We went to Japan in 1996 to run an exhibition NASCAR race at a track in Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka City, Mie Prefecture, Japan. The race was called NASCAR Suzuka Thunder Special. I remember meeting the others at the shop, driving the company van to the airport, parking then boarding the airplane for Atlanta. Once we landed in Atlanta, we had a 2 hour layover and a long line to go through customs and check our bags for the 14 hour flight to Tokyo. We were given about $700 per-diem, which was pretty good for that time. I was used to getting 20 to $25 a day that I would spend sometimes on food or souveniers at the track or en route. In this case I spent $4oo on souveniers in Japan and pocketed the rest besides the little I spent on food. In preparation for the weather in Japan, they gave us all raincoats. They were embroidered “Sabco Racing” and were purple and black. Because they were projecting we were going to have rain, as it typically does a lot apparently there, we had rain tires mounted on the car. Good Year was at the track of course mounting and dismounting tires but it ended up not raining so they had to dismount and mount regular tires before the race.
Preparation For The Trip
Before we could leave for Japan, we had to get our passports. I went to the one post office in Mooresville and got a passport photo. Since I couldn’t find my Social Security card, I had to go to the Social Security office in Statesville and apply for a new one. Anyway, I got the passport, got to the airport, got on a plane. You know we get there about two hours early in Charlotte so the total trip took about 26 hours by the time I got to the airport to the time that we got on the airplane and went through customs in Atlanta, all that kind of stuff and a two hour layover there.
The Flight
We flew 14 hours on a big 747 jumbo jet with the upstairs the first time I’d ever been on a plane that had an upstairs and a downstairs suite two levels obviously. The meals on the plane were not that great. They were usually rice, it was like a rice cake. I remember when we flew back. I know I’m jumping ahead but I’m just giving you an example of what it was like. Flying there, the food was normal. But flying back home. I think it was we were on Japan Airlines “JAL”. It just seems like the food was normal going. But when we flew home we got this what I thought was a donut they were passing around from a tray. When I opened it up, it was a rice cake with fish eggs in the middle. Not very good and my stomach wasn’t happy with the snack either. It was wrapped in some type of seaweed or fish skin and it was just not that great. Then they would pass around what was called an Oshibiri, or hot towel. I copied what the Japanese did with it which was wash their face off. That was different, something I had never seen before. The other thing was people were allowed to smoke on the airplane in the back. If you sat near the back, you smelled smoke. I sat about middle ways so it wasn’t too bad. All around me were other racing friends. Brad Parrot sat behind me with his wife who was at the time didn’t realize pregnant. Beside me was the Wendell twin brothers, Jerry and Terry. We landed in Tokyo Japan then had another layover went through customs etc. Then we got on another plane. Seems like it was an hour flight over to Nagoya. Then we just got on a bus that took us to the hotel where we stayed all of the other teams were staying there. I remember seeing Jeff Gordon and Brooke going up to their room one evening getting on the elevator.
NASCAR Driver Antics
Our driver at the time was Robby Gordon driving the Tonka Chevrolet. We had loaded the car into a container about a month before so that it could be shipped over with extra parts and engine and all of our equipment that we needed for the pitstops. The race was on November 24, 1996. We left seems like on a Tuesday so that we got there on Wednesday because we had several days before the race. We had one day to go around town before we had to go to the racetrack. We took cabs to downtown Nagoya where there was a shopping mall that was multiple levels. There was a grocery store on the top floor and I remember seeing strange things like octopus sliced up for sale. In the video, you can see some of the other things we did with Wally Dallenbach and Robby Gordon. We went to a sushi bar where Robby and Wally were going to have a sushi eating contest. Robby talked like he was the man of the world and could eat a lot of sushi. Once we got there he was not happy with it and was actually spitting it out as you see in the video. Wally was enjoying every bite of everything, even asking me if I were going to eat the eyes off of my shrimp, which I said he could have them all. The only thing that I could tolerate was the shrimp without the head and the cucumber roll I guess it was called. Other than that everything else didn’t taste very good to me. We also went to a Japanese steakhouse. Everything seemed about the same but the food was very bland. They didn’t use a lot of butter or oil it seemed. I asked for the bathroom and the waiter said is Japanese style okay? So I asked what that meant. He said it’s a hole in the floor like a porcelain hole, so all I had to do was aim for that hole. In the hotel, we actually had toilets and even a bidet.
