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Local racing fans join millions in mourning By Don Hunt Dane Smith was at the airport in Orlando, Fla., on Monday and noticed an eerie silence. Smith was on his way back to Medford after watching 11 stock car races in 10 days, including three supporting races of the Daytona 500. He did not attend NASCAR�s biggest race, preferring to stick to the smaller tracks and watch the Daytona 500 on TV. But like virtually everyone connected with stock car racing, Smith was dumbfounded over the death of racing icon Dale Earnhardt one day earlier. "I�m still numb from it," Smith said. "It just doesn�t seem real. "As I walked through that airport, you could tell something bad had happened. Everyone back there was completely devastated." Smith attended the Bud Shootout race on Feb. 11 at Daytona that matched last season�s Winston Cup pole winners. He then took in the Twin 125s race on Thursday and watched the IROC and Truck Series events on Friday. Smith, who has driven a stock car in the Rogue Valley for the past 30 years, also made his way to several short-track races in Florida last week. "It was a great trip, but it sure had a tragic ending," Smith said. "You just can�t believe how popular that guy is back there. I couldn�t begin to count all the people wearing his No. 3 uniform or wearing a hat with his name on it." Earnhardt death jolted stock car fans the world over, and the Rogue Valley was no different. The Southern Oregon Speedway, a quarter-mile dirt track in White City, routinely draws 2,000 or more fans to its weekly events in the summer and nearly twice that many for bigger events. "I�m just totally bummed," said Dave Duste, one of the top drivers at the local track. "If any racer seemed indestructible, it was Dale Earnhardt. You can�t mention Winston NASCAR without mentioning Dale Earnhardt in the same sentence. "I was an Earnhardt fan when he first came up. I always admired him because he was a tough guy who started his career on dirt tracks, just like the guys around here. He paid his dues coming up. I also admired him because he would put his fender into another driver, but he never bitched when someone did it to him." Although the collision that killed Earnhardt didn�t look particularly violent on television, both Smith and Duste know from firsthand experience that such head-on impacts can be devastating. Duste said he hit the wall at the Riverside Speedway in Cottage Grove 10 years ago at 70 mph and was knocked unconscious. "It knocked me cold and bent my steering wheel backwards," Duste said. "I just can�t imagine having that same collision at 180 mph (the speed in which Earnhardt was traveling)." Smith�s most violent collision came four years ago when he was driving on an asphalt track in Eureka, Calif. He hit another car broadside while traveling about 100 mph and tore his rotator cuff. "When you stop so suddenly, it�s a real bad thing," Smith said. "You�re restrained with your shoulder harness and seat belt, and the only thing that moves is your head." Perhaps no one locally was more shook up by Earnhardt�s death than Medford�s Dotti Neasham. Neasham has an entire room filled with Earnhardt memorabilia: posters, collector car replicas, Wheaties cereal boxes, even a phone with Earnhardt logos. "I�m probably too obsessed with this but it�s been a hobby of mine for a long time," Neasham said. "I would send him pictures to sign and he would mail them back." Neasham had planned to attend a NASCAR event at Bristol, Tenn., in August but will now cancel her reservations. "I plan to keep watching the races on TV, but it won�t be the same without Dale," Neasham said. "I already miss him. This is terrible." Chris Walker, a lap checker and statistician at the Southern Oregon Speedway, and her brother, Tony, put up a memorial site on their father�s property along Highway 99 in Talent. The Walkers painted two signs with the No. 3 on them, along with Earnhardt�s lifespan of 1951-2001. Within hours, a batch of flowers and a couple of notes had been left along the site. "We just felt like we had to do something," said Chris Walker, who watched the Daytona 500 at her parents� house with friends and relatives. "It�s like we lost a brother." Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.