From the Promoter…

It has been a couple of weeks since I wrote this. Things were crazy busy as we prepared for our Penn Can Speedweek. We got off to a great start with Bike Night. A huge thank you goes out to Gary Folk, Jr. and his wife Fran for organizing this amazing night again. Through their efforts they came up with 152 bikes to give away. Yes 152 is the official grand total. Gary is already thinking of ways to top that next year. It will be tough.
What was also amazing was that we were able to get in the whole show that night. The weather has not been kind to us this year and once again there were showers in the area on that night. While we were giving the bikes away I was watching the radar and it looked like we were going to get dumped on at any moment. Fortunately we were able to give out all of the bikes and get the final two features in before the rain came.
Saturday morning we were back at the track getting it ready for the Tuesday Clash at the Can. Saturday night it was off to Five Mile and then Sunday to Utica Rome to take care of the track prep up there. We got home at 2:00 a.m. and went back to Penn Can in the morning to get ready for Tuesday night. I woke up Tuesday at 3:00 a.m. and started looking at the radar and every weather report I could find to make a determination about that night’s racing.
As you know by now we made the decision to postpone the Clash at the Can to Sunday, September 20th. It rained on and off all day that day and when I left the track at 6:30 p.m. that night I drove home in the rain. We looked for a suitable makeup date but there just weren’t any open midweek dates. We already had a race scheduled for September 20th so we are replacing that with the Clash at the Can. It will now become a huge show featuring a tripleheader for the Race of Champions Modifieds, Sportsman and Street Stocks, along with the Grit Series for 602 Crate Sportsman and a big special event for the Four Cylinders. Watch for complete details in the coming weeks. It will be a blockbuster event.
So now we move onto last Friday and the Patriot Sprint Car show. That was another tough one. Much like the RoC drivers, many of the Patriot drivers would have to travel a great distance to get to Penn Can. Some of them were as far as four hours away. They needed to know well in advance if we were going to run because of the travel involved and the fact that they were scheduled to race at Selinsgrove the following night and they all had hotel rooms reserved that had to be cancelled by 1:00 p.m.
We were kind of handcuffed and were forced to make an early decision based on the forecast. It is always tough to cancel when it isn’t raining out but what a great decision it turned out to be. As it turned out, severe weather swept through the area later that evening and we would have never been able to get the whole show in. There are a lot of variables that go into making the decision. I’m sure most people don’t realize what goes into it. It’s not easy.
So our first attempt at Penn Can Speedweek didn’t turn out as we had hoped because of the weather. In fact we have lost four of our first nine shows thus far and we have only had a couple of nights that we did run that weather didn’t play a role. Onward and upward.
Looking forward, we are off next Friday night. I could make up a phony reason as to why we are off that night. Truth be told my youngest son Tucker graduates from high school that night and nothing is going to keep from being there. Considering that my three sons play an instrumental role in the operation of the track it makes sense to take the night off. I talked to several drivers when I was making up the schedule over the winter and not one driver had an issue with a night off in the middle of the season. As a matter of fact they liked the idea. Many of them told me that they will take advantage of the night off to go on vacation with their families. If you know me, you know how important family is to me.
So that means that the next show on the schedule after tonight is July 3rd and is one of the biggest nights of the year at Penn Can Speedway. It’s Fireworks Extravaganza Night featuring one of the biggest and best fireworks shows in the area. 
Finally, without getting into detail, I have to bring up what took place after the Modified feature on June 5th that ultimately escalated into fighting in the stands. It was a total embarrassment and is totally inexcusable. We promote a family atmosphere at Penn Can Speedway and will not tolerate this activity. We had a lot of kids in attendance for Bike Night. The last thing we needed was to subject them to that. Penalties have been distributed and the message has been sent that we simply will not tolerate this behavior. 
In closing, we have removed the Slingshots from our weekly schedule. You are probably saying you didn’t know they were part of the show to begin with. A special thanks goes to Dalton Maynard for travelling to Penn Can each week ready to race. Unfortunately he was the only one that showed up. They will be on the schedule for the Northeast Small Car Classic on Sunday, July 19th and traditionally show up in big numbers for that event.
If you are joining us at the races tonight, thank you for being here. We appreciate you coming out. Enjoy the show.