An Australian Adventure, Part V

 

PROLOGUE: In late February of 1988 NASCAR sanctioned what amounted to an exhibition race in Australia at a sparkling new speedway near Melbourne, The Thunderdome.  It held the potential of being a great adventure for those lucky enough to be going, including me.  The trip proved more than equal to the promise, including a dramatic victory by Neil Bonnett.  This is the final installment of a five-part series.

   My motorsports journalist pal, Steve Waid, and I were driving to The Thunderdome on  race morning of the Goodyear 500K in a fog.
   Not a meterological  mist, but one of the personal variety.
   We had lingerered too long--into the very wee hours--at the Old Melbourne Hotel's piano bar.  Friendly Australian racing fans, excited in the extreme to have NASCAR in their country, insisted on buying Steve and I, plus all the other Americans present, round-after-round of drinks.
   Additionally, the music was great.
   The pianist was a sleepy-eyed lookalike of Bobby Rahal, an Indy Car driver at the time who now fields cars for Danica Patrick.  In fact, we called him "Bobby."
   Steve and I arrived at the bar early--the first customers there, in fact--determined to stump the piano player.  That was something we'd been trying to do all week without success.  The man knew every song we suggested.
   "I think I've finally got him," I told Steve.
   "Hey, 'Bobby,' how about playin' the ol' San Antonio Rose!"

   
      

