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We're goin' to the racetrack

These race fans pledge to love, honor and root for their favorite drivers.

By SHARON GINN

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 14, 2001

The groom picked the date: Valentine's Day. "Very romantic," said the bride.

She will wear white. He will don a suit.

There's seating for 167,000, but most of the guests will watch from their cars. And they won't be able to hear the vows above the roar.

And it may be a little, um, smelly.

[Times photo: Ken Helle]

They have just been pronounced husband and wife. The new Mr. and Mrs. Newman pose.

But today, Marilyn Cooper and Robert Holland are thrilled to be starting their lives together not far from where their favorite drivers start their engines: Victory Lane at Daytona International Speedway.

It made sense to the couple from Branford, near Gainesville, to combine their plans to attend the Daytona 500 with their plans to marry. After all, who needs a flower girl when you can march down an aisle dotted with oil stains?

"We're going to be there the whole two weeks," said Cooper, 41. "All the places that we thought of, Victory Lane seemed like the best."

Every year, more couples agree.

Janet Schak, the special events coordinator at the speedway, organized about 20 weddings in Victory Lane last year. Speedweeks are her busiest time, because the Daytona 500 and Valentine's Day make Victory Lane a more exciting -- and yes, her clients say, more romantic -- place to tie the knot.

For about $600, couples get a ride in the pace car to Victory Lane, bride and groom speedway shirts and hats, a bottle of champagne with their names and date inscribed, a pair of champagne glasses and tickets to Daytona USA, the speedway's interactive motorsports attraction. A notary, Schak (dubbed Love Schak by colleagues) also will perform the ceremony if the couple wishes.

"In the past we would often have people that would call and say, "Can we get married during race event time?' " Schak said. "We just always said no. A couple of years ago ... we actually opened a banquet room and started doing a lot of wedding receptions. We thought, well, why not give this a shot and see what happens?"

Connie Ingram, 48, and Jerry Stevens, 39, were married in Victory Lane on Tuesday. Ingram's sister-in-law is a NASCAR accountant and told her about Schak's services.

Ingram and Stevens, racing fans from Springfield, Ohio, were eager to marry on the track during one of its busiest times.

"Just to be in the atmosphere and in Victory Lane, it's something that everybody sees on TV," Ingram said before the wedding. "To be there, that's going to be an experience in itself."

She wore an ivory pantsuit. "I got my sweetie into a tie," Ingram said. "It was either that or a Rusty Wallace shirt."

Rebecca Jasper, 30, and Paul Newman, 24, of Dixon, Ill., also tied the knot Tuesday. He is a huge racing fan; she isn't much of one but "knew he'd really be happy if we did it."

Newman said he always envisioned getting married outdoors in jeans and cowboy boots. Jasper let him do that, too, but insisted on a tuxedo jacket and tie. She wore an ivory gown. "We like to do things (that are) unique," Newman said. "This will set us aside a little bit."

No one, however, has a better story than the couple that wrote a letter to their favorite driver, Michael Waltrip, and asked him to be best man. He said he would if he could make it. They didn't hear from him again.

On the day of the wedding, "we pulled up out there and he was sitting there waiting," Schak said.

Since then, Waltrip, married with two daughters, said he has had "about 1,000 other requests to do it." But he won't, because "I think it would take something away from those folks. If that's what they wanted to do to make their wedding day more special, as special as weddings are to me, then I was certainly glad I got to do that for them."

For most couples, just being on the track is enough.

"The ambiance of the whole winner's circle, Speedweeks; you go there and everybody's all excited," Cooper said. "The anticipation, the crowds. All the history there. It's just awesome. What more can you say?"

- Staff writer Kevin Kelly contributed to this story.

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