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This is the history of the infamous Sportsman Series. It was a low ranking NASCAR series run primarily at Charlotte Motor Speedway where injuries and deaths were a staple of the races. The series was designed as a cheap way for short-track racers to get experience running on NASCAR's big tracks. Unfortunately, even with restricted speeds, heavy cars are difficult to control for guys used to smaller cars at half the speed. The inherent danger was just part of the learning curve. How could these drivers get that experience on big tracks without wrecking sometimes? Eventually it was decided that some of these people didn't deserve to gain experience if they were gonna be that bad in the process. After six years, the series was ended. Like New Coke, it was something that was left in the past, rarely mentioned at all.

In mid-January 1989, Humpy Wheeler and NASCAR announced the new "Grand Sportsman" division, later known as simply the Sportsman series. The cars were former Winston Cup (1982-1986) and Busch Grand National (1975- 1986) cars that had been raced heavily and now were outdated. Engines were 350 V8 Late Model stock car engines with two-barell carburetors meant to be the same engines racers used in their short track cars. Goodyear provided "overrun or outdated tires at about $65 each." The goal of the series, according to Wheeler, was to keep the cost of the car "under the cost of a good bass boat, about $18,000." Drivers who had started in more than five Cup or Busch races were banned from competing.

This was an interesting "series". The Sportsman Series was entirely Humpy Wheeler's idea to give local short-track racers opportunities to gain superspeedway experience. It was in fact not even an official NASCAR series for the first few years, just sort-of a series of exhibition races put on by Charlotte Motor Speedway. NASCAR provided only nominal support at first.


Marty Ward and his Sportsman car

The very first Sportsman race was held after pole qualifying for the 1989 Coke 600. On the pole was Ward Burton, followed by Tim Bender, Mark Cox, Todd Bodine, and Dennis Setzer. To highlight the slower speeds, Burton's pole time was four seconds slower than Alan Kulwicki's pole in the Cup series. Five cautions slowed the action and it was Jack Sprague taking the checkered flag first. However, Sprague was found to have illegal heads on his engine and was disqualified. Tim Bender was the official winner of the first Sportsman race. In 1990, the series started racing at Richmond. Hindsight says the 3/4 mile track would have been perfect for the drivers' skill levels. They raced at New Hampshire that year as well.

On May 16, 1990, David Gaines was killed practicing at Charlotte, the first fatality for the series. Gaines was one of three cars who spun off turn four. As they came to a stop, noted off-road racer Steve McEachern rounded the fourth turn and couldn't avoid the stopped car. He slammed into the rear of Gaines and McEachern flipped twice down pit road. The 27 year-old Gaines suffered massive head injuries and was dead on arrival to the hospital. McEachern suffered a severely damaged left hand and cuts to his face. The caution lights did come on as soon as the wreck started, McEachern's inexperience was the problem according to his crew chief Mark Reno.

"He has no oval track experience at all," Reno said. "This is all new to him. It's about like taking somebody out of the grandstands and putting them in there." He was also quick to point out that it was a bad spot to be in and McEachern didn't have enough time to react. "Everybody's putting alot of blame on the kid, but people don't know the whole story."

Cup drivers like Rusty Wallace were quick to defend the series, the benefit of the experience gained, and the build quality of the cars. "I looked at the cars (of Gaines and McEachern)," Wallace said. "And when I left, I kept saying 'I don't know why he got killed.'" The race itself was a good one. Robbie Faggart won by only two inches over Charles "Tuck" Trentham.


Phillip Ross Climbs Out of his Car

As the years went by, there were always graphic crashes in nearly every race. In May 1991 at Charlotte, Tom D'Eath plowed into Ed Gartner Jr.'s car in a four-car crash in the fourth turn. D'Eath broke his neck, Gartner cracked his sternum and had a compund fracture in his right leg. In another race that same month Phillip Ross spun off turn four, slid down pit road and backed into an opening in the pit wall. The fuel tank ruptured and burst into flames. Ross had to climb out of the passenger side window to escape as it was taking a long time for fire crews to show up. Ross suffered second degree burns over 30 percent of his body, mainly his face, arms, and hands. That year the Sportsman cars stopped going to New Hampshire and started going to Pocono, a race that was aired on ESPN. A notable competitor in particular was Kirk Shelmerdine, three time defending Winston Cup Champion crew chief. He claimed his first Sportsman victory at Charlotte in October 1991 on his way to a fourth Cup championship.