   The guy looked at me in disdain.
   Not only did he play the great Bob Wills classic,  he embellished it with a prelude.
   "I give up," I said.
   About this time a young couple walked in and joined us at the edge of the piano.
   Steve requested the song "Memory" from Cats.
   The young woman started singing--BEAUTIFULLY!
   We raved.  We told her we were going to be her agents.  We said we were going to take her home with us back to The States and make her a major star.
   She laughed, then sang show tune after show tune, even Gilbert & Sullivan.
   More young Aussies arrived and joined in the jolly, musical partying.  They sang marvelously, too.
   We offered to be their agents as well.
   Finally, an Australian sports writer I'd befriended sidled up to me and whispered, "They've strung you and Stevie-boy along far enough.  They're from the Australian company of Cats, and their show is 'black' tonight."
   Even being thoroughly embarassed couldn't force us from the bar.   Knowing full well we had a race to cover within a few hours, we nevertheless closed the place down.
   After about 45 minutes of  sleep we were off to the speedway a few miles away at Calder Park, leaving early in hopes of beating the traffic.
   As expected, the highway was jammed.  The race had created tremendous excitement Down Under.
   After a pre-race show worthy of Charlotte promoter Humpy Wheeler, who had advised Thunderdome founder Bob Jane, the main event began before a standing-room-only crowd of 46,000 that mobbed the new 1.15-mile track.
   The fans weren't to be disappointed.
   Neil Bonnett, Bobby Allison and Dave Marcis put on a thrilling performance, running inches apart and dicing for the lead.
   Some of us in the "Yank" media contingent jokingly commented the three drivers were in a "Blue Angels Formation."
   "You mean it's planned!?" an Aussie writer asked incredulously.
   Didn't say that.
   Whatever, Bonnett rolled to the checkered flag in a Pontiac, finishing .86 seconds of his friend and mentor, Allison, who was driving a Buick.  Marcis took third place in a Chevrolet, the only other driver to complete all 280 laps.
   It was a touched--and touching--Neil Bonnett who accepted the accolades of  Australian fans after scoring his second straight victory.  The Alabamian had won NASCAR Winston Cup Series' Pontiac 400 the previous Sunday at Richmond.
   The popular Bonnett unsuccessfully fought tears as he answered questions in a post-race interview held in a large tent behind pit road.  Allison and Marcis, flanking Bonnett, similarly had a tough time with their emotions.
   Bonnett had crushed his right leg the previous October in the Oakwood Homes 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.  It was an injury that seemed to threaten his racing career.
   "Not many people know how bad that wreck really was," said Bonnett.  "I busted my butt, and it almost led to me quitting, giving up ever racing again.
   "When I went through the therapy that was prescribed for me during the winter, I often had tears in my eyes because it hurt so bad and the regimen was so tough.  But I committed myself.  I made the decision then that I was going to use everything I had learned to go out and have a great season this year.
   "I said I wasn't going to be concerned about wrecking cars.  I wasn't going to be concerned about getting hurt.  I told myself, 'Neil, you can break your other leg, and it won't hurt as long as you do it while going for the lead.'
   "I'm convinced that I can come back from the injury that has left me limping pretty bad--and I'm sensitive about that--to have my best season."
   Bonnett shook his head.
   "I don't even know what this race paid to win," he continued.  "I don't care.
   "I just wanted to come down here and race door-to-door with somebody, like I did Bobby and Dave.  I wanted to give these fans and Bob Jane something to remember.  I hope we provided  those moments, and from the response at the end I think we did.  That means a lot to me.
   "By no means was this just another race.  I didn't think that, and I hope no one else does.  I'll be honest...When 'The Star Spangled Banner' is sung at a lot of races, I don't pay much attention.  I'm busy buckling into the car, getting my helmet adjusted and being sure the radio is right.
   "But down here today...Well, they had my buddy and fellow driver, Kyle Petty, sing our national anthem.  It meant so much to me that I stayed out of the car until it was over.  I got goose bumps hearing him and looking at our flag.  I dwelled on every word."
   At this point, it seemed as if Bonnett might not be able to go on, but he continued:
  "This race is so historic, I wish me and Bobby both could have won.  That would have been perfect.  But we know that doesn't happen.  It would have been a beautiful ending, considering our friendship.
   "I can tell this story now.  Those days after the Charlotte wreck, when I was in the hospital in Concord (N.C.) were the worst  I've ever known.  The people were wonderful, but the prognosis was that I was going to lose my leg.  I was crying.  I was really low.
   "Then Bobby came by.  He was very firm.  He said, 'You can't give up.  I won't let you give up.'   That reassured me.
   "And what a fate life deals.  Here we are battling each other for the first NASCAR victory in Australia.  I know Bobby Allison, and if I hadn't raced him for it he would have eat my fanny out."
   An Aussie journalist asked Bonnett, who led the final 35 laps in averaging 101.670 mph, what he might do if the leg injury starts acting up later in the Winston Cup season.
   "After having all the fun of winning down here, I don't care if it hurts like a toothache the rest of the year," answered Bonnett.  "It'll just be along for the ride."
   For about the tenth time I had to wipe the tears from my cheeks.
   I looked around, and most of the Aussie fans who were standing 10-to-15 deep at the ropes around the tent were crying, too.
   I went over to ask one of them his assessment of all that transpired that day.  His name was Peter Gray, a house painter from Calder Park.
   I'll remember forever what he said:
   "I'm a man of modest means.  But I bought tickets and brought my four sons here because I felt they were going to see Australian history in the making.  They've been excited beyond belief, and that excites me beyond belief.
   "Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt are the Yank drivers we'd really like to see.  For now, though, our hearts belong to Neil Bonnett."

   Epilogue:   Neil Bonnett returned to the U.S. to make it three victories in a row the following Sunday in the Goodwrench 500 at N.C. Motor Speedway.  It was the 18th and final big-time triumph of his career.  A head injury suffered in a crash during the TranSouth 500 at Darlington Raceway on April 1, 1990, sidelined Bonnett until late summer of 1993, when he began a comeback attempt as a driver, giving up his much-lauded job as a motorsports TV analyst.  Bonnett lost his life at age 47 on Feb. 11, 1994 when he crashed while practicing for the Daytona 500.
   Several NASCAR drivers returned Down Under for races at The Thunderdome in December of 1988 and December of '89.   The event featuring Winston Cup-type cars  was discontinued in 1990.  The Thunderdome's tri-oval track fell into disrepair some years ago and no longer is in use.  However, racing continues on the facility's road course.