My Bristol Motor Speedway Experience, by Randy Oitker
This year has been a very exciting year with a busy schedule. At the beginning of the year Cabelas made me an Ambassador and I've been traveling across the country performing at Cabela's special events and grand openings.
Randy Oitker takes careful aim
At those events I performed my precision shooting demonstration, which most people call my ‘trick shots’. I have been very fortunate to perform at a lot of different events, the most exciting happened recently when I performed at the Bristol Motor Speedway to film a commercial for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s American Outdoor Experience during the Nextel Cup race in April.
Entrance To Bristol Motor Speedway
Filming a shot laying down
Being a NASCAR fan since I was born, I was really excited. They told me I would perform in front of 160,000 racing fans. The
excitement continued when I got to meet and film with Richard Childress (owner of Richard Childress Racing).
Mr. Childress used to be
the owner of Dale Earnhardt, Sr.'s car. Dale was and Mr. Childress is an avid hunter and is affiliated with Bill Jordan owner of Realtree camouflage.
Randy Oitker and Richard Childress
Mr.Childress gave me two NASCAR tires to incorporate into my show for the commercial. He wanted to tie NASCAR into the
commercial and I had to come up with a new shot using these tires -- in just a few seconds.
Thinking fast, I put a lifesaver on a string and
hung it from the top of the tire. While the lifesaver was swinging, I shot it. I had to do this several times in a row for different camera angles.
It was fun working with the Speed Channel camera crew. Then to top it all off, my entire family was treated to luxury suites to watch the NASCAR Nextel Cup Food City 500 race on April 3.
While at Bristol Motor Speedway, I was introduced to racing legend Junior Johnson and also got to meet and spend some time
with Brian Vickers, driver of the Hendricks Motorsports number 25 car. Brian is only 21 years old. I talked with him about hunting and
bows.
Brian told me that his grandfather shot a bow. I was going to let him shoot my bow but he had to hurry off to the drivers meeting that
they have before the race. Brian is a super guy and if you haven't already noticed he is becoming one heck of a driver.
I received a lot of
positive feedback from the NASCAR fans I met and they thought it would be great to tie hunting and the shooting sports into NASCAR. I
have already been in contact with other NASCAR tracks about possible future archery performances.
Frank Addington Jr. and Randy Oitker
I returned back to the Bristol Motor Speedway in May to perform at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundations American Outdoor Experience and while there I got to meet the 'Aspirin Buster', Frank Addington, Jr.. Frank puts on a great show and after his performance we talked in depth about our passions for archery. Mr. Addington is a wonderful guy and he gave me some really good career advice.
In the short time that I have known him, I put him high on my friends list.
