Special to the Phoenix
April 14, 2007 01:17 pm
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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.
“We have to start packing the track at about 6:45 p.m. so we can start hot-laps from 7-7:15,” Shannon said. “Hot laps should take about 30 minutes and that will give us 15 minutes to honor the previous week’s feature winners and then start racing on time.”
Those guidelines were followed the first week and the races started just a few minutes past the top of the hour. The final race, the Modified feature, ended at 11:10 p.m.
Shannon is pushing for similar results for this week’s two-night special show.
One of the biggest behind the scenes obstacles officials had to overcome opening night was the high number of new employees of the 50 workers on the speedway’s payroll.
“Half of our workers were new,” Shannon said.
The track manager included in his pre-race activities going over last minute details of operations with the new help and then spent the rest of the night four-wheeling from the pits to the grandstands monitoring the activities of the newcomers.
“We have new faces in the ticket booths, in the concessions area, at the back gate and in the pits,” Shannon said. “Our goal is to be more people-friendly to our paying customers and make their racing experience more enjoyable. I think fans are going to notice a difference.”
For the most part, Teresa Clay (Gary’s wife) and Shannon monitor racing activities while the owner focuses his attentions on being a car-owner and crew-member for his driver-son, Dalton Clay. Dalton, 16, made his racing debut last season. He said his dad will spend more time with him in the pits this year.
“The first night is always crazy,” Teresa said as she checked on things at the pit sign-in gate. “I’ve already made a dozen trips back and forth from my office to the pits. It’s just a typical first night. Everyone wants something right now.”
Pam Adkins works in the pit office where drivers check-in and get their heat assignments.
“The first night is always exciting to me and I might add hectic. Why? Because everyone is so full of optimism and just happy to be back,” she said.
“There are a lot of new faces,” Adkins added while entering driver data the computer used to make the heat lineups, keep results, and track of the points standings. “This computer really makes it easy. When I started here four years ago we did everything by hand.”
Another veteran of OMS, Jeff Howell, was working a new job — that as flagman. He left his job as a monitor on the track to assume the duties of flagman when long-time regular Phil Branan decided to climb down from the tower at the finish line to retire.
“I’ve never flagged full time, this is a new experience for me,” Howell said. “Phillip is going to be around to help. I’ve got mixed emotions about leaving the track. I knew everything that was going on.”
Howell has already figured out some of the reactions drivers might have for his flagging decisions.
“I know some will question my ancestry, my age, and my mental state, but that is all part of the job,” Howell said. “I know nothing they say or will do is personal, at least I hope not.”
Listening to Howell’s responses, veteran modified driver Mike Withrow (Muskogee) walked up to the new flagman and pulled a hundred dollar bill from his wallet.
“Here, I want to pay my fines in advance. This should cover three or four infractions,” Withrow said with a smile.
Ray Rainey, a former owner-promoter and driver at old Thunderbird Speedway, was on hand for the OMS opener. The 68-year-old, 25-year racing veteran, said he felt good about being at the track.
“Oh, tonight is no different than when I raced and promoted the races,” the Muskogeean said. “It’s been so long ago, it’s hard to remember, but this is a fun time for the sport.
“The only difference I see about racing today is we had three or four play dates before the season started and that gave everyone an opportunity to work the bugs out of their cars and open the season ready to run.”
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