Thanks to the fans and teams who showed up tonight after a long holiday weekend that most likely drained your wallet and against a threat of imminent rain at some point tonight.
As we said on here earlier this week, making up a rained-out SN race on a Monday after 4th of July isn't optimal... but it was the only option, and your support made it work out. Far better than sitting at home.
We actually moved the show a little too quick as it looked like our window was shorter than it turned out as we could see the front developing on radar. Hope you made it home in plenty of time to get a solid night's sleep before work Tuesday.
Now for a little soapbox as the Summer Nationals enter another week with some uncertain weather. Trust your race track to make good decisions... and support those decisions and the sport. We have way, way too many amateur weathermen with phone apps deciding against coming to race or to watch based on what those little icons are showing. If you are going to make decisions based on weather... then take the time to look beyond that icon and the chance of rain percentage. See what is coming, how much, and what it is or isn't going to amount to if/when it gets to you.
Forecasts are made by computer weather models with human interpretation. But that app you are relying on is virtually all computer - especially in the short term. At one point today it was showing a 70% chance of rain at 5:00. But when you looked at the model the forecast was based on, it had one little cell hitting Lincoln and nowhere else. That cell could have ended up anywhere within 50 miles of where the model showed it popping up. The chances of that little thing actually hitting the race track were minimal.... but your phone was showing a 70% chance... even thought if you read the written National Weather Service Forecast Discussion you would see that the model was an outlier and it probably wasn't going to rain that early.
Very few if any race tracks are dying to get you in the gate just to get rained out. If a track says it is going to race, it probably has some reason to think it can get the show it. And the race track is well aware of the forecast. If things need to move along to beat the rain, they probably will do everything they can to beat it.
I know lots of fans and a few racers to sat at home tonight confident in that app on their phone and missed some great racing. Thanks to those of you who took the chance and supported what turned out to be a very fun 2 hour show.
As we said on here earlier this week, making up a rained-out SN race on a Monday after 4th of July isn't optimal... but it was the only option, and your support made it work out. Far better than sitting at home.
We actually moved the show a little too quick as it looked like our window was shorter than it turned out as we could see the front developing on radar. Hope you made it home in plenty of time to get a solid night's sleep before work Tuesday.
Now for a little soapbox as the Summer Nationals enter another week with some uncertain weather. Trust your race track to make good decisions... and support those decisions and the sport. We have way, way too many amateur weathermen with phone apps deciding against coming to race or to watch based on what those little icons are showing. If you are going to make decisions based on weather... then take the time to look beyond that icon and the chance of rain percentage. See what is coming, how much, and what it is or isn't going to amount to if/when it gets to you.
Forecasts are made by computer weather models with human interpretation. But that app you are relying on is virtually all computer - especially in the short term. At one point today it was showing a 70% chance of rain at 5:00. But when you looked at the model the forecast was based on, it had one little cell hitting Lincoln and nowhere else. That cell could have ended up anywhere within 50 miles of where the model showed it popping up. The chances of that little thing actually hitting the race track were minimal.... but your phone was showing a 70% chance... even thought if you read the written National Weather Service Forecast Discussion you would see that the model was an outlier and it probably wasn't going to rain that early.
Very few if any race tracks are dying to get you in the gate just to get rained out. If a track says it is going to race, it probably has some reason to think it can get the show it. And the race track is well aware of the forecast. If things need to move along to beat the rain, they probably will do everything they can to beat it.
I know lots of fans and a few racers to sat at home tonight confident in that app on their phone and missed some great racing. Thanks to those of you who took the chance and supported what turned out to be a very fun 2 hour show.
