Hurricane Jimmy

   It's the annual autumn race weekend again at Martinsville Speedway, and once more a terrible storm coincidentally is threatening the United States.

   Hurricane Wilma is blowing through the Caribbean toward Florida.

   Sixteen years ago the ill wind was Hurricane Hugo, which tore through the Carolinas on the Thursday and Friday of Martinsville's fall date on the NASCAR calendar.  Hugo caused $7 billion in damage and took several lives.

   The 1989 storm hit the Charlotte area on Sept. 21-22 with 100 mph winds--some of the highest ever recorded in the Piedmont section of the Carolinas--and created all kinds of havoc with widespread loss of power, roads blocked by fallen trees, flooded rivers, bridges down and so forth. 

   Hugo, which after making landfall amazingly continued to twist powerfully for more than 200 miles, also disrupted the racing plans of some drivers, including superstar Dale Earnhardt.

   And therein lies my somewhat amusing tale relating to the hurricane and the Goody's 500 of '89 at Martinsville Speedway.

  At the time I lived at Mint Hill, N.C., a suburb just east of Charlotte.

  Incredulous weather forecasters on TV warned through that Thursday evening that the area was going to be hit very hard, likely with hurricane-force winds.  I went to bed thinking, "They've got to be wrong.  The rolling hills of the Piedmont will cause the storm to weaken rapidly."

  Was I wrong!

  A roar awakened me around 2 a.m.  It was just like I'd heard victims of storms describe on television so many times before.  It sounded as if a locomotive was bearing down.

  I pulled the drapes in the den and saw trees bending to the ground and being uprooted.  Torrents of rain splashed against the sliding glass door.  In the distance, flashes of green eerily lit the horizon--a tornado was ripping apart power poles, causing transformers to blow.

   Of course, the power went off.

  My daughter Heather, 15 at the time, and I huddled together in the darkness.

  Dawn brought us some idea of the scope of the damage.  A giant tree in the front yard had snapped like a matchstick.  Luckily, it fell away from the house.  Had it fallen the other way and smashed into our home, no telling what our fate might have been.

   I was scheduled to leave for Martinsville that morning to cover the 500 as motorsports writer for The Charlotte Observer.

   "No way the race will go on," I told Heather.  "The area is too devastated.  The race probably will be postponed."

   Around noon that Friday I somehow was able to reach the speedway's Dick Thompson by telephone.  "We're on go," said Thompson.  "The storm went well west of us."

   I told Heather she'd have to go to Virginia for the weekend with me.  We had no power, and since our home was on a well, no water either.

   We left Mint Hill about 2 p.m.  Downed trees blocked the route I'd normally drive, so I had to "run a zig-zag course" and go far out of the way, ad-libbing as a motorist to get out of the area.  Scenes of damage started to diminish after we reached Salisbury.

   We arrived at a nearly-deserted speedway parking lot around 5 p.m.  Geoff Bodine was just pulling out as we pulled in.  I waved Geoff and his black IROC-Camaro to a stop.

   "I know I've missed qualifying," I said.  "Did you win the pole again?"

   Geoff Bodine is the second best qualifier in Martinsville Speedway's long history of holding major NASCAR races.  His seven No. 1 starts are surpassed only by Darrell Waltrip's eight poles.

   Bodine chuckled.

   "Nope, it wasn't me," he replied.  "I was third fastest."

   "Darrell, then?"

   "Nope, Darrell was second."

   "Well, dammit Geoff, who won the pole?"

   "That would be Jimmy Hensley."

   I was stunned.

  "JIMMY HENSLEY!!!!????

  "But he doesn't have a ride!!!!"

  Bodine grinned mischievously.  He was enjoying messing with me.

  "He did today.  Jimmy was in Earnhardt's car.  He filled in and drove for Richard Childress.  Dale couldn't get here because of the hurricane."

   This was a BIG story.

   Jimmy Hensley was a popular local hero from nearby Ridgeway, Va.  He had won modified division races at Martinsville, and he'd enjoyed success on the Busch Series/Grand National tour.  But in 23 starts at the Winston Cup level between 1972-88 he'd never led a single lap.

   Now Hensley, nearing 44 at the time and driving an oil truck making deliveries around his home area when he wasn't racing, had taken a pole in a situation that screamed for headlines.

   Magnifying his accomplishment was the fact that Earnhardt hadn't qualified fastest in over two years!

   "I'm just glad that I was able to help out Richard Childress and Dale," said the likable, modest Hensley, timed at 91.913 mph on the paper clip-shaped short track.  "They were in a bind.  "I'm flattered that Richard trusted me enough to let me drive his car."

   Earnhardt was unable to get to Martinsville for time trials because he had to make sure that  family members weren't hurt during Hugo's passage.  Also, there was extensive damage to his farm near Mooresville, N.C., and some livestock had roamed away through downed fences and had to be captured and returned to the pastures.

   Earnhardt was back in the No. 3 Chevrolet for the Goody's 500 and finished ninth as Waltrip won the race.  Rusty Wallace finished fourth en route to edging Earnhardt for the '89 Winston Cup championship.

   And Jimmy Hensley?  He watched the race as a spectator.

  However, in winning the pole, Hensley qualified for the prestigious Busch Clash special event at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 11, 1990.

   Team owner Dick Moroso stepped up to provide Hensley a race car.

   In a storybook development, Hensley won the pole for The Clash in a drawing.  He already was the sentimental favorite.  Now, the decided underdog to the likes of Mark Martin, Bill Elliott, Ken Schrader and Wallace, had most of the sports world pulling for him.

   Back home in Ridgeway, the pastor at Jimmy's church had a TV brought in and set up in the sanctuary for that Sabbath so parishoners wouldn't have to rush home to watch Hensley race at Daytona.

   Alas, the seeming fairytale came to a disappointing end.

   The gear shifter broke off in Jimmy's hand as he came to the green flag.  He lost a lap and finished last among the 10 starters in the 50-mile sprint.

   However, Hensley had showed he could compete at NASCAR's top level and he was destined to run approximately 75 Winston Cup races in the next few years before turning to the Craftsman Truck Series.

  And he got his chance at the big time, at least in some part, because of a hurricane that hit during race week at Martinsville.