years ago I took my turn behind the wheel of a Camaro racecar at Birmingham International Raceway [BIR]. I had been working on a story about drivers at BIR, and one thoughtful gentleman named Sluggo asked if it would help to take his car for a spin around the half-mile oval racetrack, the third-oldest track in America behind Wisconsin’s Milwaukee Mile and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I arrived at the track on a July Sunday afternoon, slipped into a fireproof driving uniform, strapped on a helmet, and did 25 or so laps. It was fun, but I pretty much shamed myself with my lame speed. As I brought the car around for one final lap, terror struck when I applied the brake pedal to come into the pits. There were absolutely no brakes. I circled one more time, as it takes a while to roll to a stop when you’re going 90 mph.

Laughing not only at my timidness to “put some speed on that thing,” but also that the brakes had given out, Sluggo told me I wouldn’t achieve the full experience until I had been out on the track with other cars. He wasn’t kidding. Toward summer’s end, I arrived at the track one Friday night for that evening’s races. Sluggo turned the Camaro over to me during the 7 p.m. practice session for street stock cars, the classification in which he raced. I would be more or less “mixing it up” with a dozen other cars at race speeds. Having already thrown up once from fear when I heard the engines being revved at deafening levels after arriving at the track, I was literally shaking when I climbed into the racecar. The worried expression on Sluggo’s face suggested that he was beginning to have second thoughts about putting me out there with others. Nevertheless, he reassured me that the brake failure a couple weeks earlier had been rectified. I’ll never forget his final instructions before I drove off: “And if you wreck it, buddy, don’t worry about it . . . ’cause we’re just out here to have fun.” With those words of encouragement, I attempted to merge onto the track as half a dozen cars careened out of turn four at more than 100 mph.

Somehow I put the car into the middle of race traffic, and away I went. I held on for dear life as cars passed me on the right and left, often at the same time. There were no side mirrors on the Camaro, just a wide rearview mirror above the dash. The full-face helmet and painfully tight seat harnesses that strapped me to the seat with no room to move allowed for near zero peripheral vision. I’ll never forget the sight of several cars in my rearview mirror. Ahead, a car had slowed, which meant that I would have to pass someone as three cars were coming around me. I sweated bullets and somehow stayed out for 10 noble laps. Poking through the corners, I would slam the accelerator all the way to the floor as I exited the second and fourth turns, which meant I was blasting down the straightaways [approximately 120 yards in length] at a top speed of maybe 90 mph before having to turn left again. On the tenth lap, the car’s rear went out of control in a fishtail-style maneuver as I tried to pick up my speed between turns three and four. I gripped the steering wheel firmly to brace myself for impact, either with a wall or another car. I knew from many years of watching races at BIR that I’d probably have to fight whomever I wrecked . . . if I was still conscious. But, amazingly, the car straightened out as I lifted off the accelerator. (The pros know you often step on the gas to straighten out a sliding car, but I didn’t have that much courage.) In fact, I barely touched the accelerator again as I crept down the back stretch of the track with my tail safely tucked between my legs. The brakes worked this time. For the rest of my life, whenever I watch Sunday afternoon racing and the telecast shows the driver’s view from the in-car camera, I’m able to say that I’ve been there . . . sorta.

Smoot’s Grandstanding Fools No One

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2004-09-09 News

Smoot’s Grandstanding Fools No One

County Commissioner Shelia Smoot turns a deaf ear to her constituency.

By Ed Reynolds

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September 09, 2004

“You talk about poor people? I HAVE LIVED BELOW THE POVERTY LINE! Me! I went to a poor school! I didn’t have new books!” bellowed County Commissioner Shelia Smoot. Minutes earlier at the August 24 Jefferson County Commission meeting, Smoot joined Commissioners Larry Langford and Mary Buckelew to approve Commission President Langford’s one-cent tax increase to fund capital projects for the 11 school districts in the county. Langford’s $1 billion school bond proposal has been largely frowned upon due to his rush to get the plan passed. It was first brought to public attention on August 12.

