THOMPSON – The hopes of promoters to get through expected storms Wednesday at Thompson Speedway did not happen.
Torrential rain just after 6 p.m. forced event promoters to cancel Wednesday’s racing card at the track.
Despite the storm quickly clearing the track, the immense amount of rain left much of the oval flooded.
The event will not be rescheduled due to a lack of open dates.
All general admission ticket wristbands, pit pass wristbands, and entry fees will be honored at the Truly Hard Lemonade Midsummer 75 on Wednesday, August 11, which features a $5,000-to-win event for the Outlaw Open Modified Series. The full event schedule will be announced at a later date.
This is a huge bummer especially since the previous Thompson Outlaw event was exceptional.
I give all these guys, tour modifieds especially all the credit in the world. Especially Emerling, the teams from Long Island and the 79 teams for making the trip. They must have known the odds were not good.
I can relate in a small way. Long, long ago towed my Street an hour and a half out to Thompson on a Sunday for a rare trip to the high banks. Thunder storm as we got there. Track was dried, Street warm up called for, I’m the only car on the track, took one lap, they called it off mostly because there were no fans and an hour and a half tow back all for nothing.
That’s racing. Optimists by nature.
Huge disappointment with only 12 tour type modifieds entered before the rain cancelled the event. Support divisions for the most part also had very small fields This does not bode well for the future of these events in years to come. The future of midweek events at Thompson is in serious trouble
Mini’s did their part.
Project failure of Wednesday events as you wish. Weather was the wild card yesterday that messed everything up not the day of the week so much.
The epitome of New England weather. Got there near the end of practice and was getting sunburnt during the “break”. Don’t know why they didn’t go right into racing with the weather threat. Saw one Street Stock heat race and the beginning of the second and got a sprinkle. 5-6 minutes later that became rain. 5 minutes later Mother Nature emptied the clouds all at once with a monsoon. Had to sit in the car for a bit until it calmed down enough to be able to see. It stopped by the time I got to the Pike and I was forced to view the nice sunset in the distance with every glance in my rearview mirror. Still trying to dry some of my stuff. Wednesday night racing scorecard so far (Seekonk & Thompson): 2-1/2 out of 4. Hopefully that will improve as the season continues!
RichO, I’m sure the weather had something to do with small fields. The last event was pretty good with OK fields for support divisions and 17 modifieds I think? That’s not bad, really. Don’t hold Stafford as the gold standard for car counts…last year with them sending home cars weekly in not just one but two divisions is wayyyyy outside the norm for short track asphalt racing anywhere.
I recall this past winter discussion on here about whether there were too many modified events scheduled and if it would spread the pool to thin.
The tour always drew a good field on Wednesday’s at Thompson but a lot of that was to stay in the points race because the payoff for owners at the end of the year was worth it.
Most of the teams are guys with full time jobs.
There is only so many days you can take off. The stafford opens aren’t considered mid week shows but for anyone traveling any distance to compete it still involves time off from work on Friday.
Why some teams choose Stafford or Thompson is interesting.
I would guess any WMT teams running Opens at Thompson might also be testing for the 300, and/or running Stafford to test for the WMT races there.
Can you explain other than $10k to win there were 42 modifieds on a Wednesday night at Seekonk?
My Humble Opinion is this ” Weather Forecast’s in the MORNING ” all called for Afternoon Thunder Storms with High % of rain LIKELY … It’s about an 1.5 hr drive for Me & my RACE CHASING BUDDY…. THAT kept many of US home…. Many also looked at the AM forecasts and Decided the same , Stay Home, BUT SUDDENLY the Afternoon REPORT didn’t have the RAIN % & looked clear on Radar all the way to the NY BORDER,, WOW clean and GREEN FOR THOMPSON…!!! Load up the WAGON”S & COOLERS pick up Sandwich’s fill up the GAS TANK , OUCH THE PRICE OF GAS IS CONSTANTLY GOING UP UP UP, OUCH , OH well let’s GO GO GO.. Arrive Early 4pm .. Watch tons of Practice, CLOUDS BUILDING,, RAIN COMING, OK 8 laps of Limited Sportsman Heat Race Complete, OK DARKER DARKER few Sprinkles NEXT HEAT RACE , LIMITED HEAT 2.. 3 LAPS & BOOM BOOM RAIN RAIN RAIN , Filling up the INFIELD with Water,,, in MINUTES.., SOAKED getting to CAR,,, Great time / NOT….. Thank you NOAA WEATHER / NOT….. Should have Stayed with your MORNING FORECAST ….. Dock their pay .. LOL
Thompson had the formula right with The Icebreaker. Run on the weekend, and make the Modifieds have a 100-125 lap GREEN ONLY race for $10k. Dump the two early summer mid-week races (June and July 75-76 lappers) and combine them into ONE early summer race. Then, do the same for the August and September ones, combine it into a 100-125 green only race with the purses combined and you will be fine- probably have to do a Saturday or Sunday show but, if that is the case, just have a discussion with Waterford and Stafford so you can come up with a nice schedule to compensate for the events so everyone gets something. I mean lets be honest, only 75/76 laps for only $5k, travel distance for fans and owners to get to Thompson and mix that in with a mid-week show and it seems like you’ll be getting the low car counts.
I think they need to just have ONE race each side of the summer on a weekend with the double purse and have no less that 100 GREEN ONLY laps and you’ll get the car counts.
