Last Friday, Paducah International Raceway intended to open its season with the MARS Championship Series. Instead, they are now dealing with the aftermath of a massive flood.
Storms wreaked havoc in the area. Water in the Blizzard Ponds Drainage Canal washed across the pit area and the 3/8-mile dirt oval.
“The infield just filled up,” said promoter Adam Elliott. “The water was 20-feet deep in the infield and 4-feet deep in the parking lot. I had to get to the track in a boat up until [Wednesday, April 9,] — it’s the first day I could drive up to the track to assess the damage.”
“The flood was so bad it floated our ticket building,” Elliott said. “The pit area may be eroded, and the scales are still submerged and will probably have to be replaced. Transformers are underwater and the power is off.”
Fortunately, Elliott and his crew moved the track’s equipment to higher ground before the flood hit.
“If we didn’t move our equipment, it would have been lost,” said Elliott. “There still is a lot of water to be drained. The problem is caused by the lack of maintenance of the canal, which runs through two counties.”
In addition to the damage to the track’s facilities, there’s also the task of cleaning up the venue.
“There is a mountain of trash and garbage all over the facility,” Elliott said. “As the water retreats there is more and more — the cleanup gets bigger and bigger.”
Elliott doesn’t know when Paducah International Raceway will reopen. This weekend’s events are canceled and next weekend seems questionable.
“We won’t turn down anyone who wants to help us,” said Elliott. “I’m grateful for the people who have already reached out. We can use anyone and everyone’s help. We want to get back to racing as soon as possible.”
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.
