To The Telegram:
What's up at Proctor Speedway? This past Thursday evening, my husband and I attended the "Silver 1000" as we try to do every year. The races started late due to poor condition of the track. After much traffic by maintenance vehicles, graders, etc., the track was still not fit to run a race on. We were shocked -and I am sure hundreds of other fans were, too -when it was announced over the public address system that each and every race driver in attendance must bring their car out and run laps to try to make the track race-worthy. The real zinger came when it was announced that track officials would be keeping track of any drivers who did not bring their car out and each offender would be put to the back of their heat race! That is an outright threat as far as I am concerned! We attend a lot of races in Wisconsin and Minnesota and have never heard such a disrespectful comment at any other track we have ever been to -and we have been race fans for almost 50 years! We sat there anxiously watching to see if all of our favorite drivers got out there and did their "duty".
Since when is it the responsibility of the drivers to maintain the track? The drivers are there for one reason only -and that is to entertain the thousands of fans who flock to dirt track racing every week at tracks all over this country. The fuel consumed by those cars while doing work that should have been done by others is mind boggling! Were they compensated?
At one point, a track official stood on the track in front of the grandstand and announced that they had over-watered the track and apologized to the fans for the late start. Pardon me, sir, but I think you apologized to the wrong people. You should have apologized to the drivers! Without them, the rest of us wouldn't even have been there! It is the responsibility of the raceway to make the track usable - do your duty and the drivers will do theirs.
- Ruth Hoyt,
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South Range
