OKTAHA — From the front office and grandstands, to the pits, it was a typical first night of racing two weeks ago for those who work behind the scenes at Outlaw Motor Speedway — wild and crazy.

However, last week’s card was not typical, by any means. The races were canceled.

Cold weather was the culprit that pulled the red flag on the weekly racing card. Track manager Eric Shannon said it’s the first time in the four-plus year history of the track that those conditions prevented racing.

“We normally would have bundled up and raced, but we felt the cold was just too bad for both drivers and fans,” Shannon said.

Rainy weather forced Friday’s portion of the Azalea Shootout to be called off as well. All classes will race tonight for double points — provided there’s racing.

Shannon said that the decision whether to race tonight should be made no later than noon today. He added that the decision should be posted on the track’s Web site, www.outlawmotorspeedway.com, as well as on the track’s answering machine at 687-9200 at that time.

“With a big race like this we’ll try to make the decision as early as possible because we have so many people coming from out of town,” Shannon said.

The opening night of racing on March 31 was far from normal. On the track, numerous accidents and mechanical failures were rule rather than exception as drivers struggled to get back “into the racing groove” after a winter-long break from racing.

Starting its fifth year of operation, you might have expected opening night at OMS to be rather old hat for track officials — and the participates.

Not necessarily so. There were a few minor glitches, but most went unnoticed by the 1,500 race fans who were in attendance. Officials look for improvements for this week’s show.

“There were some surprises, but for the most part, things went pretty much as expected,” said track owner Gary Clay. “You can have all of the dress rehearsals in the world to get ready (for opening night) but you’re never fully prepared, that’s just the nature of this business.

“I’m satisfied with how things went. We’re not where we want to be by any means, but we were a whole lot more prepared this year than last. We’ll continue to tweak things as we go along.”

One goal of the track administration is to get the races started on time and to keep the show moving along. With an 8 p.m. starting time, Clay is hopeful the final checkered flag of the evening will be around 11 p.m.

“We have had problems with long races and we’re addressing the issues that caused them,” Clay said. “With the cooperation from drivers we feel we can iron everything out.”

Shannon said there is a pre-race time line that has to be followed to achieved the first green flag is waved on time.