The tax, which does not apply to automobiles and boats, goes into effect January 1, 2005. Fairfield (where Langford served as mayor), Midfield, Tarrant, and Lipscomb will each now have a sales tax of 10 percent. Birmingham will have a nine-percent rate. The tax is expected to be retired when the bonds are paid off around the year 2019. State law allows the commission to implement the tax without public approval.

Smoot purportedly wanted public input to help her make her decision, but it was obvious that she had already decided how she would vote.

Smoot was the so-called “undecided” swing vote, a dramatic role in which she obviously reveled. The night before the commission vote, Smoot held a public hearing in her district at More Than Conquerors Faith Church. Smoot purportedly wanted public input to help her make her decision, but the hearing was a ruse, as it was obvious that she had already decided how she would vote. Several large signs promoting the benefits of the tax increase were posted throughout the room, with one conspicuously mounted in front of the speaker’s podium. It read “A Penny for our Children.” From the outset, Smoot referred to the proposal as “a plan that is going to be historical, a plan that is going to be significant.” The preacher offering the invocation tried to enlist divine intervention. “I invite the Father to help us with the plans. . . . Thank you God for synchronizing our hearts.” He finished by asking God to give Smoot “a mouth of wisdom.” She nodded her head in accord.

Despite Smoot’s claim the next day that only 50 people showed up for the hearing, more than 75 people attended. The overwhelming majority were either opposed to the tax or requested that the County Commission delay their vote. Only four people spoke in favor, including, of all people, the hearing’s moderator, James Williams, from radio station 98.7 KISS FM. Though he insisted that he, like Smoot, had yet to make up his mind on the tax, his words indicated otherwise: “History shows that the lottery didn’t pass, MAPS didn’t pass. If a penny will change our schools, why not do it?”

“Ladies and gentlemen, bricks don’t teach,” said Ronald Jackson, executive director of Citizens for Better Schools and People United. Birmingham resident James King called the plan “a new tax for the new Jim Crow system.” Then he warned county residents that they “may as well bend over and grab their ankles.” A Fairfield resident complained, “This thing has been shoved down our throats!” John Harris of Concerned Citizens for Social Change said that he had not received enough information to make a decision, then asked Smoot to vote “no.” Retired teacher Beatrice Royster said the plan does not really address education, noting that people tend to wrongly think that education is a money problem. She eloquently explained that the purpose of an education is to “teach people how to live and make intelligent decisions.”

At meeting’s end, Smoot continued her diatribe. “Same people with the same rhetoric” was her take on the public hearing. Smoot wants new ideas. She griped that residents are leaving Birmingham, and that highway improvements are allowing potential shoppers to bypass the city. She left little doubt regarding which side she was on, observing, “All the people that are for it are at home, and all the people against it are here!” Stating that she and her family had received threats because of the plan, Smoot was almost in tears. “I will not be turned around. I will not be intimidated . . . This ain’t a black and white issue.” She urged residents to stop by her office anytime. “You don’t have to make no appointment,” she added.

The next day, at the weekly County Commission meeting, Commissioner Larry Langford wandered into the packed audience to berate an opponent of his tax plan. “When you come down here to get contracts, and begging for money, you don’t want a referendum then!” Langford thundered. Commissioner Mary Buckelew said that her 30 years of experience in education prompted her to “feel comfortable with this.” Buckelew added that 25 years of proration were being addressed, saying that those schools that don’t need the money “can give it to the systems that do.”

Back on the dais, Langford’s demeanor now as composed as the meticulously coiffed gray curls on his head, he claimed that he only received one phone call against his tax plan. The commission president then turned his venom on commissioner Bettye Fine Collins, who lost on a motion to take the tax increase to a public vote. “[Collins] didn’t ask for a vote when she got the previous commission to pay for her college education,” Langford said with a smirk. “If I had proposed a penny to build prisons, nobody would be outraged because we are scared to death of our own kids. But we say, ‘Let’s come back and take a penny and add more seats to Legion Field so Alabama will play football there.’” Recognizing the quality education offered by the Hoover, Homewood, Vestavia, and Mountain Brook school systems, Langford made a bizarre comment: “In order to have something good, you have to have something bad to compare it to. We’ve got plenty of bad. It’s time to fix it.”

