Stock car experience near Jefferson Saturday night




I saw Watkinsville Police Chief Lee O'Dillon coming into the bathroom of the Jefferson Hooters Cup race. He was the one person I had not talked to in person earlier today when cancelling the Bicentennial Bike Ride in Watkinsville.

"I didn't know you were a race fan," said O'Dillon. To be honest, neither did I. Aside from an uncle who rehabilitated in our house in Des Moines growing up, I had not had much exposure to auto racing on any level.

That bluegrass guy Rich won complimentary tickets from his musical connections on WMOQ out of Good Hope. Our kids cut up together at the same private school so we knew that this would be a good time for freebies for the kids. Grace and Jamie joined us to make four kids on parade. I salute any parent with more than one kid.

We drove up in record time for four kids in the backseat in a BWW Rich was test driving. The place was packed with people in orange, mostly Hooters girls and Tony Stewart fans. There was some driver named Daniel Johnson near the back of the pack and that got my attention. It seemed closer to Arcade than Jefferson, but what do I know about Jackson County geography.

Liberterian governor candidate Tony Dashler was there with his bus. I was not trying to pull any Dateline NBC kind of attitude but I was generally impressed with the amount of African Americans intermingled with the white folks and no big deal for anybody. I even saw some large African American gentleman playfully pounding some white dude in a walking headlock and nobody batted an eye. It kind of showed how far we have come in a relatively short time of a generation and a half of actual social integration.

If Democrats ever hope to truly take over the state, they are going to need to start campaigning at these kind of events. This is where the real people are, probably not registered to vote in huge numbers and probably actually voting in even lower percentages, but somewhat disenfranchised none-the-less. Did NASCAR dads give W back the White House in '04? Will they give Sonny a trip back to the Governor's Mansion in '06? We shall see soon.

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