My roommates were Randy Usher and Bill Miller who were known as Little Country and Big Country respectively. Randy was the front tire carrier and Bill was the front tire changer. Bill Miller had been around racing since the days of Marty Robbins driving. I believe he was a tire changer for him at one point. I remember seeing Elmo Langley for the last time down in the hotel lobby. The next day when he had a heart attack while riding around I believe Wally Dallenbach back was with him. The talk around the track was the Japanese weren’t really prepared, as they don’t have many heart problems. There were not any defribulators at the track
More Antics
There was a McDonald’s right there in the track in the the track was inside of a big amusement park. This was known as the Suzuka Circuit. I have maps and pamphlets. For this. I should mention the name of the track I mean of the amusement park. There was a big roller coaster. Of course. There was a McDonald’s in there as well. The food tasted about the same, but the Japanese didn’t really cook their food as much. Two years later when we were at Twin ring Motegi Japan racetrack. It was a circle track, where as Suzuka Circuit was a road course. We would have breakfast there every morning and it was sloppy eggs and undercooked sausage. I can say that first trip, my stomach calm my iron gut was not happy. It seemed that I had gas the whole time or just stomach ache. So for the second trip, made sure to bring plenty of Rolaids. One night while at Suzuka Circuit, after the race after being at the track all day, Robby Gordon and I We went to a arcade where they had the Daytona 500 game that Robby had at his house as well. And, of course he beat the record in the game. There were also some high school girls there that were to be performing at the racetrack. I believe they were dancers or actually baton twirlers that type of thing. And Robbie was flirting with them he said Do you know who I am? And they didn’t know Robbie was to be our driver in the 97th season. So this was his first race with us. Another day we went to a restaurant with Felix Sabates and Armando Fitz was there as he was the whole trip. Everywhere we went. He paid for everything but on this particular time we went to a sushi bar type place or a restaurant. And Felix Sabates was paying. I remember them bringing out a bowl of soup and I wondered if it had eyeballs in it. I don’t remember seeing any eyeballs. But I’m not sure what was in it. When he walked in, you had to take your shoes off well, Robby Gordon left his shoes on, the waiters were like, Whoa, wait, hey. They were getting excited. reminding him to take his shoes off. Another time when we went on a subway to go into Nagoya, Robby had his feet up in the seats of the subway and people were looking at him like he was crazy.
We also got on a bus to wrap it around. Come and look at the sights. Also going to a Honda plant. I believe it was that was pretty cool. But everything there was smaller even the seats on the bus for the seats of the subway that time I think we got on a subway and bus but anyway the seats were all smaller. I remember seeing a kid reading a what looked like a magazine but it was cartoons what are those called? I’m trying to remember. There’s a word for it. So I’ll think about this later apparently that was very popular over there. Whereas in the United States, we had regular magazines, such as Maxim magazine, which was what I typically would read we didn’t have cell phones. Then. Or no internet So, typically books or magazines were our entertainment on trips, and also a CD player. Or actually a cassette player back then. Maybe that was what is called anime No, that would be videos straight there.
I will continue later picking up at before the race and mentioned seeing a Japanese Richard Petty and lots of kids happy to be at the racetrack and seeing these cars for the very first time. followed up with loading the container at the end of the night and leaving for the airport. I also want to mention how had my story about the tax and how I almost got stuck in Japan and also my Samurai sword going through the security. There are more stories from the trip in the video below. Rusty Wallace (Penske Racing) was the race winner in Japan in 1996 at Suzuka Circuit. The next year, 1997 the race was held at the same track and won by Mike Skinner (Richard Childress Racing) followed by Twin Ring Motegi in 1998. I went to that track and will talk about it in another post. David Hamm