1999 Derrike Cope Fan Club Meeting Week Live Report by Jeff Cope

Wednesday, Oct. 6th
I left from Houston and arrived in Charlotte at 11:00am. Bruce Bates who had flown in a day earlier from California met me at the gate since we were going to share a rental car for the week. On the way to our hotel in Albemarle, we stopped at Promotions in Motion, who helped us set up the fan club meeting. I met Sharon Bingle for the first time who was a lot of help in order to make the meeting happen. We then went to the hotel and checked in. As we walked in the lobby, fan club member Ken Fleming was there and greeted us. Ken was very helpful in planning things for the week.

After awhile, we headed to the track to catch first round qualifying. We were excited when we saw the #15 Ford Taurus and Derrike pull out. The car was black with day-glo numbers and looked very sharp. We were hoping to see a sponsor on the car but the hood had Ford Racing and the rear fenders had Taurus2K. Derrike finished his qualifying lap in 16th position but since he was the 26th of 50 drivers, we knew it was going to be tough to stay in the first round. Thus the process of rooting for drivers to be slower began. As the last cars came out, Derrike was left in 24th position and we were assured of seeing our driver in the show.

Thursday
Bruce Bates and I decided to make the drive to Spartanburg, SC to visit Derrike's new raceshop at Fenley-Moore Motorsports. The shop was fairly easy to find and we met Diane Christie, Office Manager. We toured the shop and a number of team members were busy working. While we were there, co-owner Robert Fenley came in very excited that the team had made the race in the first round. He was very nice and we learned that the spotter was going to be Preston Miller, who is the liaison between Ford Racing and the race teams. This was a good sign that Ford is definitely involved with the new team.

We headed back to the track to catch first round Busch qualifying in which Derrike was trying to make the race in the #89 Northstar/Penn's Best Chevrolet. At least that's what the entry list and announcer said but the car had no stickers on it to identify a sponsor. Derrike had a good lap going and then the car got loose in turns 3 and 4. But it still put the car in 20th position. Unfortunately though at the end, it was left in 37th position which meant he definitely had to go to second round qualifying the next day.

Bruce and I toured the souvenir trailers but not everyone was open. We still found enough to buy though and Bruce bought some items he would donate to the auction at the fan club meeting. We went back to the hotel and met other fan club members.

Friday
First up for the day was a race shop tour at Eel River Racing, Derrike's old race team. We met Rick Carpenter who gave us a tour last year and he gave us some items for the fan club meeting. Members were slow showing up so we waited around 45 min. before it started. 57 people had signed up to go on the tour but only 20 showed up. Too bad as Rick gave another excellent tour of the shop. There were even new rooms and machinery from last year.

Bruce and I decided to try and get to Busch second round qualifying but since the shop tour was delayed, we got there at the very end, only to learn that Derrike had not made it. Oh well, at least he made one race.

Since we were going to go early to the fan club meeting and help set up, we tried to find something to waste a couple hours. As we drove down the road, I saw a sign at a racing museum that Bobby Allison was inside. We had to stop as Bruce has been a fan of his for a long time. We paid and went in and there was Bobby Allison sitting just telling race stories. Surprisingly there was maybe 10 people in the room when we got there and by the end maybe 25. It was fun listening to Mr. Allison and his stories and we even got the story of how he, Red Farmer, and his brother Donnie Allison became the Alabama Gang. After the stories, Mr. Allison signed autographs for us. Bruce was happy now so we went to help set up for the meeting.

The meeting time had arrived and the meeting can be summed up in one word: fantastic. Everything went smoothly, Derrike was enjoyable as ever, and everyone seemed to have a great time. 62 people (37 fan club members) were there and it was surprising that 28 people did not show up. Unfortunately that ended up costing the fan club treasury over $400 in a loss. Of the fan club members attending, we had a number of states represented including California, Washington, and Alaska.

All members attending received a goody bag including a new item produced specifically for the meeting, a fan club mousepad. Extra mousepads were produced and were made available for sale on the website. After a great barbecue dinner, Derrike spoke for almost an hour and we learned that he is now on the Internet and even though he is currently having some problems with his connection, wants to do fan club chats in the future. After Derrike's talk, Bruce Bates presented him with special fan club collars for his greyhound and cat. Paulette Colella presented him a color copy of the latest newsletter.

Derrike had out-done himself as he brought a number of items to the meeting for the auction and raffle. There were numerous brand new shirts and jackets that were put in the raffle and auction. In addition, he brought 2 Gumout helmets and 2 Bojangle's uniforms. At the end of the auction, we had made $1150 which helped cover some of the costs of the meeting. Thanks to Derrike's generosity, every fan club member attending was able to walk away with at least 2 raffle items and even guests were able to bring home items. Derrike then autographed numerous items for everybody. The meeting was supposed to go from 7pm-10pm but by the time we finally got out of there, it was already past 11pm. I think I can safely say that everyone had a fantastic time.

Saturday
We headed to the Busch race and arrived at the track at 9:30am. Since it was early, Bruce and I walked the newly opened souvenir trailers. Bruce tried his hand at changing a tire during a pit stop. I was surprised to find one of my heroes :-) in a trailer, Ron Hazelton, the House Doctor. No one else was there so I took advantage of the time to talk to him and get an autograph.

The Busch race was very exciting, especially in the middle of the race when the lead was exchanged constantly between 3 drivers. Even the end got exciting to see if Michael Waltrip could hold out on his gas for the win, which he did do and came away with the victory. 

Bruce and I stayed for about half of the Happy Hour and then headed to Beverly Mitzel's house for a picnic that she had offered to the fans. Beverly has a beautiful house and we had plenty of food and drink. 17 people showed up (45 were expected) and we enjoyed swapping stories. We did all agree that we were exhausted though (it was a long previous night) so we headed back to the hotel and went to sleep.

Sunday
We awoke on Sunday only to find our worst fears had come true. Rain was expected all day even though it had not started raining yet. Bruce and I got to the track at 9am and found a parking spot that unfortunately was right in some dirt. We knew for sure that it would be a mud hole if it rained but took the chance. Walking to the track showed us the first rain drops. By the time we got to our seats (fortunately underneath an overhang), it was raining pretty good.

Things didn't look good for the race so Treasurer Jeff Gutshall and I took the opportunity to discuss the meeting and started planning next year's meeting. We decided on some changes, got more people involved in the fan club, and we expect some exciting things next year including the announcement of next year's fan club meeting. Details will be announced later.

It was still raining and the race looked unlikely so Bruce and I left a couple hours early taking the chance that the race would be called. We got to the car and sure enough it was a mud hole as we slipped and slid to the car. Fortunately Bruce was able to get us out of there as the tires started spinning and that prevented me from having to get out and push.

Monday
Unfortunately, both Bruce and I had to get back home so we had to skip the race. Turns out the race went off as expected and even though Derrike finished 35th, things looked promising for next year.