Commissioner Gary White told the others on the commission that his district, which includes Mountain Brook, Vestavia, and Hoover, is financially stable. White said that yearly reevaluation of property values will adequately provide the money needed for schools. “The people of my district recognize the value of education and have addressed that. They have passed taxes to support education in their communities,” he explained, adding, “I have not heard the outcry for this in my district.” Smoot quickly responded. “Your schools are doing what they’re supposed to be doing. That community does the right thing,” she said. She praised the more affluent municipalities—Hoover, Homewood, Mountain Brook, and Vestavia—for “building playgrounds or moving dollars for schools.” Adopting the tone of a Baptist preacher, she continued: “Now let me tell you where some of the kids in my district come from. They come from a lot of different circumstances that they can’t control at home—environments that some of you wouldn’t put your dog or cat into. . . . You get in your Lexus! You get in your Cadillac! You get in your Mercedes! Go out over the mountain to spend your money! How many of you are gonna go to Midfield today and buy some lunch? How many of you are going to Lipscomb and buy some lunch? . . . People don’t even stop in Lipscomb to get gas!” Smoot was on a roll, and it got stranger as she ranted. “You go out to Tarrant. I had to go through there every day holding my nose from the ABC Coke plant,” she shouted. “You go out to the Food Fair. And you look in the grocery store. And the next time you go pick up something in those communities, they’re selling expired food! Expired meat, people!”

She complained that when her old high school closed, the surrounding school systems refused to take the students. “And when you do take ‘em, you put ‘em in Special Ed!” she scolded. Smoot then criticized those in the county who had not attended her public hearing. “I had 50 people at a public hearing, and 25 of them will come to anything and kill everything, and are paid off under the table to come and shoot at me! Well, guess what? You missed!” There was a slight pause as Smoot dropped her voice to a near whisper and hissed, “You missed.” &

Hoover Faces Crossroads Election

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2004-08-12 News

Hoover Faces Crossroads Election

It’s far too late to rescue Hoover from its urban sprawl nightmare, but voters are going to the polls anyway.

By Ed Reynolds

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August 12, 2004

For the first time in its history, the city of Hoover will be electing a full-time mayor on August 24. Nine days before the election, the city is scheduled to christen its controversial new Hoover Public Safety Building (located at Valleydale Road and Highway 31), a municipal behemoth that has mayoral candidates foaming at the mouth as they castigate incumbent Mayor Barbara McCollum for saddling Hoover with a project that currently has an estimated $32 million price tag. The structure, which was purchased for just over $7 million, has been described by various mayoral candidates as a white elephant, an albatross, a municipal monstrosity, and a Taj Mahal. Toss in a couple of other red-hot issues like unimpeded development and the booming Hispanic population, and McCollum’s opponents agree that Hoover is at a crossroads of unparalleled significance.

“One of the greatest mistakes our city has ever made,” proclaims candidate Bob Lochamy regarding the new public safety center. Lochamy is a one-time restauranteur, former radio personality, and public-relations and media consultant who peppers his campaign diatribes with quotes from former Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant. While acknowledging Hoover’s need to expand municipal services to a larger facility, he grumbles that a location other than right across the street from a sign that reads “Welcome to Pelham” might have been more prudent. McCollum’s decision to purchase and move into the new public safety center was inexcusable, according to Lochamy. “If we could impeach or recall an elected official such as our mayor, then, in my opinion, this issue is an impeachable or recall offense.”

Candidate Tony Petelos, former commissioner of the Alabama Department of Human Resources under two governors, and a three-term member of the state House of Representatives, refers to the public safety center as the “albatross down the street.” Petelos explains: “I felt like there wasn’t enough planning and enough information when they bought the building, and now we’re paying for it. The Mayor says it came in under budget, but the problem with that statement is that they didn’t put the police department there. The plan was to move all the police down there. All they’re doing is moving the jail and supervisors. So they’re calling it a public safety center without any police.”

