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We attended the Smackdown for the first time. While we have been to Kokomo Speedway before, we had never seen non-wing sprint cars there in this configuration. The following is MY OPINION!
FIrst off, HUGE compliments to the track crew! Mother Nature did not play nice at all Thurs. through Saturday, but the crew managed to provide a racy surface throughout the events. It got a little dusty toward the ends of all three features, but overall they did a great job.
We were surprised at the lack of crowd Friday evening. I would estimate that the grandstands were about 60% full for Friday’s program. Not bad guess, but we had been led to believe that last year’s Smackdown was close to a sellout all three nights. I don’t know if they were accurate or overselling it. Saturday’s daytime event was maybe 40% full, but that didn’t really surprise us. Given the weather, the timing, and all the factors in play, the crowd was decent. The Saturday night crowd was IMO about 85-90% capacity. There were some seats down low on the Front Stretch side, and some scattered seats on Back Stretch, but it is hard to know how the crowd “spread out” as seats didn’t fill. I would imagine the threat of rain all three days and the high heat indexes played a part in the attendance.
We thought that although the driver intros are a tradition, given the circumstances of the long Saturday, they would have been better off skipping it, at least for this year. The drivers clearly were not in to it, at least those on the back stretch, and the crowd was pretty much the same.
The King of the Hill was “interesting”. It seemed like whoever got the lead at the jump was untouchable. Maybe that is the norm. It was enjoyable to watch, just different than what we expected.
Lastly, and I’m not sure who else might have noticed it, I hope the Kokomo track crew looks at the safety lights going in to turn 3. Twice Saturday, that safety light went to red at the drop of the green flag, NOT green. That is a very dangerous situation!
Although the weather was less than ideal, we enjoyed our first time at Smackdown, and Good Lord willing, will attend again.
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