By: John Douglas Jr.
Now this might cause some arms to flail around like wacky inflatable tube men, or it may make some brains function for the first time in a while. Either way I'm not really sure I care anymore. The fact is, going to your local Saturday night short track is now more dangerous than ever. Before we get too far in to this, let me make a couple things clear.MY father and Grandfather were racers and I have followed pretty much every form of Motorsports in the world since I was old enough to have conscious thought. I have written for a dirt racing publication for six years. A position I just stepped down from after this year's Dirtcar Nationals in Florida. I'm no outsider with an opinion. I'm an insider with some STERN advice for every track promoter in the country.
After seeing the way WRG handled the incidents in Florida, it makes me question how "professional" weekly short track racing safety NEEDS to be. To be fair, WRG did not oversee both incidents. The ASCoC had their 410 sprint car incident earlier in the week, with a car exiting the speedway into an empty fan area off turn two.
The part that BOGGLES MY MIND, is the fact that when the same thing happened during WRG's 410 WoO Sprint show, and people actually got injured badly enough to require a MEDI-VAC helicopter to land and perform CPR on one of the fans, WRG decided to move people from the section and keep on racing. Like someone hadn't nearly been crushed by a flipping sprint car. It was shameful.
Dear "The Show Must Go On" supporters. Sometimes the show MUST STOP. There is a difference between a driver risking their life to do what they love, and a fan REASONABLY risking injury from flying debris etc. FULL CARS flying into and flipping through grandstands is NOT ACCEPTABLE.
No excuse will ever justify pushing those cars back on to the speedway and continuing to race that night. Yeah some fans might get pissy and whine about a refund. Give it to them, then ban them from coming back.
Why? Because they care more about their money than the well-being of other race fans, and they sure as hell don't have their priorities in life straight.
That being said, here's the real wake up call for every person who enters a short track. If you tell the owner you're not coming back until YOU feel safe, and you stick to that, they have only a couple of options. Fix the damn safety, or close down.
Here is a perfect example. I will not name the local facility, but here in NY, a certain dirt track with a lot of NASCAR history to it has a fence post right next to the starters stand with an 8 inch gash down the side. Not very structurally sound. It's been that way for three years. Luckily no one's hit it yet. Give it time....
Now I want you the race fan to do something. Open your eyes. Instead of guzzling down Old Milwaukee's as fast as you possibly can, wait for a bit. Look around you. Take stock of what you see. I guarantee you'll start finding things that just aren't safe. AT ALL.
I am not asking for 900ft high fences with SAFER barriers and COT cars like NASCAR did after Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s death. But when you have the same fence since 1978, and the cars are going faster than ever, you deserve to have your ass sued. PERIOD.
Short track promoters of the world, fix your shit. If you don't you'll probably cause something you'll have to live with the rest of your lives. And yeah. The blame will ONLY fall on your shoulders. No one else's.
