Camping Is Part Of the Bristol Experience For Many Race Fans

BRISTOL, Tenn. – The first time Sean Schramm visited Bristol Motor Speedway, the sky opened up and poured rain.

Buckets of rain.

Enough rain so that Schramm’s sleeping bag, tent and clothes eventually became useless, and his wife, Misty, was forced to make sure their soaked possessions didn’t float away in the night.

"It rained 28 hours straight. We were freezing, and everything just flooded," said Sean Schramm, 42, from Arena, Wis. "We came down thinking ... it’d be nice and beautiful down here; we brought shorts and stuff for summer. Then we get down here ... and it turned on us."

As he spoke, Misty Schramm shook her head in full agreement.

"It was bad," she added.

By most accounts, the Schramms should have been miserable.

They weren’t. They loved it.

They endured the rain, made the best out of a bad situation, and topped off their first trip to Bristol in 2004 by loudly cheering on their NASCAR heroes once the sky finally cleared.

The Schramms haven’t missed a NASCAR race at BMS since.

"This is the best place in the country to see a race, hands down," said Sean Schramm, standing in front of a campsite filled with Jeff Gordon gear. "Now, we’re prepared. Last fall, we brought a camper here, and we’ve basically been going on from there. If you look at our clothes, we’ve got the tarps, we’ve got the snowshoes. ... Everybody’s saying it’s cold down here; it’s beautiful down here."

The couple, who set up their camp near a small creek that borders the speedway’s south entrance, loosely decorated their area this year with multicolored paper lanterns, Gordon memorabilia, flattened-out empty Miller Light boxes, and a silver Dodge Caravan covered in red and white "Badgers Big 10 Champs!" graffiti.

And they added another Schramm to the mix this time around.

Shay, 4, rolled Tonka trucks through a makeshift sandbox within sight of the concrete oval where his father’s favorite driver will make a stand this weekend.

"We were going to have a birthday party for [Shay] down here; then NASCAR moved the race up," the father said. "But this is still like his birthday. He loves this."

As if on cue, Sean Schramm pointed toward the large exterior of Bristol Motor Speedway.

It was early Wednesday morning, and a few race trailers were beginning to pull in and stake out space.

A bright orange trailer, covered with the No. 20 and a large Home Depot logo, gleamed in the sun.

"Who’s that?" Sean Schramm asked his son.

The boy dropped his truck down in the sand and looked up at his dad.

"Who’s that?" he asked his son again.

Shay caught sight of an all-too-familiar face, threw his hands up and frowned.

"Tony Stewart. Ugh!" he replied.

"See? He’s already getting the hang of it," his father said proudly.

Meanwhile, as the Schramms were starting their day, four die-hard race fans from the upper East Coast were finishing off a box of pizza, cracking open 1 p.m. beers, and enjoying the warmth of the sun as they sat beneath a canopy that stretched out from the roof of their camper.

"You can’t beat the atmosphere here. I love the short track, and I just love the type of racing that goes on here," said Steve Bawolak, 35, of Mohawk, N.Y. "I even like the spring race more than the one in the fall. The weather’s usually better. When you’re in New York all winter, you can just come down here and get away from all the snow and the 30-degree days."

Bawolak stayed in a hotel the first time he took in a NASCAR race in Bristol. But he found the costs prohibitive and decided to try camping. He loved it.

Camping, Bawolak quickly decided, was the way to go. Now, he wouldn’t take in race week any other way.

"You can just relax and enjoy things," Bawolak said. "You don’t have to rush. You can sleep in. You can do whatever you want for a few days, and then see the races."

Still, as relaxed and content as Bawolak was, he couldn’t resist offering a suggestion or two for a sport he strongly supports on an annual basis with his hard-earned dollars.

"I think the corporate stuff has hurt the fans. [NASCAR is] really steering towards the money – the big dollar," he said. "You used to be able to get into the garage. Now, you really can’t. And we come down here every year, but it’s always the same drivers signing autographs every year. Some of the guys we’ve never even seen, Jeff Gordon, Dale [Earnhardt] Jr. And some of the drivers won’t even wave to you if you see them. It used to not be like that. Someone like Ricky Rudd, he always waved back at you."

btsmith@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2569