BRISTOL, Tenn. – Kathy Davidson drove to the Bristol Motor Speedway from Manhattan, Ill., only to learn Friday she couldn’t smoke in the stands.
"This is ridiculous," she said while having a cigarette with some friends on a concourse-level picnic table where smoking is allowed.
"You’ve got the Constitution, and now the government is telling you what you can and cannot do in open air?"
In June, Gov. Phil Bredesen signed into law the Non-Smoker Protection Act, which prohibits smoking in all Tennessee public facilities, including sports arenas.
When the new law went into effect in October, speedway officials banned smoking in the grandstand, suites and terrace areas. Smokers are still allowed to light up in the speedway’s concourse area that runs beneath the stands.
"Smokers have rights too," said Kingsport, Tenn., native Misty Moore, who enjoyed her cigarette at Davidson’s table. "It’s open air."
Moore and Davidson insist they continue to do whatever possible to ensure non-smokers enjoy their trip to the race track.
The two women exhale their smoke straight up so as not to bother people around them, and they cup the cigarette in their hand when walking amongst the crowd.
"I would ask someone ‘Is it OK if I smoke?’ " said Wanda Akers, a Kingsport resident who also was smoking on the concourse. "I wouldn’t if they said no."
Akers also objected to what she saw as a double standard dealing with smoking and drinking. Smokers could only have a cigarette in the concourse level while people who were old enough to drink could do so just about anywhere.
"If they can drink and make a hazard on the road, I don’t see why I can’t smoke," she said. "A cigarette’s not gonna kill nobody but you."
But not every smoker at the speedway was against the new smoking ban.
Boone, N.C.’s Jimmy Pendleton smoked a cigarette on the concourse because he wanted to get out of the rain, not because it was the only place he could do so.
"I don’t mind coming up here," said Pendleton, who didn’t know about the smoking ban until he was asked about it. "If I wasn’t a smoker, I wouldn’t like it if someone was smoking next to me."
One fact about the smoking ban puzzled the folks who thought they were exiled to the concourse level – smoke rises and most of the grandstand’s seats are located directly above the concourse. So no matter what happens, non-smokers at the speedway will still be exposed to second-hand cigarette smoke.
"Rules are rules," said Pendleton, who added he once had dinner at a restaurant where he couldn’t smoke on the patio but he could smoke in the parking lot that surrounded the patio.
gmclean@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2518
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