Motorsports Veteran Offers Intuition As the green flag waved on Feb. 19, 2006, the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series drivers set out on the 48th annual Daytona 500. For motorsports correspondent Al Pearce, the green flag also meant that another, long season of reporting NASCAR news for Auto Week magazine was underway. Pearce, co-author of 14 books about motorsports, has been involved with media writing for nearly 50 years. He graduated in 1965 from Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C., and served three years in the Army. Pearce spent 35 years as a sports writer for the Daily Press newspaper in Hampton Roads, Va., and is currently working for Auto Week magazine. In 2004 Pearce received the Henry T. McLemore Award and was the 23rd person to be inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame for his work as a motorsports writer. “I think the only time I was happier was the day I got home from Vietnam and the night my daughter was born,” Pearce said. The following is an edited interview with Pearce. Q: How did your career get started, and was writing a profession you always wanted to pursue? Pearce: “I was in college in the ‘60s in one of those ‘general studies’ freshman and sophomore programs, planning to major in history or political science. Midway through my freshman year, I got roped into filling in for a writer on the school paper, covering a football game. The editor convinced me to stay for another week, and it went from there. I basically started on my college paper and stayed with it all four years. I did some summer work on my hometown paper then went into it professionally when I got out of the Army in 1969… it seemed like something to do while I decided what I wanted to do. The truth of it is that I never expected it would be my career. It started innocently enough, and I never saw any good reason to stop it.” Q: When you were employed at the Daily Press, was motorsports coverage your main focus, or did you cover other sports? Pearce: “Racing was my major beat, but I did everything, and I mean everything. Pick any sport, except maybe horse racing, and I’ve covered it at some level: junior high, high school, small college, big college, minor league professional, major league profession... including stuff I knew almost nothing about until I got there: gymnastics, swimming, field hockey, skeet shooting, ice skating, etc.” Pearce: “No newspaper, but I still attend almost every NASCAR weekend and write for Auto Week magazine. I’ll be gone from home 31 or 32 of the 36 big weekends this year.” Q: How many books have you had published? Pearce: “I've done three or four books solo and co-written another 10 or 11 with another writer or photographer. I think it's 13 or 14 right now.” Q: Of all the books you have written, which book are you most proud of? Pearce: “I co-wrote a book for two years on the famous Holman-Moody race team. A good friend did parts about their sports cars and LeMans cars and their engineering and testing programs. I did the parts about their stock car successes with Fred Lorenzen and David Pearson and a few others. That book is probably the best "literature" I've been involved with. Others have more stories and better stats and records, but the H-M book is the best mix of all those things.” Pearce: “No books right now, but they sort of come out of the blue, like a phone call from someone I’ve never heard of who needs something and is willing to pay enough to make it worth my while.” Pearce: “Without question. I won some state writing awards at the Daily Press, and that was good because our staff was pretty competitive about those kinds of things, but the Henry McLemore Award and induction into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame at Talladega topped everything else combined. I think the only time I was happier was the day I got home from Vietnam and the night my daughter was born.” Pearce: “I had lunch with him (not just me; there were several others in the room) the week before he died. I interviewed him many, many times. Sometimes it was one on one; other times, it was in small groups. I found him to be incredibly kind and generous to most people. He loved to tweak the press, to banter back and forth and give smart-ass answers that actually got his message across. I think at least some of his legend involves how and where he died. If he’d simply retired in his early- or mid-50s, I don’t think he’d be remembered with such passion. The way it happened certainly contributed to how people still revere him. Remember that Earnhardt never won a championship after Jeff Gordon won his first, and remember that Gordon won far more races than Earnhardt in the years they raced together. Clearly, Earnhardt was on the downhill side of his career when he was killed. But his past accomplishments and his aura still made him something special.” Q: Because NASCAR has gained so much popularity over the years, do you find it more difficult to get one on one interviews with the drivers? Pearce: “Used to be, you could walk up to anybody on any team and just start shooting the breeze about anything. Now, with so many fans in the pits and garage and hanging around, looking for autographs, drivers stay in their haulers more than ever. They're usually good if you can get to 'em, but getting to 'em sometimes takes making an appointment and hoping the guy shows up. It's definitely harder than it used to be. After a race, most drivers change clothes as quickly as they can and get out of town. If you're not right there when they come in, you're probably not going to get 'em.” Q: I read that you joined Kyle Petty in his annual Charity Ride Across America. How did you get involved in the event, and do you still participate in the annual fundraiser? Pearce: “I did every mile of the first eight rides, missed part of the ninth due to emergency surgery the week of the ride, did the 10th from coast to coast, then missed part of last year’s because of an illness that cropped up on the ride. But in my mind - since it’s true - I’ve done all 11 of them. My plans for this year’s are uncertain right now. It costs $10,000 to do the ride, so maybe it’s time to say, ‘No, thanks’ when they come to invite me again. I did the first one in ‘95 because, like so many other people, I’d always wanted to ride a motorcycle coast to coast. The opportunity was there with the Petty deal and it was a charity deal, so I borrowed a bike, had it shipped it to California, and left with everyone else from San Jose the Monday after that year’s Sears Point race.” Q: NASCAR tracks are all over the country, do you enjoy the traveling that is required in order to follow the sport? Pearce: “Not especially. I really look forward to going to Daytona Beach each February, sort of getting back in the groove after being away from it for a couple of months, but there are some brutal stretches of road trips: 14 straight races in the spring and early summer then 10 of 11 weekends late in the year. The tour’s only open weekends between mid-February in Daytona Beach and late-November in Homestead are Easter and July 30. I don’t do all those 14 in a row, but I’m sometimes gone a month at a time if the races are fairly close to each other.” Q: What is your favorite NASCAR track? Pearce: “It’s hard to not like Bristol and Martinsville. If I had to buy a ticket, I’d probably buy one for those races.” Q: Is there any NASCAR driver in particular that you pull for each week? Pearce: “Now that Ricky Rudd has retired, I don’t have a special favorite. I was a big fan of Richard Petty (who wasn’t?), and the sport lost a little appeal for me when he retired.” Pearce: “It’s never seemed like a real job. Sure, it’s aggravating and labor intensive at times; the hours can be brutal; the travel is tough, but if you want to take advantage of it, the travel can take you to some places you’ll probably never otherwise see. Racing is a major league sport, and what writer doesn’t want to be involved at the highest level of the sport world?” Pearce: “The time away from home. Easy answer.” Pearce: “Since I’ve never done anything else, I can’t say. If I was good enough, sure, I’d love to be able to win PGA events every weekend or so and fly around in my private jet.” Pearce: “Write, write, write, then have someone rip it up, tell you how bad it is, then write, write, write again. Deal more with people and issues than with cars and engines and crap like that. Only the hard-core ‘gearhead’ cares about shock travel and spring rate and tire stagger. Most people want to know about the people driving those things.” |