Next week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Dover International Speedway marks the end of an era for NASCAR’s longest-serving TV pit reporter, who celebrates his 70th birthday at Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte.
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| Berggren (L) with NASCAR On FOX colleagues Steve Byrnes. Krista Voda and Matt Yocum |
Don’t think for a
second that Berggren is leaving NASCAR TV. It’s in his blood, and he assures
his friends that he will still be found at some racetrack or another on a
weekly basis. It may be smaller and less grandiose than the Cup venues at which
he has spent the past three-plus decades, but he’ll be there.
“After the FOX portion
of the year ends, I’ve always traveled to local tracks where I still enjoy
sitting in the stands with a hot dog in one hand and a beer in the other,
watching the local heroes,” said Berggren, whose claim to fame was once
hustling a fire-breathing, fuel-injected dirt supermodified around the Maine’s Beech
Ridge Motor Speedway, twisting it so tight that he spent most of the feature on
three wheels and was affectionately known as `Doctor Dirt.’ “I can’t get enough
of local-level racing,” he said, “so I’ll do more of that now.”
The founder of Speedway
Illustrated magazine said that in addition to contributing stories and columns
to the publication, he also has lofty goals and projects to which he can
dedicate his newfound spare time. The Massachusetts resident has founded a
corporation dedicated to building an auto racing museum on the grounds of New
Hampshire Motor Speedway. He has already signed an agreement with the speedway,
been awarded tax-exempt status by the IRS and recruited a powerful Board of
Directors.
“There is no museum of
Northeast auto racing open to the public in general that displays the area’s
racing history,” Berggren said. “The Northeast has a rich racing history that deserves
to be saved and displayed. We’re fund raising and accumulating things to
display.
“Getting the museum up
and running is a big job, and it’ll take a lot of my time.”
"I still enjoy sitting in the stands with a hot dog in one hand and a beer in the other. I can’t get enough of local-level racing, so I’ll do more of that now.” -- Dr. Dick Berggren
Berggren, who earned a
PhD in psychology before becoming a college professor, admits he wasn’t always adept
at time management. In fact, he nearly didn’t graduate from high school after
spending too many days chasing his dream of driving race cars.
“I couldn’t have cared
less about school, especially with a couple of garages on my way home to stop
at,” Berggren recalled. “I didn’t do homework, didn’t study and didn’t pay
attention in class. Only around 20 of 616 students in my graduating class had a
lower grade point average than I. All I wanted to do was to be involved in
racing.”
After graduation,
Berggren quickly realized that even two jobs weren’t enough to fund his racing
career, concluding that a college diploma was his only ticket.
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| Berggren with an early supermodified. And more hair. |
“But I couldn’t get
into the colleges I applied to -- not with my grades,” he admitted. “I finally
found one that would take anyone who could pay the tuition. My parents paid the
bill and I was on my way. With the motivation to do well so I could race, I
paid attention, did my homework and focused on my education. I earned terrific
grades in college -- good enough to get into Tufts University’s graduate school
on a full scholarship, where I earned an MS and then a PhD in psychology. And
then, I got a job that paid well enough that I could afford to race.”
Following graduate
school, Berggren accepted a position teaching at an all-women’s Catholic
college in Boston. Once again, however, his love of racing got in the way.
Following a weekend at the track, the professor drove to work in his
mud-covered pickup truck with a Sprint Car still on the back.
“I parked the rig,
which had my name on it, in the faculty parking lot,” Berggren recalled “It was
there about 10 minutes when I was paged to the president’s office. Sister wanted
to know what that ‘thing’ was in the parking lot. She explained to me it had to
be off college property immediately. Well, I wasn’t about to park my race car
on a Boston street. So, I disobeyed the college president and left the rig in
the faculty lot all day. I knew my teaching job was over.”
The college’s loss was
racing’s gain, as he took a job editing Stock Car Racing Magazine and began working as
a track announcer at local speedways. Those positions eventually led to his
current TV gig.
The only thing that
ultimately ended Berggren’s driving career was Berggren himself. His racing
days came to a screeching halt with a wreck in the IMCA Nationals in Boone,
Iowa, in which he initially feared he’d killed hundreds of spectators and
issued a desperate plea to God.
“In one of my heats, I
got turned at the end of the backstretch -- the highest-speed part of the
track,” Berggren explained. “So many people were in the pits, they had
overflowed to an area that wasn’t separated from the racing surface by anything
other than a dirt bank. When I got turned, that’s where the car headed. I tried
to go hard left and kept my leg in it, hoping the car would straighten out and
go back down the track. It didn’t.
“I hit that dirt bank
and saw hundreds of people scatter as I headed for them,” he said. “I’m not a
religious person, but in the car that night, I said a prayer as I hit the dirt
bank. ‘God, if you get me through this without hurting anyone, I won’t do this
anymore.’ I closed my eyes, hit the bank, flew through the air and crashed into
the pits. As the car stopped, a guy stuck his head in the window and asked if I
was OK. With my eyes still closed, I asked how many people were under the car.
‘You didn’t hit anyone,’ he said. I climbed out and that was it. You don’t go
back on a promise like that. It’s hard, because I’ve been offered rides in cars
I dearly would like to race. But I won’t.”
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| "Doctor Dirt" (#80) in hot pursuit! |
All said, Berggren’s
20-year racing career spanned stock cars, sprint cars and supermodifieds,
including numerous feature wins, the majority in dirt track sprint cars. He was
elected to the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2002, and is a member of a
number of other Halls. Berggren has also been the recipient of many prestigious
awards for journalism, including the 1999 Cunningham Writer of the Year Award
presented by the National Motorsports Press Association.
He will be remembered
most, however, for the indelible mark he made outside the race car, as a
reporter, commentator and tireless crusader for safety.
“As a colleague and
friend, Dick has had no equal in the 40-plus years I’ve been in this business,”
Joy said. “Whatever the event, Dick by far is the best-prepared pit reporter
this business has ever known, and he always has brought a great degree of
professionalism to every telecast he has worked.”
Not surprisingly, keying
his microphone one final time at Dover will not be easy for Berggren. Anyone
who knows the man in the trademark cap knows how bittersweet the moment will
be.
“Life will be
different without FOX,” admitted Berggren this week. “I’m very proud of having
been part of the NASCAR on FOX broadcasts from the beginning. I’m dreading the
2013 Daytona 500 because I won’t be there on pit road as part of that team. It
will be hard, but nothing is forever and I understand that. I’m looking forward
to walking into the museum on the day it opens. That’s a whole new challenge
and one I fully expect to conquer. But it’s time to move on.
“I’m ready,” he said. “However,
it would be nice to pick up a few TV things here and there. I’d really like that.”
As would his NASCAR
colleagues and fans the world over.
Photo Credits: KristaVoda.net, TheChromeHorn.com
happy for him, sad for the rest of us, one more reason not to bother with the fox race(sorta) coverage
ReplyDeletegreat job over the years and you will be missed,thanks " Dr. Dirt"
ReplyDeleteI remember watching him many times at the Ridge. I can see the the rooster tails of that ocean moister comeing of his wing now. What a site to see.
ReplyDeleteGlad to have shared so many Saturday and Sundays with him in the pits.
ReplyDeleteMoody, that was awesome. Have always loved Dick Berggren but never knew much about his background in racing. He'll be missed very much in '13. Can't wait to see the museum.
ReplyDelete