In the shadow of the high bank of turns 1 and 2 at the Talladega Superspeedway on race weekend sat 156 RVs that made Richard Alford smile.
The RVs — parked neatly in the new Champion’s Corner Overnight Park for the April 29 Aaron’s 499 NASCAR race — constituted the first campsite designated by the speedway as alcohol-free. It was also the first at which a member of Alabama Raceway Ministries (ARM) was asked to serve as a camp host.
"Champion’s Corner was a great first-time experience for Alabama Raceway Ministries," said Alford, director of ARM for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM).
"The people were very receptive to our team being there and continually expressed appreciation for what our team did for and with them there," he said.
Fred Cook, director of Columbia Baptist Association’s ministry center, and his wife, Melba, served as camp hosts and arrived the Monday before the race to get the site set up and help campers with everything from parking RVs to listening to prayer requests.
Champion’s Corner was one of seven campgrounds with an ARM ministry site on hand during race week but the only one at which a minister stayed overnight.
"This is a relaxed setting. People open up," Fred Cook said, noting that at night when events wind down, some of the best relationship-building time begins. "When the daily activities are over, I get to interact more with people."
In the family-friendly environment, the Cooks spent their evenings handing out free water, snacks and tracts and showing movies on a big screen behind their RV.
"This is the best thing Talladega’s done, doing a camp like this," said Robert Van Dyke, a race fan from Trumann, Ark., as he, his nephew and a friend watched Christian comedian Mark Lowry on the big screen one night. "We really enjoy this. … We need more of [raceway ministries]. We need it at every track."
Patrick Barfield, director of administration for the speedway, said the campsite was "something our fans have been asking for, and we decided to give it a try."
Alford and ARM "stepped on board and did a great job with making it a good family atmosphere," Barfield said.
ARM also set up a ministry site at another new campsite at the request of the speedway, but this one was in vastly different territory.
A free campsite with no restrictions, the West C campground hosted people staying in RVs, tents, vans, remodeled school buses and sleeping bags under the open sky in any open space they could find.
Volunteers from St. Clair Baptist Association set up shop on a corner lot right in the middle of all the chaos.
As people drove and walked by, volunteers flagged them down with free sausage biscuits, coffee and printed materials — then invited them to Sunday worship there just behind their food tables. They had been doing similar ministry all week long.
"A young man put his arm around me and said, ‘Thank you for being here,’" said Marjorie Weeks, a member of Happy Home Baptist Church, Leeds, in St. Clair Association. "I said, ‘We’re just here to let you know we love you and the good Lord loves you.’"
Ben Chandler, director of missions for St. Clair Association, said volunteers got several opportunities to talk with race fans and pray with them.
"It’s a new site but it’s been great. It’s a beautiful spot the raceway offered us," he said, gesturing to the prime location at a fork in one of the campsite’s main roads. Chandler added the association will be back to continue building its presence at the next race in October.
After a ministry site has been there for a while, race fans start looking for it and expecting it to be there, according to Joycelyn Carrell, director of church and community ministries for Russell Baptist Association.
Carrell and other volunteers manned a ministry site in the speedway’s infield that’s well-known to the fans predominantly due to the Timothy Cup race run on the Saturday prior to the Aaron’s 499. Timothy Cup — a pinewood derby race put on each year by Dwight Sisk of Hazel Green — allows families to paint cars together, hear a short devotion and then enjoy the competition.
At other sites, volunteers from Alabama Baptist churches also ran mock races, gave out water and food and prayed with race fans. About 50,000 evangelistic tracts were handed out over the course of race week.
And worship services held simultaneously at each of the seven sites Sunday morning — plus one service for emergency crews — were well attended, according to Mike Jackson, director of the SBOM office of discipleship and family ministries.
Throughout the week, Jackson, an official speedway chaplain, floated from site to site sharing devotionals, talking with fans and facilitating ministry. Alford, also a speedway chaplain, did the same thing, even performing a wedding during race weekend (see photo below).
"I felt like our people were very engaged with race fans and with track personnel, which is what we wanted to see happen," Alford said. "The weekend went very well."
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