Rainout announcements seem to occur earlier and earlier. But rained out on a Tuesday?! For a Saturday show?! Are we for real?!
It wasn’t only one track. It happened for multiple tracks. And it wasn’t just the dirt oval variety. (Dirt tracks get a bit of a pass because of how the surface can hold water, but Tuesday still seems a bit premature.)
Who here remembers the days you’d call the track’s race day hotline repeatedly, hoping to actually get past a busy signal, up until the very last possible moment you could still be in time for warm-up laps?
Yes, that was a long time ago. Decades ago.
Things have changed.
The biggest difference maker? Look at the device you’re probably viewing this on.
Instant information.
Note how I didn’t say, “instant correct information.”
A bad forecast, whether it becomes true or not, makes or breaks a race’s attendance.
Few people want to spend the money on $5 a gallon for fuel only to be rained out at the track.
It’s not only a disappointingly waste of money, but also time.
Who here could use those hours for something else? Like that room that needs painting. Or the lawn that needs mowing. Or your kid who wants you to attend one of their games, recitals or something of that nature?
Life tugs at us in all directions, more so than ever with a seemingly infinite number of things to do.
But are track promoters simply throwing in the towel too early?
Are we placing an unreasonable amount of trust in weather apps? How often have they been wrong? More than I can count.
Sure, a track doesn’t lose money by not opening its gates for a race–but it also closes the door on any opportunity of making money, too. Overhead doesn’t pay for itself.
Waiting for the perfect day is a fool’s errand. Perfect doesn’t exist in this imperfect world.
I know. Firsthand.
I promoted an annual late model race for 7 years. The one year we had a perfect forecast you know what it did right before the feature? It rained. There was a 0% chance. This is when you wager everything.
For 5 of those 7 years our Saturday show was rained out. We called it the afternoon before because we had people traveling.
Yet, we still raced. We had a rain date, something that seems increasingly as foreign these days as using a phone to call to check a rainout status. We used that rain date, the Sunday after in our case, and you know what? We got the races in.
Cars showed up.
People enjoyed themselves.
We made money.
In fact, we actually did better with our rain dates.
Why? My theory: It gave us another day to promote.
So, maybe they’re right. There is a silver lining to every cloud.
The Outside Groove Executive Editor has covered motorsports since 2000. His many awards include the 2019 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Jim Hunter Writer of the Year and the 2013 Russ Catlin Award for Excellence in Motorsports Journalism.
