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To hold out to race or to cancel. It's always a tough call!
To hold out to race or to cancel. It's always a tough call!
Yesterday was one of the worst forecast a track owner or operator has to deal with. Hollywood could make movies on the Drama that goes on.
Building the hype to create the momentum to Honor one of the best racers in the Country "Randy Fox". No one wins (except Mother Nature). Sitting in the office (be hind a closed door) an watching the radar that keep sending waves of depression (making you wonder why your doing this) your way. Having someone answer the endless phone calls, texts, and Teams coming by the office to explain where the tracks position is at that time of the day (believe me it starts EARLY and keep going all day). Hide sight is always 20/20.
Friday night's practice was a hit with all the cars and Teams just waiting for the next day to kick off the 2016 racing season. The Track has to cover 1/2 of the employees pay for a rain out (40 employees $4000.00 for a regular night of racing and that's not counting the full timers) along with all the lost advertising money (I sure they had to spend $2500.00 on radio, printed, and maybe TV). You can not get the word out for a next day makeup (unless you have it in your advertisements).
Two weeks ago the Track made the right call at 10:00 in the morning. We can not race in the rain. Even though a great back gate helps cover the bills it can kill the owners if the front gate in low (without the Romans cheering on the Lions the track will loose).
Hats off to all the hard work that was put out to get it in. We decided to go out to eat and when we came out at 10:00 PM it was still raining (so it was the right call). In this business it is perception that becomes reality. No one should be upset with the track. They had to look closely at getting this one in. Three races in a row will make you loose a lot of sleep.
What would be your call?????
What would YOU do different ?????
Remember this is your lively hood. Monday morning it all starts over again looking at the forecast.......
It's a tough business!!!!!
Yesterday was one of the worst forecast a track owner or operator has to deal with. Hollywood could make movies on the Drama that goes on.
Building the hype to create the momentum to Honor one of the best racers in the Country "Randy Fox". No one wins (except Mother Nature). Sitting in the office (be hind a closed door) an watching the radar that keep sending waves of depression (making you wonder why your doing this) your way. Having someone answer the endless phone calls, texts, and Teams coming by the office to explain where the tracks position is at that time of the day (believe me it starts EARLY and keep going all day). Hide sight is always 20/20.
Friday night's practice was a hit with all the cars and Teams just waiting for the next day to kick off the 2016 racing season. The Track has to cover 1/2 of the employees pay for a rain out (40 employees $4000.00 for a regular night of racing and that's not counting the full timers) along with all the lost advertising money (I sure they had to spend $2500.00 on radio, printed, and maybe TV). You can not get the word out for a next day makeup (unless you have it in your advertisements).
Two weeks ago the Track made the right call at 10:00 in the morning. We can not race in the rain. Even though a great back gate helps cover the bills it can kill the owners if the front gate in low (without the Romans cheering on the Lions the track will loose).
Hats off to all the hard work that was put out to get it in. We decided to go out to eat and when we came out at 10:00 PM it was still raining (so it was the right call). In this business it is perception that becomes reality. No one should be upset with the track. They had to look closely at getting this one in. Three races in a row will make you loose a lot of sleep.
What would be your call?????
What would YOU do different ?????
Remember this is your lively hood. Monday morning it all starts over again looking at the forecast.......
It's a tough business!!!!!
The leadership of the track could only look at the weather channels. After owning a track for 3+ years and dealing with tracks since 1995 (the FASTRUCK Series) the only thing you can count on is that the weather is mainly a crap shoot (it can change in a minute). We went through lots of rain outs over the 20+ years. In 2007 we had zero rain outs at CCMP (no skill just dumb luck). This weekend had everyone thinking the sun would come out and things could get going. It just never let up. Even Rusty Orlando's rebirth is canceled for today. Again your quote is the perfect one. Sorry to see all the effort and the time put into the race and have it out of their control. Hopefully they can survive till Oct when they predict the end of the Super El Nono.....
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