Over the past few years I have noticed that when there is a rainout of one of the earlier events that it will often be rescheduled as a day race for either a Saturday or a Sunday resulting in a day/night doubleheader for the track. I have always wondered who is making that call. Is it the series that is dictating that, or does the track promoter make that decision? This question really came to mind yesterday when I saw that the $5,000-to-win Lucas Oil Late Model Series event that had been rained out on Thursday night at Golden Isles Speedway in southeastern Georgia was now being run as a day race with hot laps taking the green around 10:30 a.m. And then later that evening the track would still host the regularly scheduled Friday night $10,000-to-win program.
From the pictures on DirtOnDirt it didn't look like very many fans got the message and, or perhaps the locals might have had to be at work on a Friday as I have seen more people in the stands at a practice night at one of our local tracks. It is too bad that there were not more people to see it as, for a day race, the action was actually two and three-wide behind the leader as Jonathan Davenport cruised to the flag-to-flag victory. Now not only was there the $5,000 Lucas Oil purse structure to pay out, but there was also a $2,500-to-win NeSmith Crate Late Model event running in support with Ray Cook taking the top dollars there so it makes me wonder just who is paying for this decision to run a race on a Friday afternoon? I understand that the drivers need to have some assurance that all of the scheduled shows will be run if at all possible since they are making the investment to travel to Speedweeks, but at what cost to the promoter? Is it the decision of the promoter or the series to run this event? Does the sponsorship of Georgia Boots allow them to take a bigger risk? The Friday night crowd was better, but the stands were far from full so I would assume that it was not a good Friday financially for the track and with scattered rain today and temperatures to dip down into the 40's tonight the hopes for a big Saturday night to make up the difference is slim.
Further south near Tampa the East Bay Raceway fought the weather to get in the opening event of the track's 38th Annual Winternationals schedule as the Open Wheel Modified Nationals that were scheduled to run on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of last weekend ended up being run on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Actually on Sunday the weather was nice and sunny but the track was a wet and rutted up mess so they had to push things to Monday and Tuesday. On Monday night the feature event was checkered flagged after seventeen laps as the fog rolled in with local driver Kyle Bronson taking the win and then on Tuesday night Dale Mathison and Kyle Strickler scored wins in the twin features. In this case there was no series to make demands so it was obvious that the track made the decision to stick it out and put on the show under less than ideal conditions and from some of the video clips that have been shared out on Facebook it is hard to spot even one or two fans sitting in the blue bleachers of East Bay. Besides the winning drivers the only entity that made money on this event was XSAN.
East Bay's Winternationals have continued this week with Crate Late Models and Mod Lites being featured and on Thursday night the 2013 All Iowa Points Mod Lite Champion Josh May from DeSoto was the best of around fifty entries. Jimmy May finished eighth and other Iowa/Illinois drivers in the feature field included Greg Rossell, Ed Zehm, Bryan Zehm and Chase Flatt. The night before on Wednesday, Rossell who is from Knoxville, Illinois, finished second to Ohio's Jeff Teeters while Josh May finished in the fourth position and Chase Flatt (Monmouth IL) was eighth. The Mod Lites run again tonight (Saturday) for their finale at East Bay.
Things aren't much better down in Texas where the USMTS Modifieds have had their opening events postponed on both Thursday and Friday. Todd Staley and crew will try it again tonight in Corpus Christi and then run a show on Sunday as well.
Yes, I will be jealous but I do hope that the weather turns around and allows all of the remaining Speedweeks events to run under dry and warm conditions! And no more rescheduled day races.....
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