January 25, 2003

NASCAR's timing unkindest cut of all

Through A Glass Darkly, by John Myers, Internet Photojournalist
Last week's news that NASCAR officials are looking at eliminating one of Rockingham's two Winston Cup race dates has got to be the worst timing I've ever seen in my 55 years.
On the very same day Mrs. Carrie B. DeWitt, widow of the late L.G. DeWitt, founder of the Rockingham racetrack, was laid to her final rest, NASCAR goes public with what had been expected since the DeWitt family sold North Carolina Motor Speedway in 1997.
Mrs. DeWitt had served as chairman of the board at the track from her late husband's death in 1990, and agreed to sell it to Penske Motorsports only after they agreed to keep both of the priceless Winston Cup race dates here in Rockingham.
But Penske sold the track to International Speedway Corporation (ISC) in 1999 and every year since local folks have sat on pins and needles waiting for the next year's NASCAR schedule to be announced, expecting one or both of those precious dates to go elsewhere.

Waiting for the hammer

It's not official yet, and won't be until the 2004 schedule is announced later this year.
But ISC officials have openly said they expect to shift one date each from the tracks they own in Darlington, S.C., and Rockingham, with one going to California and the other to Kansas, two other ISC-owned speedways that have only one race date at present.
As Yogi would say, the plump lady is clearing her throat and warming up her pipes.
I never knew Mrs. DeWitt or the late L.G., but I've heard about the family all my life and they certainly deserved better treatment and timing than that, whether living or deceased.
And I must give credit to L.G. DeWitt for providing my paternal grandfather with a job that resulted in my branch of the Myers clan permanently relocating to the Candor area.

Myers family benefitted from DeWitt

My grandfather, the late Lester Myers, moved from the Deep Creek community of Anson County around the turn of the century (not this one, the previous one) along with his three brothers, Jim, Ed and Paul, who all came to Candor to work in the Iola Gold Mine.
The mine played out a few years later and my great-uncle Paul Myers went back home and great-uncle Jim ended up in Metarie, La., after several decades of wandering.
He married a lady named Hazel in Metarie and told her one day he was going downtown to get some cigarettes. He didn't make it back until 40 years later, but she was still there waiting and took him in, so he spent the rest of his 90-some years living in Metarie.
Great-uncle Ed and my grandfather Lester stayed in Candor. Ed died fairly young, and my grandfather found work as a foreman for North State Orchards, owned by L.G. DeWitt.
One hot day on July 24, 1946, he took a drink of water in a peach orchard just north of Norman and dropped dead, apparently of a heart attack. I was born the following year.
Granddaddy Lester, my grandmother Ruth Ratliff Myers, and my great-grandfather, John Shepherd Myers, a Civil War veteran, lived in a farm house just north of Norman while Lester was working for North State Orchards. My father, Herbert Myers, was born there.

A sad note to say farewell

As was noted by many in the news coverage of Mrs. DeWitt's funeral, the DeWitt family provided jobs and a helping hand for many during their years here on this corner of earth.
My family is part of that legacy, and it's a sad, final note to such a lifetime of service from the DeWitts for NASCAR to, in effect, slap Richmond County and the DeWitts in the face.
I know it's all supposed to be for the good of the racing sport, but it doesn't taste good.
Miss Carrie, L.G. and the DeWitt family deserve much better treatment than to see their efforts to help this county shoved aside with the lame excuse of selling more race tickets.
My only consolation is a verse that comes to mind from Isaiah 57:1, "The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come."
Perhaps the Lord's timing was perfect, if NASCAR's was not. Miss Carrie was taken on home before she would have to face the heartbreak of seeing her hopes dashed.