Afternoon everyone. I have been reading all these posts with a lot of interest. I hope all is well at Delaware, but of course I am a little concerned. If it is true about a change in staff, then lets wait until we see what comes out officially, before we all get into gloom and doom. I, like a lot of people have been going to Delaware for years. I just started to go back last year more often then the specials, after the "last management" left. I really liked when they went this new direction with the managment and the new LM's. I really had stopped going, even though I live in London, especially the CASCAR shows. I wasn't a big fan of Cascar, but understood how other fans enjoyed them. I just didn't go. I really hope T.N. is not coming back (rumour on another post). I read awhile a go that everyone has the responsibility to make a race track successful. Owners, staff, racers,fans,etc all share in the success. It IS okay to not agree with the way the track is being run, but some of the bashing that goes on, is really kind of unproductive. You certainly don't have to agree with everything. In fact you don't even have to like a track or the way it's run, but it doesn't help to bad mouth it. Delaware does have its physical drawbacks and problems, but I sure think they are on their way to making this track a top notch track again. People forget that basically Delaware fed the Cascar series for years with drivers, to the detriment of the local Friday night show. They are now on their way back. Racing is fun to watch again here.

I always enjoy the racing at Delaware, and I also really enjoyed the CASCAR shows that were held there! I miss the big weekends in the campground. Some of my favourite drivers hail from that track, past and present! I've met a lot of good friends over the years down there as well!

I must admit, 2 years ago, I was a little disappointed in the racing at the start of the year up until about the mid way point re: LM's. Last year after most of the LM's were running the same type of cars, I thought the program had picked up. I thought it was pretty good when the Delaware cars and the Flamboro cars got together at both tracks! I think the Delaware SS's are a class act, and the trucks put on a great show (kinda reminds me of the old Hobby days at Flammy when they're on the track) and i"ve always enjoyed the OWM's!

Another thing that I did like over the past few years, was being able to camp in the campground after regular Friday night racing. Some of us that travel a few hours to get to the track, don't really feel like racing home after the show, so I found that was a big plus!

So if it were up to me, the only 2 things I'd change would be to resurface the track and get the 2 big weekend events back! I know that's a tall order, but one can only hope, right?

Too bad Delaware couldn't entice OSCAAR to run a couple of races down there and invite the Toledo SLM guys up as well!

What are the differences between the Toledo/Main Event SLMs and OSCAAR SLMs, anyway?

Randy I have to admit the camping was fun and moving it down below the track was a big improvement.
Randy you are another long time member here and geesh I really wish Craig would come back in and write a book to say hi and how he is doing.

Craig if you are reading you ar enot forgotten buddy. Hope your son is still doing the go-karting and you are healthy and say hi to your wife.

Backing up a little, I think it may be important to point out something that may not be terribly well known, as the subject of the London Free Press' disinterest comes up from time to time.

As some of you may know, most local sportswriters (in London) are given a bit of leeway in regards to what part of the local scene they want to cover. The fact is, these days most of LFP's sports news comes from either Sun Media or Associated Press. And the local guys that are left choose to follow stick-and-ball sports, high school and university, or the London Knights. For many years, we were fortunate enough to have Clare Dear keeping Delaware well covered, and then later on to a lesser degree, Jim Cressman. (Jim could give an interesting build up story on Friday morning...Clare Dear would be in the Saturday morning paper telling you what happened at the races the night before. Reading Clare Dear is what inspired the Shadow Report, actually.)

Up till last year you could pretty much bank on a story a week about local motorsports from Jim. He didn't just cover Delaware...he gave pretty much equal time to Grand Bend Drag, St Thomas Drag, the odd story about a local guy in a travelling series, like Mark Sammut or Ryan Litt, that kind of thing. All was good.

Unfortunately, for one reason or another, Jim Cressman got caught up in a staff shakeup, leaving him unable to cover motorsports as he had in the past. (Don't hold me to it, but I think he ended up as a night editor or some such)

So, basically, we lost our guy.

Did anyone notice when the local motorsports got dropped? I did. It didn't slow to a trickle...it just stopped completely.

So you can't hang lack of coverage on the track itself or even its staff. In case no one noticed, NO one's getting covered. Not in the Free Press. The LFP just isn't set up that way anymore.

There's still a large segement of the sporting news business that don't recognize motorsports at all. A good example of this is Pete James, the longtime channel 10 sports guy, now known as the Godfather of Sports on am1290.

am1290 is very Delaware friendly. Their afternoon drive time show often gives away Delaware tix, I've heard an interview with Steve Robblee, they've done Delaware racing wrap ups on one afternoon a week etc. (In fact, a lot of 1290 guys have announced at Delaware. Also by the way, Kevein Bulmer was the afternoon guy today, subbing for Mike Stubbs.) Yet Old-School Pete James just grunts dismissively when his co-anchors so much as mention a race at Indianapolis. When he does have to say something about racing, he actually get an apologetic tone in his voice.

You can see by what's covered in the Freeps that more of our local sports guys are cut from Pete's cloth than from Derek Botten's. Jim Cressman was not cut from that cloth. But...he's gone as a regular sportswriter.

So, this is where we are with regards to Freeps coverage. The track really has nothing to do with it.

Now, if we could only get am1290 quality coverage from a station that people that aren't already sports nuts actually listen to. 😉

And we can take solace in the fact that some of the smaller presses are still staffed by actual reporters, and that they'll cover us from time to time.
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