Rain reigns at Port Colborne track
Drivers, keep your race cars parked — again.
You can’t blame officials at New Humberstone Speedway from thinking Mother Nature is a wet blanket when it comes to having fun racing around a dirt track. For the second time in as many weeks, inclement weather forced the dirt track on Highway 3 in Port Colborne to postpone its seasonopening Dawn of Destruction show.
“With saturated grounds and the seasonably cold temperatures, we did not want to have fans and competitors come in the cold and have issues getting into and exiting our facility,” Bob Davidson, the speedway’s general manager, said of the cancellation of Sunday’s matinee.
“We had the scheduled a fun and exciting event for the Dawn of Destruction,” race director Tom Beales said. “Only if Mother Nature would co-operate, we would have loved to have this event to kick off the 2017 season.”
A matinee highlighted by a car crush-off, trailer jump and $1,000-to-win enduro had been set to get underway Sunday at 1 p.m.
Unlike the first postponement from April 30, when the program was put over until the following weekend, the second annual Dawn of Destruction won’t be moved ahead by one week or made up in tact.
“With Mother’s Day being next week, we decided not to run the event on that day and focus on our stock car season opener on May 21st,” Davidson said.
Weather permitting the Construction Crush-Off will now be part of opening night presented by Country 89, Sunday, May 21, while the trailer jump stunt, presented by Cooper Motorsports, will be part of the May 28 program that will also feature the first Cooper Motorsports Minivans of Mayhem Series. The enduro, presented by ATTAR Metals, will now be taking place Sunday, July 2, as part of the $1,000-to-win Showdown Night sponsored by Brian’s Tire Repair.
Drivers who have pre-registered for the enduro will get $25 off their Eve of Destruction registration.
Anyone who has pre-registered but no longer wants to participate has until May 21 to request a refund.
Field for the $1,000-to-win Showdown is limited to the first 60 registered competitors, with the top five finishers in the May 21 enduro clinching top-five starting positions in the Eve of Destruction enduro in September.
The enduro qualifier that had been scheduled for Sunday, June 18, will not be held, Humberstone said in a news release.
Two pre-season practice sessions — Wednesday, May 10; Wednesday, May 17 — will be held leading up to opening night of the speedway’s 58th season. Gates for practice open at 5 p.m., with cars and 4-cylinder trucks getting on the track an hour later.
Weather also washed out Friday night’s season opener at Ransomville Speedway in western New York and the weekly program at Merrittville Speedway the following night.
It was Merrittville’s first rainout after starting the season with a test and tune, which held only a day after a mid-April snowstorm left the pit area mired in mud. The banked clay track, however, was suitable for practice runs.