Originally Posted by ISF:
This fiasco at Joliet has left a very bad impression on a lot of the crowd. Hot laps were at least an hour and a half past the advertised start time and to our knowledge there was no rain or adverse weather to blame for that.
The stands were starting to empty out a around 10 PM when it was painfully evident that this train wreck was going to hold us all hostage until well into the wee morning hours. By the time we gave up and headed home what had been a very, very good crowd had dwindled to less than 1/3 of it's original size. We gave up at midnight. There had been no racing activity for at least 20 minutes and there was a least 3 races left to be run including both A-mains!
It's best to never say never, but I suggest they take an extended and longing look at the $50.00 I plunked down for admission of myself and my wife and the $35.00 we spent on grossly overpriced concessions. It may well be the last of our cash the promoter ever sucks out of our pockets and I don't take that sentiment lightly!
What you described is almost exactly what I experienced at that track at the Summer Nationals race one year ago. They never communicated any reason for a delay and the first car for hotlaps rolled out an hour and 50 minutes after the advertised time for the beginning of heat races. I sat through over 3 hours of track prep and “entertainment” to see a total of 7 heat races (3 LM, 2 Mod, 2 stocks) and 1 feature. I left at 12:30 (central time) and didn’t even watch the feature for the other 2 classes. Pulled in the garage at home at 3:30 eastern. They had a very good crowd, most of which left before the first heat race even hit the track. Overpriced food, terrible communication, and low quality racing made me decide that I would say “never again.”