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EVENTS
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
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One of their own Community mourns loss of local hero
Updated: Monday February 19, 2001 9:06 AM
MOORESVILLE, N.C. (AP) -- A white cardboard sign that hung on the fence with letters in black -- Intimidator black -- read "In memory of my only hero" served as the focal point for about 200 fans who gathered at Dale Earnhardt's shop Sunday night, hours after the popular driver was killed at the Daytona 500. The large shop that serves as home to DEI Inc.'s three cars -- Daytona champion Michael Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Steve Park -- seems out of place in rural Mooresville, but it was the perfect gathering place for fans to mourn the loss of their hero. Cars lined the two-lane highway leading up to the shop, where three flags -- the U.S., North Carolina and DEI's -- hung at half mast. Police guarded the entrances to the shop, but that didn't stop fans wearing their black No. 3 hats from lighting candles and placing flowers as they embraced each other at the makeshift memorial. One of the mourners, Alec Mantz of Mooresville, came with a group of people who had to hold each other up they were so overcome with grief. Mantz said he met Earnhardt in 1980 and has been a fan ever since. "He had has his ways, but he was best damn race car driver ever and that's how I'm going to remember him," said Mantz, who claims to be from Race City, USA. "To us here in Mooresville, he was put on this earth to race and that's what he did best." Mooresville's Jim Donaldson, 21, came to the shop with his two friends. All three attended school with Dale Earnhardt Jr., they said. "Earnhardt was Mooresville," Donaldson said as he removed his Earnhardt cap and rubbed his face in grief. "This is a tight-knit community, so even if you hated the Earnhardts, this is devastating. It was just a terrible tragedy." At the Concord Regional Airport, 11-year-old Bobby Klimas bounced around the waiting room in his black Earnhardt jacket. Klimas traditionally goes to the airport with his father after races so he can get a glimpse of his heroes when they return from the races. His father didn't have the heart to tell him that Earnhardt, his favorite driver, was dead. "He would go bonkers," Bob Klimas said. "My wife and I decided we'd wait until we got home to tell him. He'll be crushed, absolutely crushed." As a result, Bobby Klimas was the only person at the airport in good spirits. As the race team stepped off their planes, family members waited inside in tears. "It's just real somber, real sad," said a woman working the desk at the private airport who didn't want to be identified. "Normally, the race teams come in and it's like 'Woo-hoo', but this time everyone is ready to go. It seems like a shock to them all." Todd Parrott, crew chief for Dale Jarrett, looked stunned as he got off his plane and walked to his car. "It's just the way this sport is -- it's a chance you are taking every time you get in the car," Parrott said. "Unfortunately, it happened to him and it just don't seem right. It's hard to believe because you don't think things like that happen to drivers like him."
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