Slauenwhite Weighs In On Speedworld Sportsman Situation

Racing circles in the region have been fired up recently with what has transpired in the Weekly Racing Series at Scotia Speedworld.

With multiple issues arising in the past few weeks, the track has been under some scrutiny from those in the cars and in the bleachers. Take the Sportsman division for example, the last two feature races for the premiere weekly class in the Maritimes were scheduled for a combined 88-laps while only 59 laps were run. In the first race on August 30th, management shortened the 28-lap race to 30 laps due to excessive cautions, the second last Saturday was shortened by a time limit that was discussed within the drivers meeting. The result was the feature laps being cut from 50 laps to 29 in the season finale.

As it does with many major sporting events and decisions that happen surrounding these events, social media has been ablaze the last few days with drivers, fans and crews expressing their thoughts and opinions on what happened to the “Sportsman 29” on Saturday. Most express displeasure with the track for shortening the final race of the season, something that could have affected a championship battle between eventual winner Darren Wallage and Aaron Boutilier among other outcomes in the event.

While views expressed by fans on the Scotia Speedworld Fanand Barkhouse Motorsports (Phil Barkhouse Jr.’s) Facebookpages express displeasure with how the season finale was handled, we received an email Tuesday from Wade Slauenwhite, driver of the #12 CSS Insurance Chevrolet in the series and a feature winner in the division back in August. Slauenwhite took some time to step back, look at and break down his thoughts on what transpired last Saturday.

Here is his opinion on the situation.

I’ve heard many negative comments over social media regarding Scotia Speedworld and some of the decisions made by the management and officials.  This is not NASCAR!  Of the fans, officials and drivers – we are the least important.  Don’t get on your high horse and figure that if you boycott the track it will affect anyone but yourself.  If the fans do not show up, the track will close.  It there is no management/officials, the track will close.  If you don’t show up, you will be missed, but the show will go on. 

I was part of the embarrassment that was the last two Sportsman races and was not impressed.  Drivers could not go round in circles without wrecking others around them.  The last race had a national radio broadcast for the Pro Stocks and that helps to put fans in the seats.  The fans pay for our fun.  If you think that isn’t fair, then how big do you think NASCAR would be without the media presence?  The broadcast was already delayed due to weather and had management delayed them further due to our sh*tshow then they may think twice about coming back.

If you think this doesn’t happen at the other tracks, think again.  At Riverside as part of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series we were told at the drivers’ meeting that if we went too long we were going to be halted because of TSN and Sirius Radio.  Media coverage is important!!

When I see racers and their crew abusing officials and claiming they can’t do their jobs, I wonder how they would handle things if they were in a position of management.  I don’t see people lining up to do Ken Cunning’s (Race Director and General Manager of Scotia Speedworld) job.  The officials are probably making less than minimum wage for the hours they put in.  It takes a few seconds to belittle someone on social media, step up and offer to help them out.

Thanks to the fans that come to the track and the people that give me a place to play.

We welcome all your thoughts on this issue. To weight in on this issue, please visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/timscorner. Inappropriate language will not be tolerated and will see your post deleted – be as opinionated as you want, but keep it clean.

Photo by McCarthy Photographic.