Every season, it seems we talk about how rain plays a pivotal role in more race nights than ever before. Fighting the elements has become the norm for race tracks throughout the Midwest in recent years and this season is no exception.
Entering Saturday night's show at Independence Motor Speedway, rain directly affected or was in the forecast for all but a couple of our 11 events. One weekly show was canceled due to rain and most of the rest had us checking the radar on race day. Quite frankly, with the wet spring and summer we've experienced, we've been very fortunate to lose only one show to the weather through the first half of the season.
It finally got the best of us Saturday night as we were forced to stop action when heavy rain put a halt on the show at the end of the qualifying races.
We made it a lot deeper into Saturday night's show than I expected. With the radar looking bleak since well before the gates opened, it was in the back of our minds that we were fighting a losing battle by prepping the track, starting concessions and eventually opening the gates. Of course, we'd seen it a number of times before - many times this season alone - when the rain would break up before it reached the fairgrounds or it veered off in another direction making it possible to complete the program.
We didn't get so lucky Saturday night.
As a result, qualifying was completed, leaving us with features to make up in all five divisions. We opted to scatter those make-up features over the next two weeks in order to keep from running too late into the night. Even though we have a weekend program and we race on Saturday night, we have no desire to upset the non-racing residents of Independence by racing toward the midnight hour.
What we opted to do is run the Modified and Stock Car make-up features next Saturday, July 5 and the make-up features for the Late Models, Hobby Stocks and SportMods the following Saturday, July 12.
We chose to run them in that order because the Late Models, Hobby Stocks and SportMods are already part of this Tuesday's Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models special in Independence. Details for that event are available at www.independencemotorspeedway.com.
There have been a couple of questions concerning Saturday night's program that always seem to come up when rain stops a show after it's already started. I'll do my best to answer those questions here:
What makes a complete show?
Seeing every heat and feature run to completion would be ideal, but we all know that doesn't always happen.
In Independence, the completion of all qualifying events means the show is complete. We almost didn't make it Saturday night, but all qualifying events were scored complete.
The biggest question about Saturday night's heat races came when we cut the number of laps in two Late Model heat races after a number of cars left the track. In both instances, we were down to only qualified cars. We ran three heats and took the top four from each to the season average point invert for the evening's scheduled feature.
As we have done for many years in Independence, if attrition plays a role and we are left with only qualified cars on the track, we will cut back the number of laps. Threat of rain or not, this has always been in place in Independence and we have consistently done it this way for many years. We do this to prevent the possibility of drivers tearing up their equipment since all remaining cars are qualified.
Since the final heat on the track Saturday night was a Late Model heat with four drivers left running and all were qualified for the invert when the rain stopped the show, the program was deemed complete. The feature starting positions for the non-finishers of that event were already determined by how they were scored in that heat.
Since all qualifying was complete, the show was considered complete, meaning double features would be scheduled over the coming weeks and rain checks would not be honored for those events.
Why aren't rain checks good for next week since it rained Saturday night?
Nobody wants to see a show suspended by rain after racing has started. Not only is it an inconvenience on the night it occurs, but it throws a wrench into scheduling make-up events.
A track is essentially left with three options when a program is rain-shortened and none of them are perfect solutions, however we felt the decision we made was in the best interest of both racers and fans.
Option 1 - Complete the show through make-up features
The first option is what we chose to do, and that is to pick up where we left off Saturday night - with five features left to run. To do that, you aren't cancelling the remainder of an event, you're just postponing it. In the end, Saturday's program will still be completed; it just won't happen in a matter of a few short hours. It'll happen over the course of a couple weeks.
This means we will still be running a complete show each of the next two weeks in addition to the remainder of the show we started Saturday night. That will be three complete programs over the span of three weeks. The only difference is, you won't be able to wrap a bow around each one and dedicate one individual program to one individual race night.
That's three programs with three purses being awarded to the drivers and three programs being offered to race fans. That means there are three nights of admission fees that need to be collected. If you believe that we should run double features over the next two weeks, yet honor rain checks from Saturday night and, in the end, charge admission for only two shows when three are being offered, race tracks simply can't afford to do that.
Saturday night's program will not go down as a rainout. There will be feature winners, there will be purse money paid to the 96 drivers who signed in. The payout for the next two Saturdays will equal the purse money for three complete events. As I said, three events will be run, they're just going to be run differently in the same time frame.
Option 2 - Start over/scratch all of Saturday's qualifying events
The second option a promoter could choose is to cancel the program and start from scratch the following week, which means rain checks would be valid, however it would also mean the rain-shortened show "never happened."
In that instance, the racers would be out their money for the fuel burned making the trip to the track, the fuel burned on the track, the tire wear and the mechanical wear on their cars with nothing to show for it except a pit pass the following week, all for one purse check at the end of the night.
As for the fans, instead of paying for three tickets to see three complete shows over the course of three weeks, they'd pay for two complete shows and see two complete shows after spending gas money on three separate trips to and from the race track. Nobody would win if we said Saturday night's heat races "never happened."
Option 3 - Start over, but pay tow money for the rainout
We could have added up the total prize money and dispensed it evenly among all drivers who were present in each division Saturday night. Doing so would have essentially scrapped the heat races that were held and then we'd have started over next week.
To do that though, the same amount of purse money would have been distributed as on a normal night and rain checks would not have been honored the following week. No points would have been awarded, no features would have been run and it would have been just like option number two - "never happened."
In that scenario, everyone would have felt like they came out on the short end of the stick. The fans for being charged admission fees, but not seeing features and drivers for not getting the chance to earn more than an equal amount of prize money as everyone else in their division that night.
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I understand the people who may have come out on the shortest end of Saturday's program were those individuals who attended Saturday night's races and are unable to attend the next two weeks. In the end, though, 14 of 19 events were completed Saturday night and there was fantastic racing throughout the heats that beat the rain.
The people who were unable to attend Saturday, but are able to join us for either of the next two programs will get more than their money's worth as we will have seven features July 5 and eight features July 12.
As I said earlier, there is no perfect solution to a rain-shortened
program, but I believe the option we chose is in the best interest of
both drivers and fans.
I've also received a couple questions about the 50/50 money that was collected before the monsoon hit Saturday night. Since a winning ticket number was not announced, the money collected Saturday night will be put toward next Saturday's drawing. The winning number will be drawn from all tickets sold during both events.
Sunday, it's back to Benton County Speedway in Vinton for the second appearance of the season for the IMCA Late Models, along with IMCA sanctioned Modifieds, Stock Cars, Hobby Stocks, Northern SportMods and Sport Compacts, plus the BCS Micro Mods.
The Gary's Auto Mid-Season Championships, originally scheduled for last week, were rained out and have been postponed until next Sunday, July 6 in Vinton.
Tuesday, it's back to Independence for the Deery Series event. The tour has not seen a repeat winner yet this season. Will that streak continue or will the first repeat winner of the season make his way to victory lane in Independence?
As always, thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your weekend!
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