 This year the schedule will begin on March 23 and run through Oct.
11, approximately a month longer than in the past.The Horns began
by talking about last season and the use of curfew extensions. Last
year the city allowed the speedway three extensions of no more than
30 minutes each, to be used at the track manager's discretion.
Horn said all three extensions had been used. The first lasted 14
minutes, the second five minutes and the third for eight minutes.
Quickly moving on to the new season, Horn said the track has
several big races scheduled for this year. He noted that Friday
nights would be the regular race nights, but this year he has added
rain dates for the following Sunday on some of the bigger races. He
explained that some of those races are tied in with other tracks. He
said the schedule was set up for drivers to be in Lincoln on Friday,
then somewhere else in the area on Saturday. He told the council
that the drivers want to race, so he felt if a rain date was set for
Sunday, they would come.
He noted that this year the schedule is running into October. He
explained that in the past the schedule has ended in September, the
weekend before the Abraham Lincoln National Railsplitting Festival.
This was done because the festival needed the barn the speedway uses
for concessions. This year the speedway has built its own concession
wagons and no longer needs to use the barn. He told the council that
on the weekend of the Railsplitter, they would move their wagons and
then bring them back the next weekend to resume racing.
There will be no races on July 26 and Aug. 2 due to the Logan
County Fair and no races on Railsplitter weekend, Sept. 20-22. Horn
added that this year there will be no Friday night race during the
Lincoln Art & Balloon Festival, but there is a race scheduled for
that Sunday, Aug. 25. Horn said the last change had been made at the
request of one of his advertisers, who asked him to please not do
anything that would interfere with the balloon festival. He told the
council he was happy to do as asked and was happy that someone had
talked to him about it.
Horn said that last year was a good one for the speedway and he's
hoping this year will be even better. He said he now has 80
advertiser-sponsors and has a special event involving Brandt
Consolidated on the schedule this year. Brandt is celebrating 60
years of business and will sponsor the Brandt Twin 60s on June 30.
Horn said this year he would like to do the extensions a little
differently. He said instead of being given three extensions of up
to 30 minutes each, he'd like to have 90 minutes to be used as and
when needed. He also qualified the request, saying that he would set
a limit that no extension could exceed the curfew time by more than
30 minutes.
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He told the council that when a race goes over by 10 minutes,
he's hoping people won't care, but he said he knows that when a race
goes over by 30 minutes, that is a big deal for folks in the
community. Horn said the reason for doing this is to allow the
drivers the opportunity to finish their races. He said it made for a
cleaner competition when the race could run its full course.
Melody Anderson asked for a refresher on what the current curfews
are. She was told that the Friday night curfew is 11 p.m. On Sunday
during the school year the curfew is 9 p.m., and when school is not
in session, the Sunday curfew is 10:30 p.m.
In looking at the schedule presented and considering the request
for a change in the way curfews are handled, Mayor Keith Snyder
asked if the Horns would notify him when a curfew extension was used
and how much time was taken. Snyder said he wanted the council to be
able to track for themselves the time used and the time remaining.
As he drew his talk to a close, Horn commented to the council
that if each one of them would attend just three races this year,
they would know for themselves what time the shows got over.
However, he said this in jest, and then told the mayor that they
would indeed notify him when extensions were used.
In the end, though, he did extend a serious invitation to all the
aldermen to come out this summer and attend at least one race.
This item is expected to be on the voting agenda for next week's
meeting.
___
Lincoln Speedway schedule
(PDF)
Lincoln Speedway:
http://www.lincolnspeedwayil.com/
[By NILA SMITH] |
