Smith’s Flamboyance Doesn’t Quite Fit at New Hampshire
Written by Tiffany Ricardo · June 28, 2008
The changes were obvious as soon as the speedway came into view. Darkness was falling, and the ever-present evening campfire haze hung over New Hampshire International…oops, I mean New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Darkness was falling as we made the right turn off rural Route 106, and we made our way past the field with the decrepit, cartoonish statue of the Loch Ness Monster we’ve never quite understood and quaint businesses with names like “Sharan’s Critters.”
The signage is the first thing you notice in the darkness. Whereas the speedway used to be almost eerily dark and quiet as twilight fell, the giant new SMI logo and the track’s new name in neon block letters march proudly along the back of the grandstands, lighting everything like a Hollywood movie set.
The infield hasn’t changed much - yet. The Sprint Cup and Nationwide cars are still crammed in with the Camping World and Modified cars. The garages and the media center are still desperately overcrowded. Trying to maneuver a vehicle in or out of the tunnel is like running an obstacle course partially blindfolded. Somehow, though, it all works. It’s tradition here to cram as many machines and human beings as possible into close proximity of one another.
Evidently, that was also to include animals this weekend. New Speedway GM Jerry Gappens, a long-timer with SMI, decided that it would be cool to have elephant races as part of Sunday’s pre-race ceremonies. That’s right - real, live elephants.
However, it was discovered too late that no one had obtained the proper permits to transport the elephants across state lines. So, sadly, the elephant races were cancelled. I’m sure whomever was slated to drive the “clean up” cart behind the elephants was relieved. It’s bad enough when the Clydesdales show up.
You can’t blame the new regime for trying to make a grand entrance at their new facility, but elephant races are a little much. It is very evident that Gappens was a student of the recently-departed Humpy Wheeler, who was the king of extravagant pre-race shenanigans.
It’s highly unlikely, though, that the die-hard New England fans, most of whom are still convinced that they will lose one of their races to Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the near future, would be impressed by elephants lumbering down the frontstretch. All they want to see on the track is race cars, and no amount of hoopla is going to make much of an impression.
Sadly, quaint, quirky, circus-free New Hampshire is no more. Of course, I suppose it took the folks in Bristol a while to get used to the giant Sharpies, too.
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