“It’s just a time bomb ticking. It’s not just the day laborers and congestion. There’s a myriad of problems. The core of our city is deteriorating. . . . It is frightening to consider how precarious our future is . . . ” —Hoover mayoral candidate Bob Lochamy

Mayoral candidate and current Hoover City Councilor Jody Patterson calls the public safety center debacle “the biggest government waste project I’ve ever seen. It just blows me away that we waste taxpayers’ money like that. I’m just amazed that the general public has not gone ballistic over what the Mayor did,” said Patterson, adding that a Wal-Mart Supercenter and two Kmarts could fit inside the renovated building.

Candidate Walter Mims said the public safety center “is probably something we need, but I really don’t have much of an opinion. It’s probably something we’ll grow into.” But regarding economics and the blight that results from out-of-control development, Mims would like to see more focus on Highway 31, “the centerpiece” of Hoover. “We’ve got to do something to help the small businesses, which are the catalyst for everything. One of the first things I would do is create a small business council. And I might say ‘no more Wal-Marts!’”

Lochamy pledges to hire an economic development officer, preferably former local sports tycoon Art Clarkson. Lochamy would also like to see a 12,000-seat arena and a water theme park built in Hoover. He envisions revitalization of Lorna Road as a necessary step to ensure that Hoover has a stable, progressive future, and earlier had suggested that several apartment complexes on Lorna Road be demolished so that the new public safety building could go there. “We have a disproportionate number of apartment complexes located in a very tight area. It’s just a time bomb ticking. It’s not just the day laborers and congestion. There’s a myriad of problems. The core of our city is deteriorating,” says Lochamy. “. . . It is frightening to consider how precarious our future is . . . ”

To address blight, Patterson wants to “eliminate subsidizing new developments.” Patterson believes developers have gotten very good at pitting city against city with promises and financial incentives. “Let the market dictate which stores survive. When the demand for a new shopping center is there, the supply will come.”

“If we’re going to do new developments, let’s bring in some new type of retail, like the Bass Pro Shops, says Petelos. “We’re reshuffling Hoover businesses and putting some Hoover businesses at risk because there’s so much competition. . . . If we didn’t annex any more land, there’s still 30 percent undeveloped land in the city of Hoover. There’s a lot of growth potential available. So we need to do a better job with land-use planning. We need a master plan; we need a long-range strategic plan; we need a housing code.”

More than one candidate warns of the “Hispanic problem,” and the implementation of housing codes to limit how many people may occupy an apartment. “All we’re doing is attracting more illegals to the city of Hoover,” warns Petelos. He suggests that Hoover meet with surrounding municipalities and approach the federal government to urge that an INS officer be brought in, with local governments paying part or all of the salary. “So that we’ll have a presence here, so that when we have these illegals we can process them,” explains Petelos. “The problem now is that the Feds aren’t interested in processing them because they’re overburdened because there are only two INS officers in the state. We need to pull our head out of the sand and figure out how we’re going to address it without violating people’s constitutional rights, without violating the legal immigrants’ rights.”

Lochamy fears the gathering of Hispanics at day laborer pickup spots for those seeking work is getting out of control, but admits that area residents are to blame for perpetuating the problem. “We have to look in the mirror. Those who are hiring the day laborers and violating worker’s compensation and payroll taxes [are to blame].”

In addition to limiting the number of people sharing an apartment, Patterson wants to enforce driver’s license and automobile insurance laws. “If they’re illegal, they’re not welcome. If they’re legal, it doesn’t matter what race you are, what culture you come from.”

“With the unemployment low [1.8 percent in Hoover], we need the Hispanic population,” says Mims. “To a certain extent we exploit them, but to a certain extent they take advantage of things, too. Most of them want to be useful, and be contributors to society. . . . We need to get them started a little earlier on getting their kids to learning the language because that really slows them down in our schools. And it kind of holds some of our other kids back, too. We’re getting to be a diverse community, and I think there’s room for all of us.”

Despite repeated requests for an interview, Hoover Mayor Barbara McCollum was unavailable before press deadline.