In 1992, Atlanta Falcons headcoach Jerry Glanville used the series to gain superspeedway experience in his racing career. He entered the races held the weekend of The Winston, "One Hot Night." The Winston Cup drivers would have the All-Star Race at Charlotte at night for the first time and the Sportsman drivers would share the stage, their race aired live on TNN just before The Winston. Friday night saw Davey Allison claim the pole in All-Star qualifying. Immediately after that was a qualifying race for Saturday night's Sportsman 100. The qualifying race would be the first ever  night race at Charlotte and it turned out to be one of the worst moments in speedway history.

Early in the qualifying race, a car near the front spun and in avoidance Gary Batson and Neal Connell came together. Connell's car squeezed Batson's along the wall and Batson's went up on its side and scraped along the catchfence. The cars came to a stop with Batson's still on its side and pinned against the wall. Like a fuse on a stick of dynamite, fire followed the fuel on the race track and quickly ignited both cars. Connell quickly climbed out but Batson was trapped as the cars errupted in a huge fireball. It took firemen 20 seconds to reach the accident and another 20 seconds to start spraying the flames with water, all while explosions are going off as the tires blew and the fuel cell burst. It took another minute to completely get the fire extinguished and Batson was fully-conscious the entire time. He suffered burns over 80 percent of his body, third-degree burns over 25 percent of his body. Batson passed away the following day, 15 hours later. While everyone was in shock, most all realized that this fatality was a tragic accident, nothing that was the fault of inexperienced drivers.

 

"I'd have a different feeling if a bunch of guys had overreacted and crashed," Humpy Wheeler said. "But this was a freak accident, something that could've happened in a Winston Cup or Grand National race. It's the most bizarre thing I've ever seen." And he was right. It was just a car getting squeezed against the wall in wreck, there was no poor driving by anyone. That really could've been Richard Petty or Dale Earnhardt against the wall, it certainly highlighted the importance of the safety crews and how they needed to be much faster.

NASCAR took a larger role in the series beginning in 1992 as well. The series was renamed the Igloo Sportsman Challenge, started giving out points, and awarded a championship. In the final race of the year, Robbie Faggart won the race and the inaugural championship. Also in that race, Mark Purcell suffered a broken sternum in a wreck. The series continued to face heavy criticism from journalists for its higher than normal danger.

In 1994, a race at Charlotte in May brought more wreckage. Coming off turn four, Red Everette is t-boned by Ronnie Sewell and Everette's car catches fire. It takes firemen 30 seconds to get to the flaming car and Everette suffers minor burns to his face. Later in the race, an axle flies out of a wrecked car and hits two crew members on pit road, one suffering a separated shoulder and another sustaining a leg injury.


Red Everette (60) is hit by Ronnie Sewell

1995 was a calm year for the series until October. The first Sportsman race that weekend at Charlotte was originally scheduled for Wednesday night, October 4th. However, it was delayed until Friday afternoon due to Hurricane Opal coming through the Carolinas. Perhaps if the hurricane never came, things would've been different and the series would've continued. But when the race ran on Friday afternoon, and polesitter Russell Phillips was decapitated in a terrible wreck, the series could no longer fight against safety crusaders. The series had become one violent wreck after another. On November 28, Humpy Wheeler announced that the Sportsman Series, his baby, would not be run in 1996. The races at Charlotte would be replaced by ARCA events.

"I don't think it was a safety concern," Wheeler said. "I think it was a common sense concern. I don't believe in luck and I don't believe in fate, but we've been real unlucky with that division. I think we're better off with ARCA."

An article at the time summed it up perfectly: "While NASCAR Winston Cup drivers have the knack for limiting potentially devastating crashes to one or two cars, little accidents in Sportsman races often turned into huge, multicar disasters."

While Humpy and Charlotte were done, NASCAR wasn't going to end it all together just yet. The series lasted one more year, driving less than five races on short tracks such as Greenville-Pickens, Myrtle Beach, and Nashville. But the point of the series was to get the inexperienced drivers on superspeedways, racing these cars on short tracks was pointless and the series died at the end of 1996. Many of the cars and drivers went on to race in the USAR PROCUP series.

Despite the struggles, there were some good drivers to come out of the Sportsman Series. Todd Bodine, Ward Burton, Jack Sprague, Dennis Setzer, and Jason Keller all got their start in the series. And another development series is never a bad thing.

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