The demonstrators on the 311 Speedway met with staff who carried rifles, fans; have prayer with the track owner, video shows | Local news

“One was a Hispanic gentleman who greeted us to let us know they were ready to shoot us,” said Drumwright, an activist who recently took his group to Talladega Superspeedway to support NASCAR’s Bubba Wallace than he did Black driver uncovered a loop of door pull found in his assigned race track garage.

The video of Protest 311 shows a man at the gate holding an AR 15 rifle vertically and carrying a sidearm. The footage also shows at least two other white men standing with similar rifles on the Far East side of the speedway parking lot, crouching behind parked tractor units.

Drumwright said these men regularly followed demonstrators during the 90-minute demonstration that aired on Facebook Live, where the participants held signs saying “Take your knee off your neck” and “Black Lives Matter.”

According to the judicial group’s videographer, another man has pointed a rifle at the group from afar throughout the protest, said Drumwright, pastor and communications professor at High Point University.

Several sheriff MPs patrolled the protest and monitored the racetrack on Saturday evening, although it is not known whether the men had the appropriate gun permits. (See correction at the end of this story.)

“Since then, my life on Facebook has been threatened by people from this community,” said Drumwright, who added that he spoke to the NASCAR leadership about necessary changes in the industry.

“We are calling for changes in the racing industry,” said Drumwright. “There is a well-known culture … in the racing community … as if it were cordoned off as a safe haven for white supremacists and racist whites.”

The Stokes County sheriff, Mike Marshall, did not return any calls.

The group’s visit to 311 was a reaction to the actions of racetrack owner Mike Fulp (55) of Lawsonville. Last week, Fulp advertised “Bubba Rope” for sale on his Facebook page amid the controversy surrounding the announcement by NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace that a noose was found in his garage at Talladega Superspeedway. The ad has since been removed.

In the ad, Fulp, who owns the 800m Red Dirt Raceway that spans the Rockingham County line, listed “Bubba Rope” for sale with a pitch: “Buy your Bubba Rope today for only $ 9.99 each Guarantee and work great. ”

“I was trying to make a joke … to make people laugh,” Fulp said to Drumwright as the couple spoke about the chain link fence at dusk at dusk.

Drumwright, who offered to pray with Fulp, invited Fulp to explain his reasons for creating the Bubba Rope item.

“It wasn’t Bubba,” Fulp said tearfully. “It was about making people laugh … but I wasn’t thinking about what it would do. ”

News of his post brought criticism from Governor Roy Cooper last week, prompting everyone but two racing sponsors and vendors to pull their business off the Confederate flag-billed circuit touted as the “Daytona of Dirt.” “Black leaders and white race fans condemned the contributions equally and reprimanded Fulp online and in the press.

Wallace, NASCAR’s only full-time Black driver, learned from an FBI investigation last week that a loop-shaped door handle had been in place on the Alabama circuit since at least October.

Fulp cried when he spoke to Drumwright in the video: “I made a mistake and I’m sorry. I don’t want no one to be hurt, man, I don’t want no one to be hurt … People threatened to kill me, “he said of callers he said many were white.

“I’m a Republican, OK,” Fulp said to Drumwright. “You have your values; I have my values ​​… I don’t want anyone to get hurt man … someone loses his life for something stupid. You know, I love my colored people. I love my people, your people, my people, every people. ”

“Let’s pray for you because you are hurt,” said Drumwright, before he met Fulp at the gates of 311, where Fulp asked to shake hands with each demonstrator, hugging and crying a young man.

But Drumwright said many people were skeptical of Fulp’s sincerity.

“I find it (Fulp’s apology) very practical after losing all of their sponsors and all of their drivers,” said Drumwright. “I wonder why now? But as a minister, it is not my job to judge people’s sincerity. When people ask for forgiveness … their next step is to turn to the ways you repent. So what we would expect from Mike goes beyond an apology. It’s going to be a real change. ”

Fulp, who recently made a failed bid for a seat in the Stokes County Board of Commissioners as a Republican, could not be reached for comment. Two phone numbers associated with his name were not operational on Wednesday evening. He also owns Hillside Dan River Tubing in Walnut Cove.

BubbaRope is the registered trademark of a synthetic rope made in Florida. The company’s president said he had no relationship with Fulp and had never sold the product to him.