24 Hours before the Green Flag - By: Ma Nunn

Posted Jody Shannon on April 1st, 2008 | Filed under Articles, Ma Nunn

This past weekend I spent a lot of time with the Track Promoter Tim Keithley and his wife Farrah. Saturday night I was sitting in the infield in Tim’s bronco thinking about the past 24 hours and what I have saw and thought it would make a great article. So now I am going to give you what I witnessed.

We arrived at Our camper around 9:15 p.m. on Friday night, We seen the tractor out on the track. Tony, my husband’s, Cell phone rang and it was Tim he was the one on the tractor. We went to Sleep sometime after 11:00 to the soothing sounds of the tractor. I guess that time on the tractor working out some of the water holes was a much needed break and therapy for Tim.

Saturday morning we awoke around 7:00 a.m. and got moving around and here comes Richard Bane and Tim to start the work to prepare for the nights events. Now when we arrived there were 4 haulers in line and when we woke up there were 9. So the haulers had began to arrive and so were the fans. Campers began to descend on the fairgrounds and so did the fans and this was 9:00 a.m. By this time me and Tony had wondered up to the track office, where the phone was ringing non stop. Tony offered to take the phone duties from Farrah so she could start to prepare the paper work and give directions to the employees who were arriving to start the day at 11. At this point if the phone rang once it rang 500 times.

The haulers were arriving in mass and gates had to be opened and track crew sent to the pits to direct parking and the tractors where there to aid in anyone who might have got hung up and the gentleman who was going to sell hay had to be stationed and Tim’s cell phone was smoking from the constant ringing from people who where getting busy signals from the main phone.
The concessions were busy and in full swing trying to get things prepared to open up for the large crowd that had all ready gathered by 2:00. The stands were filling up and racing fans where catching up with one another from the long winter break. The crowd was hungry for racing action and the night proved the much needed snack to get them going for the racing season.

I ended up riding with Tim in his bronco for awhile and that was an experience. Some of the cars had to be pushed out of the muck who went off of the main surface. I put my seatbelt on at one point, Tim found that to be very funny and I replied I am always prepared. The nights racing went very smooth and got over at a very decent hour. Then payouts had to be completed, buildings locked, vehicles put in the buildings and other small details around 1:00 I believe the crew finally went home.

Sunday morning arrived and so did Richard and Tim to start some track prep for the next week, this was around 8:00 a.m. Tim was back at the track on Sunday night around 8:00 p.m. Because I was in melt down mode at that time. (that is another story). I have a reliable source that says he was there Monday morning around 8:00 a.m.

The job of a track promoter and his staff is long hours for a few hours of entertainment for us the race fans. I think I am mainly writing this because after this weekend and some of my experiences I see that working at a racetrack is not all fun, but takes some really hard work to make what you see on Saturday night happen.