The big debate as a track owner , series promoter , driver , and fan when is the right time to pull the plug on a race night. If you cancel too early and the weather works out everyone bashes them. If you wait too long it's the same end result.
Last night Brandon Hardgrove made the tough decision to cancel the races after looking at the track conditions and chatting with the drivers on their thoughts. Brandon and Larry Yantz spends several hours working on Ponderosa Speedway and they could see it wasn't going to be safe to have race cars on the track.
Photo Credit - Ryan Roberts Photography
Several drivers said they weren't putting their car on the track and a couple of drivers said they were there to race so let's race. It's no fun to drive wide open bouncing through ruts on a heavy track. Sure as a fan it's fun to watch until someone gets hurt or tear up their equipment and not able to race tonight. The series travels one hour south to Brandon's other track Lake Cumberland Speedway in Burnside ,KY.
As Brandon said in the driver's meeting he was in a lose/lose situation. If they race and someone gets hurt whether its a driver , crew ,official, or fan he would be devastated. Cancel and all the fans that were ready to see cars hit the track are mad and threaten not to come to his tracks. Brandon spent all day watching weather apps and was going by forecast of sunshine that never happened to help with the track drying process. Brandon is a racer himself and knows the cost of equipment and fuel isn't worth putting people in danger. Right call? I would agree. Timing? It would have calmed the crowd down as several were upset with the no cash refund policy that is posted. Brandon announced keep armbands they would be honored at any race.
No one won last night in situations like this. The track owner and series promoter gets bashed. The track workers that spent all week getting prepared lost out on their time to get things ready. The fans go home without seeing a car hit the track. The drivers wasted their fuel driving to the track but at the end of the night everyone left as they came. No injuries and no torn up race cars. Load up and try again tonight. That itself is the win in a bad situation
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