Colonial Downs will mix up its usual horse racing offerings on Friday night with camel races, and it put out a call for “celebrity” riders.

In a previous iteration, didn't Dennis Bickmeier, good sport that he is, climb aboard one of those very tall, long-legged and long-necked creatures?

And lived to tell about it?

He was running Fairgrounds Raceway for NASCAR in those days when (perhaps) the daredevil life of the drivers rubbed off on him. Now, he’s four years into a new job as executive director of Henrico County’s sports and entertainment authority, older and presumably wiser.

So, how about it, Dennis … you up to climbing aboard one of those seven-foot-plus dromedary camels and trying it again? Believe it or not, he hesitated, if briefly, before saying, “No … but I’d be happy to help coach someone, how’s that?

“Look, I had never done anything like that [but] we’re promoters. So we had an opportunity to partner with Colonial Downs … bring some awareness to their track and our events.

"I’ll try anything once, I guess,” Bickmeier said, the emphasis on ONCE.

In other words, sorry about that but … well, he was a risk-taker … the emphasis on WAS.

Understand, Bickmeier once rappelled 400 feet down the side of a major building in downtown Richmond to help promote special Olympics. He’s a special kind of guy, Dennis is … but, a month from his 59^th birthday, a man learns how to pick his spots even if, admittedly, he still likes (in his words) “to do adventurous things.”

He’ll gladly let someone else race a camel, or for that matter, an ostrich or zebra. All three will compete in separate sprints between Colonial’s regularly scheduled Thoroughbred races on Friday … and are all but guaranteed to draw a large crowd.

The last time Joe Hedrick brought his racing menagerie 1,015 miles from his home base in Nickerson, Kansas, to the New Kent County track off I-95 between Richmond and Williamsburg, attendance was a glossy 6,000, roughly three times more than Colonial’s average turnout in those days — shortly before ex-owner Jeff Jacobs turned in his license (and the track went dark for five years).

Bickmeier remembers the occasion … well, (cliché alert) like it was yesterday.

“Let’s see. Where do I start? I was nervous to begin with … but overall it was a fun experience,” he said. “I didn’t know what to expect when the gate opened … I needed some reassurance when I got on that the saddle, or whatever they had us harnessed on with, was going to stay …  and when that camel kind of bumped out of the gate … it scared the heck out of me!

“But, after the first few strides, if you want to call it that, it was fun. Really! The crowd was so loud … but I could still hear my [three] kids over everybody. There’s a video my wife took … and you can hear them screaming but laughing, too, over how odd I looked on the camel.

“I remember my legs and back were sore for a week, at least.” 

Bickmeier also recalled: “There four of us. I think I finished third, and that was my number as well … and when I look at that picture I always think: ‘I hope I represented Dale Earnhardt well.’”

Count on it, Dennis. Somewhere up there ole No. 3, The Intimidator, is smiling … laughing is more like it.