(NOTE: Appeared in the Winston-Salem Journal on May 11, 2005.)
Winston Cup Museum opens
By Tom Gillispie
JOURNAL REPORTER
Will Spencer and the Winston Cup Museum took the green flag yesterday, and now the race is on.
Spencer and Mayor Allen Joines cut the ribbon for the official opening of the museum to commemorate 33 years of Winston Cup racing.
"Winston-Salem has been selected as one of the 30 most livable cities in the country, and part of the reason is facilities such as the Winston Cup Museum, " Joines said. "This facility will not only be a great addition to our downtown revitalization efforts, it will also assist in our efforts to bring visitors and conventions to our city."
About 200 people attended the ceremony, among them several city-council members, racing legend Junior Johnson, Richard Childress, a longtime car owner, and many of the people who had worked for Sports Marketing Enterprises and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
One person attended the ribbon cutting wearing a red-and-white Winston Cup cap. Bill Milburn, a graduate of Reynolds High School, was a show-car driver for Winston from 1976 to '79.
Also in attendance was Stella Inabinet, the mother of former SME chief T. Wayne Robertson. Robertson headed RJR's Winston Million and No Bull 5 promotions, as well as The Winston all-star race.
"With R.J. Reynolds' involvement, it's a matter of hometown pride, " Joines said as he toured the building. "When Winston Cup grew into a national phenomenon, we could say with pride that we were the home of Winston Cup's sponsor."
Johnson was all-important to Winston Cup and the sponsorship deal. In 1970, Johnson went to RJR's Special Events division, seeking sponsorship for his race team. He was told that they wanted to do a much larger sponsorship deal, and Johnson suggested they talk to NASCAR's Bill France Sr. They did, and the rest is racing history.
RJR, through its Winston brand, sponsored NASCAR's top series from 1971 through 2003. Nextel, a telecommunications giant, took over in 2004.
Spencer, who owns and operates JKS Motorsports, which is next to the museum on Liberty Street, said he got the idea for the museum when he was talking with Childress about all of the cars that Spencer had in storage. Childress suggested that there should be a museum to commemorate Winston's involvement in racing, Spencer said.
Spencer said that he started forming a plan in 2003, and the site for the museum was bought in 2004. He said he was relieved at the opening - the building was bare just over a month ago, the parking lot was paved on Saturday, and it was striped on Sunday.
"There is no money to be made here, " Spencer emphasized. "This is about preserving history and helping charities."
He said that this is just "the seed" for the museum; he expects the museum to change dramatically in the future.
Johnson said that "three or four" of the cars in the 12,000-square-foot museum were ones that his race team had raced, and Childress loaned a few cars from his museum in Welcome.
When a patron goes through the turnstiles, he first sees a photo of Richard Petty, the first Winston Cup champion in 1971, plus a shot of Donnie Allison in victory lane in the 1971 Winston 500 at Talladega. The photos on the wall give viewers a pictorial year-by-year history of the series, and fans will go around the wall and finish at the No. 17 car of Matt Kenseth, the final Winston Cup champion in 2003.
Childress took the tour and pointed to a photo of himself in the '70s. He laughed and said that, yes, he was young once.
"It's big for the museum to be here and for fans to be able to come and see history, " Childress said.
The museum, at 1355 MLK Jr. Drive, will open today at 10 a.m. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for children under 12. Spencer said that 20 percent of ticket sales will benefit the Victory Junction Gang, Brenner's Children's Hospital and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
Museum curator Bill Soper said that radio station WTQR 104.1 will broadcast from the museum today. The Web site is www.winstoncupmuseum.com.
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