Rain Stops Friday Night Racing Card At Stafford Speedway

Comments

1. Henry Lecomte says

   June 2, 2023 at 6:17 pm

   Could the track possibly run events on a Sunday afternoon. I would say Saturday if not for the Bowl running on Saturday. Just wondering
2. Shawn Courchesne says

   June 2, 2023 at 7:22 pm

   Henry,
   I think the logistics of doing something like that would be difficult on both the competitors and the staff. You have to remember with staffing, those are people who work there one day a week and plan their lives around that one day. Getting the entire staff to return on a Sunday would likely be a difficult task. And the same goes for competitors. They plan their lives around Friday night racing and the rest of family life happens. Probably not an easy task for many of them to get back there on a Sunday.
3. Big Mike says

   June 2, 2023 at 9:27 pm

   I assume they also have to arrange for police and fire/rescue details to be available. That probably needs to be scheduled in advance.
4. Stuart A Fearn says

   June 3, 2023 at 8:53 am

   The track can do that, yes. Those events are called the Spring Sizzler and the Fall Final. This isn’t the superbowl, it’s weekly racing. If it rains, see you next week, not the end of the world.
   There is an old saying, the racecar is never done, it’s just time to race. We had one car in particular like that this week. We had more we could have done but would take maybe 3-4 hours and there was just not enough time. So, a rain out now makes that possible to get that fine tuning done.
5. Doug says

   June 3, 2023 at 9:41 am

   Not being critical in any way but what is the point of a Sunday discussion? Is it an academic exercise as far as regular Friday night shows go?
   Rain outs are considered when building a schedule. Expected and desirable especially if they space themselves out nicely during the season. In 2018 the track ran 21 point events which was either the full schedule or near the full schedule. The weekly grind running for points is brutal under the best of circumstances. Even if you don’t have a scratch there’s all kinds of maintenance and setup work to do in the best of conditions. Get in a wreck and it literally wrecks your week. The well resourced teams with lots of help can do what they have to do no matter what. There are a lot of teams that are one or two people and it’s those that really could use a week off.
   My guess is the track counts on 17 to 19 shows by the time rain outs are accounted for. For many families wash outs a welcome breather. Money saved for sure, a little more time to spend with the spouse and kids, check for excess wear in various components or scale the car up and tweak the setup again.
   2-4 rain outs also keep the field of cars more robust going into late August and September.
6. Meathead Mike says

   June 3, 2023 at 3:43 pm

   Good points Stuart and Doug, as much as the fans miss the racing when there’s a cancellation, it is good to consider things from the racing teams perspective. Sometimes a week off can be a blessing for the little guys who don’t have the help and resources available to the top teams.
7. Steve says

   June 4, 2023 at 9:10 am

   I agree with not making up rainouts on Sunday (unless they exceed 4). Beechridge was rain on Saturday race on Sunday- I liked that because we vacation there ever year and didn’t want to miss a race. I personally think that Stafford should schedule a Friday night off during the summer and race on Wednesday like the Bowl used to do. It’s a nice break for racing families to vacation.