The season has gone fairly well for the Estevan Motor Speedway despite a couple of rain-soaked events and cancellations.
At an EMS meeting Monday night at the Days Inn, president Byron Fichter laid out the financials from some of the most recent nights, which included a rainout and a rain-shortened Dakota Modifieds tour stop. Things are ok compared to last year.
“Some races have been more successful than others,” Fichter said. “Weather’s been a huge factor this year. Every races has either been rained out or been a threat of rain in general, so that’s a huge factor every race. But for the most part, considering where we started from the beginning of the year until now, we have dug ourselves out of a hole and are trending in a positive direction.”
Gates are generally good on the special nights like the Dakota Mods tour and the Dirt Wars weekend coming up Saturday and Sunday will bring in more fans of the hobby stocks.
“Say Sunday had 90 per cent chance of rain, guys aren’t going to come here for one night of racing,” Fichter said. “The appeal of a doubleheader is that if you’re going to drive to race, you’ll race two nights… I kind of don’t look at forecasts anymore because they just depress me but knock on wood we get two days without rain for a change.”
They also have a plan to get some more drivers into the field this Saturday rather than merely appealing to Mother Nature.
“If you’re a driver that hasn’t had any points at the track so far, we’re going to do a free entry fee to try to attract those drivers,” Fichter said. “It’s the Minot Fair, and Minot’s not racing, Williston’s not racing, Dickenson’s not racing and Mandan’s not racing. We have an opportunity right now to attract some (drivers) because they might not have anywhere to race this weekend.”
There are a few NASCAR-related items being raffled off in exchange for a donation of four items to the food bank, plus Sunday is their kids night. Saturday night at the Speedway, there will be a bracket elimination race between some of the drivers for online racing network DARN-TV.
“Knock on wood, we get some weather help and things will be really good, I think,” he said.
There was also some significant hail damage to signs, lights, speakers and the exterior parts of buildings that will be looked at by insurance adjusters this week.
