Funny, i was at that event also. You must live in N.C. Really enjoyed that win. Funny, pace laps were so slow at Hickory, you could lean up against the fence and see the cigarette hangin out of his mouth during caution laps.
Actually I live about 2.5 hours away in Greenville SC. I just loved the track, and especially the intimate setting, as you noted, you could see it all there. So I made the drive.
Watching 30 plus Busch Grand National cars buzz around that 3/8 mile joint is absolutely the most enjoyable races I have ever watched anywhere, anytime. I went to every Busch GN I could there, and I was never disappointed.
The first one I saw, Tommy Houston and Jack Ingram ran almost door to door for 80 laps. That was amazing, there's nothing like seeing two old pros duke it out on a short track. I don't have enough superlatives, it has both a beastly and a graceful element. But Larry Pearson won the race.
In 1989, I took my future ex to see one the BGN races there. She was a preacher's daughter, and I told her she would love racing at Hickory, what could go wrong?
We got there just before the races started, and it was always packed for those races, really crowded..
The guys behind us was rowdy, and I smelt them smoking dope. In all of my years of racing that was the only time I ever sensed anything like that. They even harassed the guy walking around selling souvenirs.
Well, she held the racing against me afterwards, even when I ran a few cars myself, she just wasn't into the racing.
But that's ok, the 1989 race was a barn burner. Jimmy Spencer spun Dale Jarrett out for the win, and that's the most p.o.'d Jarrett, I ever saw. He bumped Spencer's car when he stopped for the front stretch interview. He also promised to make Jimmy pay, this was Hickory, and Dale wanted to win in his backyard.
My favorite part of that race was a Robert Pressley maneuver, Robert was just getting started in BGN at time. He drove a solid black #59 unsponsered and owned by Brad Daughety.
Robert spun out and stoped backwards about 100 feet in front of the flag, and they raced back to the flag in those days. As the leaders ran through three and four Robert decided he wasn't going to loose a lap. So Robert slams the gas, does a perfect 180 and nails the gas back to the caution flag, in doing so he charged directly toward the leaders head on. You have to know Hickory to appreciate the moment, cause those Busch cars looked Hellacious coming off of turn four, it was the wildest move I ever saw. You was so close to the heat at Hickory, when a guy hits the wall of front of you, you get tense and recoil, as it looks like it coming straight at you.
Robert's move didn't work, the leader beat him to the line anyway. But that move had me talking fast for a week. Robert's cup career fizzled, but at that race, he had nerves of steel, he was the man.
Sorry this is a Trickle thread, I just got carried away remembering the short tracks. Their the the best imo, and Trickle was one of the giants.