After a meeting Thursday night between Lebanon Valley Speedway officials and car owners and drivers, the street stock class will have this week off. A brawl at the pit scales last weekend involved roughly 20 people and resulted in a track official going to the hospital with head injuries.
Lebanon Valley Speedway assistant promoter Ron Dwyer said the meeting went well. A total of 22 members of the street stocks attended.
“The racers in attendance were receptive to what we had to say and owned it,” Dwyer said. “They acknowledged that we have to make changes that can and will happen. The meeting cannot have gone better.”
The track initiated a zero tolerance policy for violence. They will install cameras in the pit area and hire Columbia County sheriffs to patrol the pits.
“[Track owner] Howie [Commander] is approaching 18,000 races that he has promoted in his career,” said Dwyer. “Howie has seen it all. He was shocked and is concerned, especially after the injuries to our pit steward. He gave us the green light to do what it takes to preserve Lebanon Valley Speedway’s reputation as a safe, family-oriented entertainment facility. We are taking this very seriously.”
Lebanon Valley Speedway is still investigating the incident.
“We have yet to get to the bottom of who or what started the brawl,” Dwyer said. “All we know is that a protest was not received well.”
The street stock class remains in limbo for now.
“It is still to be determined as to how to move forward,” said Dwyer. “Some of those involved in the brawl will remain suspended; others will not. It was such a bizarre deal that it is hard to get it sorted out. That is why we gave the whole division a week off. A follow-up final decision will be made shortly.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