You’ve got the storms moving west to east deal and the storm cells popping up, growing, shrinking and changing shape like bipolar amoeba’s based on weathery type stuff to put it in technical terms.
Mudbus, some of the Modified teams just run the bullrings, where the primary ingredient is handling. Thompson, Stafford, and NHMS need a lot more horsepower and speed to be competitive. Some teams with older cars on smaller budgets can still be competitive on a bullring.
Tyler, I don’t know why Thompson didn’t go to Sundays years ago when they had the chance. They tried it once with the MRS and had the biggest non-WMT crowd of the year there. Of course nowadays that would interfere with the rich kids playing with their toys on the road course. I do hope Lime Rock has much success and interferes with that Thompson income; maybe the circle track would be looked at a little differently.
Tyler,
At the driver’s meeting yesterday, Scott Tapley (the race director) said that the four Wednesday dates were literally the only thing the Thompson track owners were willing to give the promoters (ACT/PASS) during the summer. Saturdays and Sundays apparently are simply not an option outside of the Icebreaker and World Series. They didn’t even give ACT/PASS any rain dates for the Wednesday shows, which I’m guessing is a big part of why they tried to race yesterday, since they knew the show couldn’t be made up.
I personally don’t disagree that a 100-125 lap show on a weekend could draw bigger fields. Unfortunately, based on Scott Tapley’s comments, it appears to not even be something ACT/PASS can bring to the table at this point. And to run a longer race on a Wednesday, they’d probably have to drop a local division or two because of time constraints — and we all saw the uproar when they had to remove the SK Mods because of the tire shortage. It’s a tough situation, but I’m sure they’re trying to make the best of what they have to work with.
Thompson ownership couldn’t care less about the oval. Thankfully it got rained out. Otherwise we’d be talking about a 12 car tour type and 8 skl race.
It’s mostly true but not completely true that the Thompson management doesn’t care about the oval. They care about it enough to lease it out and make a little money off it for sure. They care about the 70% of the track used for road racing. The lower groove anyway. It is a little bit of a kick in the danglers that the road racers don’t even care about the high groove so important to the oval track cars.
Mention Lime Rock and complimentary comments usually follow. Mention road racing at Thompson and the knives come out.
Fuss and fume all you like but the die is cast. That road racing course is really quite impressive and appears to have been the right decision. They have 9 events in August, more chances to make a buck from a clientele more likely to use their other entertainment offerings.. Road racing is racing for the people. Under 100 people can drive on the oval in races in only purpose built expensive race machines. Hundreds and thousands can race on the road racing course from specialized racing machines to your everyday driver.
The 24 Hours of Lemons, how cool is that? Car not to exceed $500 dollars and 4 people get to race it in competition. Real actual racing.
Waterford has X cars but otherwise there are no Street Stocks anymore in Connecticut. What they call Street Stocks are expensive purpose built race cars. Road racing is about participating and not spectating and that’s what the younger generation want. Not sitting watching races like we grew up with but the thrill of participation.
Thompson tapped into that so good for them. Good for every man racing as well.
Let’s clarify this, the Thompson owners don’t care about oval track racing and anyone that can’t see that is blind. If it were not for the facility being leased for 6 scheduled oval track events this year there would be no oval track racing at Thompson in 2021.
Another question, if the racing surface is so dangerous, then how is it less dangerous for road course than circle track racing? The condition of the pavement is the condition of the pavement and dangerous is dangerous. If they are using thereabouts of 70% of the oval track for road course racing then I will submit that the additional wear and tear on the 70% of the track used for road racing is causing premature additional deterioration of the pavement making it more dangerous to any race car. I don’t hear the track expressing that safety concern about the road course cars only the circle track cars. So I ask, what’s wrong with that picture?
Good for them they have tapped the doctors, lawyers and the Richie rich class and created a new revenue stream. However, what will they do when the new road course becomes worn and dangerous and is in need of major infrastructure repairs? What will happen if road course racing looses its appeal?
Anybody remember the old road course? What happened to that? Hmmmmmmm? I wonder why what happened to it happened? I guess we will see if the present meets the same demise as the old. Only time will tell.
I’m involved with an SKL who chose not to make the 2+ hour one-way tow based on the weather predictions. At the driver’s meeting for the June event, Scott Tapley thanked the teams who participated and spoke about car counts driving future events at the track, as it is rented for the events by the organizers. The June event drew a good crowd and provided exciting entertainment.
It’s unfortunate that the rental agreement didn’t include a rain date, as it was an iffy proposition for anyone coming from any distance.
Great points Barry, I agree. Unfortunately for this event, the weather forecast drove the car count. The forecast was spot on calling for 100% rain and thunderstorms at 6PM. Hopefully the remaining events will redeem themselves.
I have to correct myself. The high side for the road racing crowd is coned off and it’s not relevant to them whatsoever. The track except for the oval is in outstanding condition. If they have to address the oval pavement eventually it will only be a fraction of the area the oval racers use.
This is a place for oval track racing. Oval track racing at Thompson needs to be promoted. Thompson’s road course events could be promoted here like Lime Rock but for now it’s just not what the fans want.
My primary interest has always been grass roots racing. It’s was grass roots at Danbury long ago and at the Connecticut tracks last century. Now grass roots racing is at places like Thompson on the road course. They have the quiche eaters for sure but they also provide low budget racing for the working stiffs that simply is not available at Stafford.
The Thompson road course will never get any respect here and that’s as it should be. However if you want to race and test yourself against others in competition it’s the best place in Connecticut to make it happen.