Race fans enjoy their comforts

Eric Leake

Friday, Feb. 28, 2003 | 11:27 a.m.

Rising above the El Monte RV Corral at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a massive three-pronged flagpole displays a camper's allegiances.

On top is the United States. Then Idaho. And next Team Chevy, Ford, and six of NASCAR's top drivers.

"We originally tried to be the tallest. We decided that could kill somebody," said Rob Hatten, the Air National Guard crew chief who built the 35-foot pole. "Now we want to fly more flags than anybody else."

Hatten and friends are among the more than 139,000 race fans expected to pack the track for the weekend events, with 89,000 of those folks from out of town. They will bring in an estimated $70 million in nongaming revenue, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

They're here for the NASCAR Winston Cup Series UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 on Sunday, the Sam's Town 300 Saturday and World of Outlaws races today. They come early and leave late, as much for the festivities as the races.

Sitting in a lawn chair in front of a sod lawn, Marty Schwartzer was one of the locals camping in the racetrack park. He and some fellow bar owners and friends pulled in Wednesday.

They have been coming to the track since it opened. In those six years, he said, they've developed a system.

"We do have the best setup," Schwartzer said, nodding to the group's fully stocked bar and 8-foot grill beside a 1,000-square-foot sod lawn with lighted palms and fireplace.

"You go around and find somebody who has a better setup, we'll top it."

While most fans wore caps with their favorite driver's number, Schwartzer sported a clover green hat advertising his bar, Michael's Pub.

"I really have no interest in NASCAR," he said. "I'm just here for the party."

Gordie Hill, the self-proclaimed mayor of the group's 20-RV camp, said he has been a NASCAR fan since attending his first race.

"The first time I came to the race I was done, the first time I heard the roar coming down the backstretch," he said.

He and his brother Geno own the Rum Runner and built the wood bar standing aside the lawn.

"It's a good time. It's like a little vacation, and you never leave the valley," Hill said as he unloaded a truckbed of potted plants for camp landscaping.

The locals and thousands of other fans transformed the gravel RV lot into a small RV city, one heavy with the smell of gasoline and dotted by an untold number of portable toilets. Nearly 5,000 RVs are expected in the park at $129 a slot.

Scott Johnson, who serves with Hatten in Boise, Idaho, said they come to the race every year because it is in Las Vegas.

Though some fear weekend showers may hamper the competition, Johnson said he did not share that concern. With 10 flags, wind was more of a problem.

"If it gets real bad, it'll take the whole trailer over," he said.

He and some fellow guardsmen said they did not mind the rush of the Nellis Air Force Base jets flying overhead. And they are careful to follow regulation, lowering the national and state flags at night to raise them again at sunrise.

"But there is no protocol for the number 88 and 97 car flags," one said.

Overlooking the camp, June McClure and her friend Dale Stires walked a dog behind their 40-foot RVs.

The Newport, Calif., women and their husbands were parked on Motor Home Hill, aka "Cadillac Hill." The $3,100 spaces directly above the racetrack include full electric, water and television hookups.

"This is Armani racing, this is nice," McClure said. "The view is wonderful."

She and her retired husband do not travel to many races, but come to Las Vegas because of the way they can set up their mobile suite on the hill, she said.

"It's better than sitting in the stands," Stires said.