The Media Tour's Twilight Zone

   What do Bear Bryant's death, the loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger and the Northridge Earthquake in California have in common?

  Almost unbelievably, each occurred during annual Media Tours conducted by Lowe's Motor Speedway as previews of upcoming NASCAR seasons.

  So did some other very spooky events that were major national and even international stories.

  I took part in the various tours from the inaugural in 1983 until my retirement just before the '97 gathering of motorsports journalist from around the country.  So many eerie things occurred that the undertakings came to have a Twilight Zone feel about them.

  Here's a partial list of the most bizarre, and some of the saddest.

  --On Jan. 26, 1983 two busloads of us returned to an upscale Charlotte hotel from visits to various racing shops in the area.  We were stunned to learn that legendary Alabama football coach Bear Bryant had died earlier that day of a heart attack.  He was only 69.  Practically all the Alabama newsmen taking part in the tour grimly packed and headed home immediately.  It was such a big story in their state they knew they would be needed to help cover it.

   --On. Jan. 28, 1986 tour participants had finished lunch at the Petty Enterprises shop in Level Cross, N.C., and were readying for a news conference with Richard Petty.  King Richard had just taken the microphone when an ashen-faced official of the track then known as Charlotte Motor Speedway approached and whispered in Petty's ear.  Petty paled, too, and announced that the Challenger had exploded shortly after lift-off, killing all seven on board.  Petty led a rush to a TV in the shop, and we watched that awful trail of smoke in horror.  A bit later, Petty said a few words about racing, then cut his session short in respect for the fallen astronauts.  We arrived back in Charlotte to find that The Observer, my "alma mater," had published a rare "extra edition" during the afternoon.  It featured a drawing by editorial cartoonist Doug Marlette that showed a bald eagle gazing into the stars with a tear in its eye.  That drawing helped Marlette win the Pulitzer Prize.

   --On Jan. 16, 1991 we boarded buses at a hotel not far from the speedway and motored across Charlotte to a steakhouse in Matthews where legendary drivers such as Bobby Allison, David Pearson, Dale Earnhardt and Petty were to be guests and provide fodder for columns.  As we arrived all the TVs mounted behind the bar and at other locations in the restaurant seemed to be exploding, and with good reason.  Operation Desert Storm had begun with the Gulf War allies' aerial bombardment of Iraq.  I vividly remember the chilling wave of patriotism that swept over everyone present.

   --On Jan. 16, 1994 I wrote a column for the next day's Observer about the many out-of-the-ordinary events that had spookily taken place during Media Tours, which this year was to begin on the 17th.  As I shaved in preparation to head into town to register for the opening day's press conferences, I heard a CNN announcer on the TV that was playing in my bedroom excitedly report there was breaking news.  It was breaking, all right.  An earthquake of 6.7 magnitude had hit Northridge, just 20 miles outside Los Angeles.  Damage was widespread, and, it turns out, 51 people were killed and approximately 9,000 injured.  Arriving at the tour's headquarters hotel, I received strange stares and comments about being psychic.

   --On Jan. 14, 1998, the Media Tour was shaken as perhaps never before (or since) with the shocking news that T. Wayne Robertson had been killed in a boating accident while on a duck hunting trip in Louisiana.  Many in the media taking part had heard Robertson speak only the day before in Winston-Salem at a breakfast concluding the annual National Motorsports Press Association convention.  For 14 years Robertson had headed R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company's Sports Marketing Enterprise, which included the Winston Cup Series, rising to the top after starting as a show car driver.  Aside from Bill France Jr., he was the most powerful person in NASCAR, and one of the most powerful in all of sports.  And now he was gone at only 48 years of age.  Eight years later, how--and when--Wayne Robertson died remains almost impossible to believe.

   All this probably is simply strange coincidence.

   Nevertheless, take note.

   This year, the Media Tour hosted by Lowe's Motor Speedway is scheduled Jan. 23-27.