Tim, thank you for presenting your point of view.

Tony Barhorst last post brings up some of the same points I made in the five questions I sent to D.O. to ask on his show last night. Those questions were never asked, and although I feel Kevin Miller and Jason Smith may have danced around some of my concerns, I don't feel I have answers to my questions.

I do believe safety of the drivers should be the foremost concern of any sanctioning body.

That being said, having read thru all of these post for the past several days and being a former car owner in another division of auto racing, past experiences came to mind. While traveling with ISMA, we arrived at a track in Michigan we had never raced before, not only did the place not have any corner lights, there were no corner men to stand an wave a flag of any color. This was back in the day before each driver had a radio, where at least one of our officials could have screamed in the drivers ear, yellow, yellow when an accident occurred. There was alot of discussion about how safe it would be to race there, in the end we raced and learned the lesson never to go to a new race track to our sehedule sight unseen again.

The guestions I sent D. O. were probably formed from that past experience as well as what happend at Union County. I didn't keep a copy of the questions, so I will simply state my concerns. First, why weren't Mr. Barhorst and his race director included in USAC's meeting with their race teams? Second, why wasn't one member from all 48 teams given a voice at that meeting? Third, Greg Staab indentified concerns last October, why wasn't the new Health, Fire and Safety Officer sent to reinspect the track once Greg was let go? Fourth, what were the actual safety concerns? Fifth, what would USAC do in the future to prevent this from happending again?

What I learned from last nights radio show was Mr. Barhost and Mr. Miller have talked numerous times over the weekend and vow to never let this happend again. The ball dropped with the July 3rd cancellation of the MSCS race as far as the UCS track getting reinspected. Now with Tim's excellent post I have my answer about the safety concerns.

Some one posted earlier that racing injuries are usually from a freak accident. Unforatunely, the friends that I have lost in the sport all died at some of the safest race tracks in the country in freak accidents. I in no way am making light of this, I feel racers know the risk they take. An I have always felt racers are usually safer on the track than driving their street car on the highway.

Hopefully all parties invovled can set aside their difference and work together for the betterment of the sport in the future.

Safe racing to all,

Patti