Commentary by: Corey Latham ~ [email protected]

Winston Salem, NC(November 21, 2012) — By now, we have all seen the piece that Andy Marquis has written on the race cancellation fiasco at Myrtle Beach. For those that have been out of the loop to say the least, the Myrtle Beach 400, one of the crown jewels in all of Late Model Stock car racing was postponed for rain this past Sunday to its new date… March 22, 2013. Yes folks, the second biggest race of the year for Late Models after practice and qualifying was done has been put off for four months.

The week had rolled off pretty well, rain on Thursday had slowed the day down some but Friday and Saturday were fine. Of course we all had been looking at the weather all week and the forecast for Sunday was bad, got better, and then got suddenly worse as the weekend approached. That’s fine, we are all involved in racing in some capacity and know that weather can affect the weekends; we just play it by ear. This case is different though, as the Myrtle Beach 400 is one of the biggest races of the year, so you would think a plan would be thought out ahead of time. Obviously not.

All weekend long, race director Bill Hennecy said when asked about the weather, “We are not even thinking about the weather, we have lights and we will be racing”. Of course we knew that was just a PC response and there had to be a different plan in place, by Saturday night the rumors were leaking to us fast. First off, they had the best idea of all, just go ahead and run both the Limiteds and Late Models on Saturday after the truck race, the races were starting earlier anyway and we would have plenty of time. This would have been logical since the weather for Sunday actually had the word “soaking” in it by this time. And let’s be honest, people can say what they want about not being fair to the fans that were coming on Sunday but more times than not the majority of the people in the stands for that race just walked over from the pits to be able to see. Plus if they had somehow by a miracle got it in Sunday no one would be there with the weather as threatening as it was, so it was a win-win in my book. But that’s not what we did.

Before we left that night we already had the hot rumor from a few officials that the race was going to be run in March. Of course we didn’t believe it at first, I mean how much sense does that make? Low and behold we all go to the track and they send poor ole Lynn Carroll to give the news, the track personnel were nowhere in sight, and when he told everyone the new date, tempers began to flare. Some teams had already bought tires for the race that day and were told they had to keep them and do whatever with them, when they come back in March they will be required to buy two more sets. Not to mention the thousands of dollars wasted from the teams testing, while Martinsville may be the crown jewel and highest paying race, Myrtle Beach is the most expensive to attend no doubt. This whole week was for nothing, not a single thing, some of the drivers there expressed they won’t even be running in the Late Model division next year as some are going to Supers and the K&N Series.

So now we have a mess, but why? I mean why couldn’t we use any of the other MANY choices? If it had been me, we would have just ran on Monday, yeah I know people will piss and moan on that but this is not regular circumstances. It’s not like we are racing at Hickory and everyone is an hour away and can go home and come back cheaply, there are only a handful of locals there, everyone else is averaging a four hour ride one way. We could have stayed an extra day and cost the teams and extra $45 for a hotel room and that’s it. I can tell you it would be a heck of a lot cheaper than coming back and spending $400-$600 on gas, 2-3 more days of hotel rooms and whatever you had to do in testing since everything you did this week won’t relate. Of course that’s just my opinion and you know what they say about those.

The logical choice would have been to run in two weeks. This next weekend is the Thanksgiving Classic at SNMP so it’s best to not step on toes of big events. Andy, it is different, your situation in your story was taking place in the middle of the season while all tracks were running, these are the crown jewels of Late Model racing at the end of a season we are talking about here. Not knocking Langley, that is a VERY big race at a great track, but the other race at Old Dominion pales in comparison of these races here; I honestly didn’t even know that event was taking place. Anyway, two weeks would have been great, nothing is going on that weekend other than the Snowball derby which has nothing to do with Late Model racing and the PRI show in Orlando, they could impound the tires, have a short practice and race. I know a lot of people that were at the track have plans to go to PRI but it’s like Shane Hmiel told me at the track Saturday if the race were to get postponed for two weeks… “Well I guess they will have to decide if they want to go to Orlando and do whatever or go racing, if they are real racers they will go racing”. “The Real Deal” doesn’t mince words for sure and he’s usually spot on, just like this time.

I guess it is what it is now. It just upsets me that one of the greatest tracks there is promoting one of the most prestigious events in racing has been given a black eye, by their own doing in my opinion. I love the place, the staff is friendly, everything is great there and they have made awesome strides in bringing the facility back to where it once was many years ago, all the more reason I’m pissed that one decision could undermine everything they have worked for this season. I’m sure they have a business plan but this is not good for “racing” business as a lot of these teams won’t come back. And I know people will say the same thing I have always said “Racers will cry and be the first one back in the door”. Well that goes away more and more each year, if you notice the people running for points at various tracks has become hardly anything as most racers have went to “racing for fun” in the past few years. They won’t take crap like they used to, and if they feel they get screwed into wasting $10,000 on practice and not even racing, well they won’t come back. When it becomes not “fun” anymore they just won’t do it.