9.09.2007

3 heads are never better than 1

The scene on the frontstretch Saturday night bordered on comical, made more absurd for anyone with a radio turned to the frequency used by the track officials at Wiscasset Raceway.

Owner Doug White, right-hand man Johnny Crawford and starter Derek Mingo standing on the track, huddled up like a football team about to call a play. Alternately, each raised his arms, shook his head and pointed fingers. On the radio, one could be heard making one call regarding the NAPA Auto Parts 100 for the Pro Stock division while another made a different decision.

They hashed it out until they came to something that resembled a consensus. I think.

What Wiscasset Raceway needs is a race director. One person. One voice. One final decision. And that race director needs to be tucked away in a tower somewhere, out of view of the fans and teams up where he can see the entire track.

Even if the trio that policed the racing Saturday got things right, the fact remains that arguments over the air lead to a lot of interpretation from a lot of onlookers.

Matt Lee got the worst of it in the 100.

With 17 laps left, Lee and Chuck Colby got together in turn 3. Colby had been running 2nd on the restart, but the inside line was freight-training him as he tried to do everything he could to get in line somewhere and not fade to the tail end of the lead lap. As Lee ran up on him, the 2 cars made contact and Colby spun to bring out a caution.

White wanted Lee sent to the rear for rough driving. Crawford wanted Lee to keep his position. In the end, White's decision was the final one -- but the 2 officials arguing in front of everyone deals a serious blow to credibility. And certainly if Lee went looking for an explanation from someone after the race, he was going to know who was on his side and who wasn't. When Dave St. Clair owned the track, he dealt weekly with a perception of favoritism. If White, Crawford and Mingo are arguing about race calls, and racers know that they're lining up on opposite sides of the fence, eventually this regime will deal with similar accusations, too.

Later in the race, Crawford was screaming over the radio at the scorers in the tower, wanting to know where Colby and Johnny Clark were running in the order after they had each hit the pits and then ended up alongside lapped cars. Crawford raised his arms wildly and yelled loudly and aggressively over the radio for an answer.

When the lineup was determined, Crawford walked across the track in front of the flagstand and hollered out, "Thank you! And now I know I was right!"

Crawford may well have been right, but it's not appropriate for officials to behave in that manner. They are the face of the facility, the people fans and teams look to for some semblance of professionalism. Hey, people get heated and stress can rule at a race track -- but having the race director in a secluded spot where such conversations can be held privately (or at least out of view) saves face for the entire operation.

Right or wrong, a race track needs 1 race director. One voice. One face. One final say, from somewhere out of the way.

It's the only way.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can you say Moe, Larry and Curly?
Sounds like it was quite the comedy show.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like Doug's got his hands full. Hope he can iron it all out.

Anonymous said...

The current team of race officials at wiscasset are makeing GIANT A Holes of themselves and the people who go there to race. It may only take a couple weeks to dig this hole but but one hell of a lot longer to fill it in. Dougs an owner. Crawfords a PR guy. Who is the Race director. One man one job.Jack of all trades does not work in this business. Reach behind pull head out before it bites you.

Anonymous said...

what? trouble in paradise??????
whats happening to maine hottest track?????

TBarrett said...

I wouldn't go so far as to say there's "trouble in paradise," but it's something that a new track owner will want to quickly take care of.

Hey, the place is still leaps and bounds ahead of where it was 4 or 5 months ago.

TB

Anonymous said...

Micromanagement & a lack of leadership has been the downfall of more than one race track. It doesn’t take long for the pit area & grandstand to turn into a ghost town, especially for a track that didn’t have its legs underneath it to begin with. Just ask the fine officials at Twin State Speedway about that.

When are people going to accept the fact Pro Stocks will not lead a track to the promise land? Take a look down at “New Hampshire’s hottest track”, a whopping 9 Pro Stocks last week!!!

TBarrett said...

I'm beginning to think I could make a post about The Flintstones, and somehow, some way, someone would turn it into a Late Model vs. Pro Stock debate...

TB

Anonymous said...

Fred Flintstone was all manpower and handling but he put on a good show! He didn't need the added bells and whistles of a high priced motor, shocks, or even rubber!!!

Good ole' manpower and big stone wheels and that guy could drive.

We might be crossing the line to absurdity.

TBarrett said...

I'm glad you said it was absurd so I didn't have to...

TB

Anonymous said...

Maybe someday people will get over the idea that a hundred cars are needed to have a race. Andy B how many cars have points listed in the ACT standings? How many cars have points listed in the PASS standings? How many cars have points in the Beech Ridge Pro Series? How many cars have points at Oxford LMS? Now who has the most cars with points awarded?

Tristan said...

That one race does need 90-100 cars because that is what made the race what it is. End of story.

As far as points go:

PASS - 80 on website. Now take away 34 that only raced in one race and you get 46.

BR - 34 on website. Now take away 8 that also collected points in PASS too and you get 26.

Total = 72

OPS - 50 on website. Now take away 4 that only raced once and you get 46.

ACT - 30 on website.

Total = 76

Add in ACT Castrol (Canada) - 30 on website. Now take away 6 that collected points in both ACT series and you get 24.

Total = 100

Now take into account that ACT doesn't find the need to post more than the top 30 in points for all their divisions: ACT, ACT Castrol, T-Road Junkyard Warriors, Tiger Sportsmen, etc. So there are more that had "points awarded" that aren't listed. That is a fact since the 3 ACT races at OPS had a good 20 OPS regulars (attempt for each race) that had "points awarded" in ACT. So to argue "points awarded" is just ridiculous.

I could go through the results from each and every ACT race and take out the duplicates to see how many have actually had "points awarded," but it would not be worth my time because I have already shown that without doing that, there are more Late Models. Not to mention the response would be: "So what, Late Models suck!" So why bother.

Get over it.