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(Woodhull, NY) For the first time in two seasons the Woodhull Raceway will exercise its option of using Sunday as a rain date. With the most recent rainout of Saturday, June 21, the track will resume action on Sunday, June 22 with gates opening at 3:30 and racing at 5:30 pm.
It will be a full card with the exception of the 358 Modifieds which will not see action. The Crate Sportsman, 360 Late Models, Street, Mini and Front Wheel Drive Divisions will make up the rain date schedule of events.
The goal is to have the races completed by 9:00 pm.
According to the track ownership, “A lot has changed within the past several months since we finalized our 2008 schedule of events. Back in February the price of gasoline and diesel was substantially less than it is now. We have definitely seen a down turn in our weekly fan attendance most of which can be attributed to both the lousy weekend weather that we’ve experienced thus far plus the very sluggish economy.
Thus far we have not had a Sunday make-up and quite frankly we don’t know what to expect as this is basically unchartered waters for us. Taking into consideration the cost of getting to the track coupled with the fact that many people may already have other concrete plans in place we could very easily have a very lackluster turnout of fans. With the high cost of the 358 Modified purse it is a real risk to try and run all of our regular 6 classes on a Sunday when we have no idea what to expect as far as crowd and pit attendance. In addition, this time of year we have to be very careful not to start too early in the day because of track drying conditions. If we start too early we could have a horrible track and if we start at our regular time with 6 or even 5 classes it will be just too late of a show to complete on a work night. In short with trying to run the 358 Modifieds as part of a last minute make-up we could loose our butts and it could take several weeks to re-coupe the losses. It just isn’t worth the risk at this point.”
However, track owner, Vern Wasson did go on to say, “We will continually evaluate the Sunday make-up scenario. If the place is packed with fans it will leave little room for doubt that the 358’s will then become part of a Sunday rain date. We have to take this one step at a time and the way the weather has been so far the Sunday rain date could come into play several more time this season. We have already lost three shows completely and rain has been in the picture on every night we’ve raced in 2008 with only two exceptions.
Wasson did also comment on how the track would not play games on the Sunday make-up scenario. “If the weather looks questionable on Sunday, we will be pulling the plug early. It’s bad enough when all my help, the fans and racers all drive up there just to get wet on Saturday. We’re not going to do that to everyone two days in a row especially with the price of gasoline nearing $4.50 per gallon.
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