Hannegan Speedway
Sun July 16, 2006 9:34 AM (NEW!)
Here is the post I left on Hannegan Speedway's sight this morning. Was I wrong?
Last night was a huge disappointment. I had two little boys that entered the racing program. One went home wondering why he was put into a class we DID NOT SIGN HIM UP IN, and my oldest son was in tears. A great night of family fun, don't you think so?
To start everything off. We signed my 4 year old son up to run the mini quad TT class. When out on the track for practice, he never took the checkers. A young man on a shifter quad was so fast, he lapped my son often. He got one and a half laps complete before this young racer took the checkers. My son got flagged off the track, because your offical made him pull off. IS two laps too much to ask? let him take a flag. After an initial DELAY of over 45 minutes to get heat races posted, he was put into mini quad flat track. I know my 4 year old won't be winning, so no biggie huh? Just let the kid ride. Then they announce a problem with the classes. ANOTHER DELAY! (maybe they put him in his class) Not so, we'll let him race anyway, to say something would delay the program further...
Now I have both of my sons in the same class (due to clerical error on the track staff). Great, just great, this is why I signed then up in different classes to begin with. The only positive thing that came out from the night is that my 6 year old son won that heat race by 10 seconds. As the kids are leaving the track, the next race is staging. My 4 year old, who you folks put in the wrong class is not even off the track yet. Your starter, with all his wisdom, gives the staged heat a green light. My 4 year old is on the backstraight for christ's sake! Hello, your announcer even noticed, and he said something too. Your flagger on the inside of turn 4 is looking at me, while I'm screaming to wait, and he is saying nothing. Thanks buddy.
Main event time (finally after a long track refinish due to motocrossers tearing up the track) Hello, it is flat track and TT! My wife and I take OUR time to get the mini quads inline, so the stager just need to give a quick look. All 11 of them are in line correctly. My sons are starting in row 1, spot #2 and in row 2 spot number 4. They roll to the line, and the starter just lets these kids race to the line, and lines them up in the order they get there. What is up with that? because my son is not wide open from the top of turn 4 to the chalk, you penalize him? He was placed on the 2nd row in the second hole. Hello starter, what is the malfunction? you look at your paper and adjust all the other kids, he was waving at you to fix the problem, you didn't even walk over to him. Thanks buddy. He ends up in our truck after that race in tears. He said he tried to get the starters attention and he would not help him. He was crying, saying "he got cheated" I agree with him.
I walked over the the area at turn 4 to talk to someone about it. Brian Billings was standing there and knows I was there. He was less than 2 feet away, just listening. I know he was because he pulled his headset back to be able to listen as I told them what had happened. He did nothing, shame on you Mr. Billings. These young kids are the future of the program that you are attempting to promote. If you continue to treat the youth classes, as "just kids", your program will suffer much more than it already has. Having to bring in motocrossers to fill your program is complete BS. Last year we paid less, and raced more. This year, more money, less laps, more time between heats and mains (how are food sales? up I bet).
My son was offered a trophy for the mistake, that is ridiculous. Six of these 11 kids come from one very tight group. Bragging rights mean alot to these kids. You offer a trophy to him, for a mistake that your starter made. What does that mean to the child that did earn his trophy? The right thing to do was to rerun the race, with all 11 kids lined up correctly. Yor excuse was we can't, thats right, you don't have time because you brought in the motocross folks. (have I mentioned that was a GREAT IDEA?)
If my son's last name was Osterholtz, Stanley, or Fite, this would have never happened.
Shame on you sign up shack, (twice) Shame on you starter, and SHAME ON YOU BRIAN BILLINGS.
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