Brian Danko's Whelen Modified Tour Report

By Brian Danko

For the third time and twice in the past weekend, the NASCAR Twin 100's featuring the season finale for the Busch North series and the second to last NASCAR modified tour race was rained out at the Thompson International Speedway.

The Twin 100's now are set to the season finale for both of NASCAR's touring series in the northeast on Saturday, October 29th.

The race was originally scheduled to be run in June but with humid conditions, thunderstorms popped up and forced NASCAR to reschedule the race for Saturday, October 8th.

But with heavy rains forecast for Saturday, both NASCAR and Thompson postponed the race on Friday, saving teams from making the trip and the extra expense for hotel rooms.

The race was reset for Sunday, the 9th, but again with over four inches of rain that had fallen and was expected to continue into Sunday, the race was rescheduled for Saturday, October 29th.

According to some reports, the rescheduling has caused some harsh words from officials at the Waterford Speedway who had their season ending big event set for the weekend of October 8 and 9th.

When it was apparent that the weekend was going to be a wash for both Thompson and Waterford, Waterford rescheduled the race for the weekend of October 29th and 30th.

When NASCAR officials reset the Twin's for October 29th, the war of words was reportedly on again. Waterford officials are supposedly upset that NASCAR and Thompson officials didn't confer with them over the new rain date.

If this were true, it would be the first time in recorded history that tracks were trying to work with each other.

The weekend of October 22nd and 23rd is open but that is the rain date for the World Series of Racing also at the Thompson Speedway and it features over 14 divisions of racing, so that weekend was not an option to Thompson but it was to Waterford.

There are three tracks in Connecticut and all three have some sort of grudge against the other, working with each other is the last thing in the world that officials from the three NASCAR tracks want.

But when a NASCAR touring series is rescheduled against one of their events, suddenly they feel the need for love from both NASCAR and the offending track.

Waterford track officials are upset that with Thompson running their SK modifieds, which happens to be the premier division at both tracks, that some of their drivers might race at Thompson and not at Waterford.

Now it needs to be mentioned that at Waterford on Saturday is just qualifying and those drivers from any and all divisions could race at both Waterford and Thompson, if drivers wanted too.

That is if officials from Waterford would make concessions and wait for drivers returning from Thompson.

I do not believe that either track is going to be affected from the crowds as most of Waterford faithful fans don't travel to other tracks and stay at the friendly confines of the Speedbowl so for the most parts, the Waterford crowd shouldn't suffer.

Waterford officials, and I stress if the reports are true, need to realize that they as a NASCAR Weekly Racing series track have nothing to do with the NASCAR touring series of the modifieds and the Busch North.

NASCAR's obligation is to find an open weekend for the touring series when it fits into both schedules, a sometimes very difficult job.

Waterford also needs to realize that if their Busch North or modified tour race was rained out that they would get preferred treatment regardless of what any other weekly track was running.

Now I can feel for the Speedbowl officials because everyone wants to have a big season ending event and end the year on a successful note. Many times especially at the end of the racing season, you are not only competing against other tracks which have their big events but Mother Nature and the onset of colder weather.

It was later announced by Waterford Speedbowl officials that they have moved up the their finale to the weekend of October 22nd and 23rd.

Lets hope for the sake of Waterford that Thompson is able to get in their entire weekend of racing in this coming weekend or they will once again be in the same frying pan.