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Letter from Tony Stewart…
A LETTER FROM TONY STEWART
To our loyal fans,
There are many of you, fans and competitors alike, who are upset with our handling of last weekend’s Coca-Cola Spring Classic USAC/UMP DIRTcar Modifieds event. Quite frankly, you should be, for our track surface wasn’t up to our own high standards and our communication regarding the challenges we faced was also lacking to the fans that made the trip to our facility.
First and foremost, on behalf of Eldora Speedway, I apologize for the track conditions and our overall handling of the situation. It was unacceptable and a situation we are extremely regretful of. However, I can promise you that we will do everything possible to make it right and hopefully regain the confidence of our participants and fans.
Immediately following Friday night’s cancellation, equipment was on the track. By mid-morning on Saturday, the track was being groomed into racing condition - only to fall victim to heavy afternoon showers and yet another cancellation.
Our efforts to get the track into proper racing condition have been ongoing all week and will continue until it is exactly where it needs to be. We’re confident our work will be successful, and once we are ready, we will host an open practice session to any and all competitors at no charge. The grandstands will be open to the public as well. We have rain in the forecast the next couple of days, so we’ll announce the practice day and time as soon as we are able to evaluate the timing of the track preparation.
We’d also like to remind all of our ticketholders to last weekend’s Coca-Cola Spring Classic that their ticket value can be applied to any future event at Eldora Speedway with available seating. The Friday leg of the Coca-Cola Spring Classic featuring the USAC Sprint Car Series and the UMP DIRTcar Modifieds will also be re-scheduled for a TBA date.
Please accept our sincerest apology for last weekend’s unfortunate outcome. While some other racetracks were able to overcome pre-season weather woes, our track surface proved especially challenging due to the adverse weather combined with the minimal time we had to bond the new clay we added to the racing surface in the off-season.
Even with ideal weather conditions on Friday, it wasn’;t enough to help us get the track in racing shape. And in our eagerness to put on a show for the drivers, USAC and the fans, we pushed the envelope. We thought we could get it right in time, but in hindsight, we should have canceled before the event and not put our fans, sanctioning bodies and drivers in the situation we did.
This is not an indication of what our track will be like this year or how we represent ourselves to our constituents. We foresee an excellent racing surface with the kind of top-notch competition our fans and drivers have come to expect and deserve of Eldora Speedway.
Sincerely,
Tony Stewart
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Comments
By Dale Earnhardt
April 7, 2010 10:47 PM | Link to this
That’s the way to handle it. Don’t let it happen again.
By howard
April 8, 2010 2:22 AM | Link to this
not even tony stewert can control the weather.
By Darrell Waltrip
April 8, 2010 7:25 AM | Link to this
Damn straight Tony. Git ‘er done. Your Pal, DW
By Amy
April 8, 2010 8:21 AM | Link to this
Only in Ohio LOL.
By J
April 8, 2010 9:48 AM | Link to this
That’s the way a CEO or a politician handles a problem. admit the mistake, apologize, and get after fixing it. There are a LOT of people who could learn from this. Excellent.
By Hmm
April 8, 2010 2:26 PM | Link to this
They had great weather to get the track ready and blew it, no excuses for that at all, never would have happened when Earl ran the track.
By Jerry B.
July 26, 2010 1:23 PM | Link to this
That’s the way to handle that kind of situation. Great job. Hey Tony, How about adding an ARCA Stock car race to the weekend of the Prelude to a Dream event. Arca’s has the 1 mile flat dirt events now for diversity they need to add a 1/2 mile high banked dirt show. How about it?