In the most recent entry of In Staging my colleague Ryan Clark stated that he thinks that we share a brain and, if that means seeing a night of racing the same or having the same opinion on how we as race fans react in given situations, then he is probably right. After all, I am primarily writing this brief blog today to refer you once again to Ryan's great write up on the events that happened this past weekend at 34 Raceway and what it means to the race fans. "Is it unfortunate that the Pepsi rained out? Damn right it is. Is it anyone's fault? Absolutely not. Is it your money? Nope. Do you want a place to go racing next year? Thought so."
In regard to how the track is handling the situation with the Late Model drivers, that is up to them to work out with each. Some will be happy with how it is resolved, others will not, but so far it is good to see that those who are not directly involved are staying out of it if you know what I mean.
In this day and age we as race fans need to realize that promoters do not owe us a rain date for a special event no matter what time of year it is. As Ryan mentioned, it is not like there are a bunch of open dates out there that something can be dropped in on, and besides I know from experience that running a special event on a rain date is more likely to be a money losing situation. When a promoter loses money, they stop promoting races, and when we run out of people who want to try to promote races because they heard that many are losing money, then we have closed up race tracks. (You probably know of one or two near you) So the next time that you feel that an event should be rescheduled just because the promoter "owes it to the drivers and fans," maybe take another moment and think about how ignorant that statement really is.
When rain/inclement weather does interfere with our Special Events it often brings out the best (or worst) on the internet forums. This was illustrated in fine fashion this past Saturday after Burlington had postponed the Late Model Nationals to Sunday afternoon. The Four Cylinders and the Mod Lites were to run a full program in support and one poster asked the question why couldn't the track start earlier in the day. This way the Four Cylinder drivers who were in the points chase for both Burlington and Vinton could then run Burlington and then make it up to Vinton in time to compete up there as well. Of course this would have meant that Burlington would have had to have been done with the Four Cylinder portion of the program by around 2:30 p.m. which means that they would have needed to start around noon or so on a Sunday after receiving a full day of rain on Saturday, not to mention church, etc....... Yes, I know that to this individual and to perhaps three or four other Four Cylinder drivers this was their primary concern and a valid one at that. BUT.......did they really think that 34 Raceway should have taken that into consideration when rescheduling the Pepsi USA LATE MODEL Nationals? Proof once again that we as fans can often see only how something effects us rather than the big picture.
I stumbled across The Race Blogger's World recently, so if you want to follow racing over in Central Illinois check it out.
The weather forecast looks decent as of right now for this weekend, so get out and enjoy some action at a track near you!
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