NC Governor Breaks Promise to Rockingham Speedway

Now that she has decided not to seek re-election, I guess it's safe for my state's governor to renege on her promise to race fans.

Gov. Bev Perdue breaks her promise to Rockingham Speedway
by Staff Report

Richmond County Daily Joiurnal

April 12, 2012

Governor Beverly Perdue

North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue, who promised to attend the historic NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at the Rockingham Speedway on Sunday, has changed her plans and wont be coming.

She would like to have been there, but she will be with family this weekend, said Press Secretary Chris Mackey, of the Governors Press Office, on Wednesday.

Last September, during the announcement of NASCARs return to the speedway on Highway U.S. 1 north of Rockingham an unprecedented move by the racing circuit Perdue lauded economic projections that the race will generate between $7.2 million and $10.5 million in revenue for Richmond County and the state of North Carolina, plus more than 300 jobs, according to an article by Joe Menzer of NASCAR.com.

She promised to return on race day and predicted a sellout crowd at the facility, which now seats 34,500 (the back stretch grandstands were dismantled and sold to SMI as part of the auction deal), Menzer reported.

The Good Sam Roadside Assistance 200 presented by Cheerwine is set for 1 p.m. this Sunday at The Rock.

Read more: Richmond County Daily Journal - Gov Bev Perdue breaks her promise to Rockingham Speedway

One correction I would note. In multiple stories in many different publications I have seen it mentioned that it is unprecedented for NASCAR to return to a previously dropped venue. That is not true. Watkins Glen and Road America immediately come to mind. Are there others?

They are at the drag strip across from the big track in Charlotte next to the dirt track.

Ironic that they are being used this Rockingham weekend for the z-Max 4-Wide drag event.

Ya'll know how to tell if a politician is lying, don't ya? If they're talking! Yup, Bruton took the Rock's back stands to his 4-wide drag strip......the same one he threatened to moveCharlotte Motor Speedway over, if the city fathers did not cow-tow to him, which they did. The drag-race crowd probably would not go to the Rock anyway.

Bopper is right. With the exception of one politician I know, if the lips are moving, they are lying. I do hope The Rock has a sellout. I hope Bev gets moved out and I'm NOTeven a NC resident.

She is not running because her mouth has moved to much in the 4 years she has been in office. She knew it was useless to run again. She screwed the very ones that got her elected this term and she knew that she had lost their vote so she decided not to run again. In fact she has screwed everyone in the state with higher taxes and the way she has made policy in this state has only moved us backwards about twenty years.As momma would say just my opinion. But as I have stated many times here politics and money.

In the entire history of these United States, do you reckon there is evidence of even one single politician in any state who left officer poorer than when they were first elected?

In my home (Brunswick) county, unemployment is above 13%, one of the highest in N.C. In the past yearalone,Brunswick county (which both firms were considering ...its proximity to the state port at Wilmington, tax rates, climate, and other factors) has lost a Continental Tire Manufacturing factory to Sumter, SCanda Caterpillar (THE Caterpillar co.) to Athens, GA. Both manufacturers are now building brand-new facilities, and in the case of Caterpillar, this factory is being moved from Japan back to the United States...... it just won't be in North Carolina, because our leaders either don't know how the game is played, or there's another game going on. Either way, N.C.'s citizens loose.

Who's coat-tails swept Miss Bev into power four years ago?

I'm going to preface this by saying, hate the truck series, always have, probably always will. What I don't understand is why now the big cry for support for the speedway now. If you wanted racing there, ANDY and ARCA stuck their dollars and there necks out to bring it back there. Andy could have just kept the trackmaintainedand ran his driving school. ARCA could have said because of the declining support of the track before it was closed the first time, to not take the risk. SPEED could have decided to not cover the race for basically the same reason. ARCA, the third longest (after IMCA and NA$CAR) continuous running stock car racingorganization in the world, offers up a modern era record of a 50 car starting field, a championship deciding event, with looking toward starting that as a tradition.In support of an ARCA champion owner and driver, an Indy 500 participant, the owner-operator of the Official Driving School of ARCA, and also at that time the closest points race in modern ARCA history. Bringing it all downtown up-close and personal, prior to the race weekend for the local fans who seemed to be begging for racing to return to the area. Low ticket prices, high excitement level racing, ended up having what looked on TV, hardly anybody showing up. The Rockingham area could have adopted the ARCA Racing Series as their own, practically. Who knows, with starting a tradition of the final race of the year there, next could have come the Awards Banquet being another yearly event bringing in dollars to the area.

This CWTS race will end up being just another race to NA$CAR. Oh, they'll use it this year, and maybe next to play the "almighty has returned" part. But then, sadly for the people of Rockingham, it will be just another race to those in the Daytona and Charlotte offices.

My race prediction, some one will appear to dominate only because their won't be enough green flag racing to pass him. A green-white-checkered (another thing ARCA did years before NA$CAR, at one time it was five consecutive green flag laps to finish to prevent my next point) where second place dumps the leader on the last lap to "earn" his win.

My apologies in advance to the people of the area. As a real member of the Stock Car Racing community, who by guilt by association has to live with the "Damn the racing, let's make some money." people who have mislead people into thinking they are the only "real" game in town. They'll take your money and leave it up to others like you from the outlying areas to bring some in. If you are Stock Car Racing fans then be Stock Car Racing fans. If you think to be a fan you have to be a NA$CAR fan, go to a souvenir trailer and pay three times the real value of a hat or t-shirt to support the ones who have already taken real racing and hard earned money from their fans. Me, I'm be spending my dollars and time at the local short track where racing is done by real people FOR real people.

Bev is probably spending the day at the Dept. of Revenue, making sure all tax refunds are going out in 45 days, like she promised.

!!!