My old buddy, Frank in Pennsylvania made me aware this week of what recently transpired at the venerable Hagerstown, MD dirt track on its last weekend of the season, the big rescheduled Oktoberfest Weekend (in November). It gets my vote for the Feel Good Story of the Year in auto racing. What a lucky bunch of fans and racers to have such an understanding car owner (with deep pockets)and race promoter in their midst. This story should be required reading for Rick Hendrick, Jack Roush, Joe Gibbs and Richard Childress. It should be required reading for Bruton Smith and all execs and promoters within ISC. It should be required reading for all NASCAR drivers. It should be required reading of everyone who receives a NASCAR paycheck. If this doesn't just give you goosebumps, something's wrong. Hats off to this Hagerstown car owner and the track promoter. We need you in NASCAR. How about you RR members? What do you think of these kinda racing folks?
Car owner comes to rescue at Hagerstown show
By BRYAN HOUSHOLDER
The York Dispatch
11/13/2011
The local dirt-track season ended last weekend with Susquehanna's Final Showdown and Hagerstown's rescheduled Octoberfest.
The November weather couldn't have been much better for those events.
Susquehanna did very well with its Saturday afternoon program, but Hagerstown's rescheduled event turned into a sticky situation.
Not enough fans came back to Hagerstown for the rescheduled event. While the crowd would have been fine for a regular racing program, with four top-class divisions on hand for big-money races, there just wasn't enough support.
The event was scheduled to pay $10,000 to the winners in the sprints, late models and big-block modifieds. The small-block modifieds also were set for a $10,000 winner's share, if 50 cars entered the event. There were not 50 entries, so the set purse was $5,000 to win.
When the promoters realized they didn't have enough fans to cover the large purse, they held a meeting with the drivers, offering to cut the distance of the races for a smaller purse. The new purse was to be $7,500 to win in the three divisions that were going to get $10,000, and still $5,000 in the other.
After those plans were made, and the first event was getting ready to start, Ernie Davis, a former driver who now owns the late model driven on occasion by Outlaw late-model standout Josh Richards, offered to put up the extra money to put the payoff back to its original amount.
It was a great gesture.
Since the distances had already been cut, the racers ran less laps for the original purse, with the sprints, late models and big-block modifieds getting $10,000 to win, and the small-block modifieds getting $5,000 to win.
While some fans felt cheated out of extra laps, I personally felt the new distances of 50 laps in the modified and late-model classes, and 30 laps in the sprint cars made for better racing, and no fuel stops.
The small-block modifieds actually opened the show with a non-stop 50-lap event, and all the other events went off very well. The late models and big-block modifieds each had a pass for the lead, and the top four sprint cars crossed the finish line under a blanket.
Fans couldn't have asked for much better racing on a daytime surface.
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 08/07/18 01:23:54AM
