For The Tribune

BROWNSTOWN

It’s business as usual for Jim Price as he makes laps around Brownstown Speedway in his newly purchased piece of track equipment preparing the racing surface for its fifth scheduled weekend of racing in 2018.

The concession stands are fully stocked, advertising is placed and all of the appropriate staff members have been assigned to cover each task.

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Everything appears to be all systems go for a great weekend of racing.

Through the buzzing of notifications on his cellphone, Price notices one message in particular that is every promoter’s worst fear: A forecast of inclement weather.

Price knows this scenario all too well.

So far in 2018, the well-prepared racing surface has not seen the first lap of competition.

The concession stand has not seen its first line of customers, and the staff has not seen its first paycheck.

A mixture of unseasonably cold temperatures and heavy precipitation has forced the cancellation or postponement of all four events that have been scheduled to take place.

“It’s been a rough way to start out the year. It’s very frustrating that we can’t catch a break with this weather,” said Price, who enters his fifth full year as promoter of the speedway.

Price said it’s a risk trying to schedule events this early in the season, but the reward can be great if the weather does happen to cooperate.

“We are guaranteed to not make money if we sit here and don’t try to schedule races,” Price said. “This place makes no money sitting empty, but on the other hand, if we do happen to get lucky and get to race in March or early April, then we have huge turnouts because nobody else around the area is racing yet.”

Most area racetracks begin their seasons no earlier than mid-April.

Brownstown’s first event was scheduled for March 16 and 17 with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series headlining the weekend with the 21st annual Indiana Icebreaker, one of the speedway’s marquee events.

“The Icebreaker is the one event that can set the tone for the entire season,” Price said. “It brings the best racers in the business and attracts a very large crowd. We had to reschedule the Icebreaker and the No Way Out 40, so those were two big hits for us.”

Due to the expected crowds, he said he ordered large amounts of food and drinks for the concessions. Now, they have to pay for them with no revenue coming in.

“Plus, we bought some equipment over the winter anticipating to at least get one of these events in to help offset the cost, but it just hasn’t worked out yet,” he said.

In addition to the financial burdens inclement weather can cause, Price said the time and labor put forth each week are quite substantial.

“A lot of hours go into preparing for each week,” Price said. “It seems like I’m on the phone all day with food vendors, competitors, series directors. Then we’ve got to keep up with all of our track equipment around here, and that’s a job in itself.

“We put in all of the hours each week only to get shot down by the weather, but I’m hopeful things will turn around soon,” he said. “We’ve still got a lot of racing ahead of us.”

Most of the events that have been affected by inclement weather so far have been rescheduled for later dates, but Price said there are only so many dates available to make them up.

“We’ve got a few options when it comes to rescheduling, but with the number of events that we’ve had to reschedule already, it starts to get tough to squeeze them all in,” Price said.

Four weekends are scheduled off during the 2018 racing season, which stretches from March to October.

These weekends cannot be used for reschedule dates due to conflicting schedules.

Brownstown Speedway hopes to host the Indiana Icebreaker tonight, but rain in the forecast could change that plan.