BMS Not Always a Sellout Track

It was 9:30 on a cold and dreary Sunday morning.

The start of the Food City 500 was nearly five hours away, yet fans were already searching for their reserved seats inside Bristol Motor Speedway.

Over 160,000 fans were jammed into the half-mile palace of speed by the start of the race.

It was the 52^nd straight sellout at BMS, yet Gary Baker remembers when the BMS story centered more on survival than sellouts.

Along with his partner Lanny Hester, the Nashville attorney owned the speedway from 1976 to 1983.

"The year before we bought the track, I think there were less than 10,000 fans and around three media members here for the race," Baker said. "Nobody wanted to be at Bristol, most of all the drivers, because the track was just brutal."

This was the innocent era before blanket television coverage, mass marketing and the arrival crossover stars such as Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Promoters actually had to work to attract fans and sponsors.

Baker knew he had to make a dramatic move to attract folks to little Bristol, so he hit upon a bright idea in the fall of 1978.

"I talked to Lanny about converting our Saturday night August event into a night race," Baker said.

The August night race is now one of the most popular events in the entire motorsports world. Baker’s concept was met with skepticism, however.

"Basically everybody we talked to said we were crazy. They told us to not even think about running a Cup race at night because you can’t do it," Baker said. "The only person we talked to that favored the idea was [promoter] Humpy Wheeler at Lowe’s Motor Speedway."

Hester and Baker ignored the critics, then moved forward with the creativity of the Iowa-based Musco lighting company, which provided the temporary lighting.

"We talked it over and said ‘What do we have to lose.’ We couldn’t give away tickets as it was. Lights were a big experiment, but we saw instant success," Baker said.

As more fans made the trek to the hills of Tennessee, the ambitious owners of BMS were challenged to update their facility.

"We could tell the interest in our sport was starting to explode, so we knew we had to get in front of it and stay in front," Baker said. "There was a two-inch water line coming into this place, so we bought a truck load of dynamite and digging equipment. We started laying new water lines, building new grandstands and widening pit road.

"Once we did the conversions, it became evident that fans would buy new seats as fast as we built them. Within two years, we were basically building a new racetrack over the current track."

The track name was changed to Bristol International Raceway in 1978. In 1982, Hester sold his half of the speedway to California businessman Warner Hodgdon. The flamboyant Hodgdon then completed 100 percent purchase of Bristol, as well as Nashville Speedway, in a buy-sell agreement with Baker in 1983.

Baker, who now owns the Baker Curb Racing team in the Nationwide Series, said he cherishes his memories of the formative days of BMS.

"A lot of people don’t understand what happened here," Baker said. "For example, Bristol was the first track where people really started printing counterfeit tickets and scalping tickets. I still remember clearly when police brought me the counterfeit printer. That was how valuable our August night ticket had become."

As the leaders of NASCAR stress a "Back to Basics" campaign appealing to the core fans of stock car racing, Baker feels that his old workplace is the perfect showcase for old and new fans.

"It just doesn’t get any better than Bristol Motor Speedway," Baker said. "This is the best of yesterday and today in racing.

"At the time I worked here, I was also general manager at Nashville Speedway, plus I ran law and accounting offices and also had truck dealerships. Yeah, I worked my rear-end off but it was worth it."

Baker isn’t surprised with the passion of those BMS diehards who took their seats on Sunday morning.

"I knew Bristol would grow like this," Baker said. "In fact, I knew it after the success we had with the lights and night race.

"The situation completely flipped after that experiment. Those were good times."