USAC made a mistake yes, but they tried to bring back tradition for the fans. At least they called it after the initial start before anyone else got tore up or hurt.
Everyone forgets the terrible track of the June MSCS and SCORA race in 2009. It was rained out on a Saturday and we came back on Sunday and the track was rougher than a corn field and had a humongous burm built up around the inside that led to many bad wrecks, tore up equipment, and my buddy Alex Coonan had severe injuries. The MSCS Main took like 2 hours to run and then a Late Model Main that took an hour and the SCORA Main had its issues including the last lap wreck that hurt Alex Coonan. This all could have been prevented if Tommy Helfrich would have threw in the towl like USAC did. All of the dollars of tore up equipment, hurt drivers, and pissed off fans would have never happened. Posted via Mobile Device
Originally Posted by sp6967:
will somebody who knows about track prep please notify usac before they destroy my beloved terre haute.
I completely agree; I have feared for the future of THAT knowing developers covet the location and this definitely won't help. Such a shame that track prep was so utterly deficient today, and a good crowd went away unhappy. The track issues go way beyond blaming last night's rain.
On the upside, I got to spend lots of time with my brother, my former Schwan driver, Richie, and DannyB, courtesy of the horrible track prep. That was lots of fun, and now I don't have to pay for ISW at Terre Haute...assuming the race comes off...
1. Was very excited to see the infield open and felt that walking in 6 inches of water in my shoes through the tunnel was going to be the worst part of my day. Boy was i wrong!
2. Why would they stop pumping the water out of the tunnel around 1 pm and let it become about 3 feet deep for the rest of the day? Fans were then stranded in the infield and had to cross the track in turn four just to get out. This created a few delays..
3. Speaking of delays, when you are running 3 to 4 hours behind schedule why would you grid the cars on the front stretch for driver intros. This is something they should do if they are ahead of schedule. A bad decision when its 90 degrees outside and people have been sitting there for hours waiting for a race to get going.
4. That water truck they brought before the main was a joke, It was slow and hardly dropped any water. Then he makes 3 laps on the top half of the track.
5. Speaking of water, its ironic how much standing water was all around the facility. The inside of the turns were ponds, the tunnel flooded, the infield was muddy, but the track was incredibly dry. Very ironic.
6. Did anyone still have intentions on going to kokomo around 3 pm? I figured that since i made the 2 hour drive at $3.49 a gallon, was trapped inside the infield, had been there for 4 hours already that i was at least going to see one race today...i was wrong...missed both races. When they announced that it had be postponed i was shocked!
7. The icing on the cake to cap off a bad day of racing was trying to go on the 70 east on ramp to find out it was closed then taking a 25 mintue detour through god knows where...crazy crazy day. but memorable. i will be back to T.H.AT. A bad day at the races is better than no racing at all. I think everyone will learn from everything that us die hard fans experienced today. It will be much improved for sprintweek. Oconnors need to be involved with the track like last year. Thanks for listening to me express my feelings. I feel much better now.
oh yeah and im glad T-Mez is ok after his crash. He is a true gasser and its much appreciated when he puts his life on the line no matter what to entertain us fans. Thanks
Agree with most everything above. Some bad decisions were made, and opportunities to jump on problems and fix them were missed. However, I WILL be back to the Action Track. As bad as things were today, it is no reason to let many years of great tradition get dumped into the dustbin of history. Just do it better next time.
Ditto on T Mez. I was fortunate enough to catch his win at Putnamville last year. He is definitely a crowd pleaser. His car is a mess though. Too bad.
Kind of felt like I was watching a Jerry Olson promotion from the early 2000's. Wait maybe I got that feeling because I noticed him working the track. Glad to see USUC went out and hired the best. Congrats to you Funk for staying home. I was excited when I awoke this morning after a night of rain. Hopefully it will be better for sprintweek. I will see you all there despite most of your complaints.
After many of his wins Stanbrough’s fans can be heard chanting “King of Indiana.” - quote from onedirt.com
Some observations from someone wo has been involved with racing at THAT on several different levels.
1. Mr.Olson was present and involved with some of the track prep during the day. I knew when I saw his presence this was NOT a good developement.
2. You CAN run a successful day show. See Bob Sargeant's race at Springfield. No dust and it is a day show.
3. Years ago I was told by an official in USAC that they are a sanctioning body, not a promotions company. Today proved it. Promotions are for the promotors, not for the sanctioning group.
4.The call to throw the green wasn't the flagman's. He may get blamed , but he's the employee, not the boss.
5. USAC better shell out some cash and hire someone to do track prep for Sprintweek, or they will lose even more fans.
6. Yes, I will go back to THAT, but if it was a casual fans first time, USAC can kiss them good bye. Talk about leaving a bad taste in your mouth.
7. As I have posted on here before, USAC has had more unsuccessful suicide attempts then any other organization I know of. Today seemed as if they were trying a LOT harder then usual.
8. USAC you'd better call Bill Carey, you need him a lot more then he needs you, but you'd be VERY SMART to give him a call. Some times it doesn't hurt to swallow your pride.
9. MR. Miller, come Tuesday morning, everyone you talk to better know you mean business. After the debacle today the people you work with need to know that things need to change, and change NOW.
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