IHRA Cancels Cayuga National Event

[cujo3116]

Originally Posted by CrateCamaro

I talked to Skooter today twice via email and he said that there were 5 things in the contract that needed to be fulfilled and nothing was done yet. Drainage, paving, lighting in the pits, lighting on the return road, and washrooms. And it seems like it always rained on that weekend for some reason.Basically, instead of doing 3 months of work in three days AGAIN,

All this sounds like is exactly what I was talking about earlier When I said IHRA was full of it. First off the drainage looked to be working fine when we were there last weekend. It rained HARD friday night atleast till 1 am when we went to bed. I was up again at 7 and the track had no major puddles or pools of water from starting line to atleast 200 feet past the finish line that I could see.

Second. how was TMP to get the paving done before the may 31st deadline???
No paving company in Southern Ontario starts paving on any of the major roads till atleast june or when the weather is stable, dry and warm enough to do a quality paving job. What did IHRA want them to do? Throw away $100,000 paving job just so it was done before May 31st but would be broken up again before August?


This still all sounds like just a HUGE money game to me. If you look NHRA dropped the Torco title sponsor from the Virgina National event. It sounds like Torco has not paid up and fulfilled the contractual obligation for that event. Now if they won't pay NHRA for one event how well do you think the IHRA is doing right now? What class or shootout in the IHRA ISN'T sponsored by Torco??....

Package that with IHRA'S lack of ability to attract a title sponsor for the TMP National event and their HORRIBLE scheduling of the event (honestly what are they thinking putting a National event in Southern Ontario in late September????) and it seems more like TMP was cut due to costs then it was because of Sub par facility amenditys.

Why do you think this event was never rescheduled to another track? Like Grand Bend, Milan, Martin ect ect. Theres no title sponsor thus no guarentee of making the money they would normally bring in from the other events that do have the title sponsors. Really all this tells me is that IHRA's internal marketing department that is in charge of finding these sponsors is doing a poor job when they cannot find a company in Southern Ontario, the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) willing to step up and sponsor this event.


Andrew Stirk

[Charley Downing]

I was at TMP last year and It was a dump period. It was by far the worst national event track I have seen in my few years of racing. I still can not belive there are people that wanted to go back. Thanks IHRA for making the right call.

[cujo3116]

Originally Posted by Downing3548

I was at TMP last year and It was a dump period. It was by far the worst national event track I have seen in my few years of racing. I still can not belive there are people that wanted to go back. Thanks IHRA for making the right call.

Are you kidding me?



Andrew Stirk

[ChevyII]

Andrew and others,

It would appear to me there is a total difference of opinion between those who race at Cayuga regularily ( as you do Andrew) and those who compete at only the national event.

Andrew, I was at the event last September for only the third time in 11 years. TMP aka Cayuga was my home track for over 20 years prior to my move West. Steve and I talk every week during the year and I am aware of what has transpired at the facility.

IHRA appears to be "pulling some political punches" but Uli must take some responsilbility for some of the inadequacies at the facility. He was told 3-4 years ago some things needed to be addressed. The pit pavement (cracked and incomplete) is the same as it was 11 years ago when I left!

In the end, the two must resolve their differences and move on. It would be a shame to see the event disappear as the GTA can certainly support the event very well. The cross border experience "perception" appears to be keeping car counts low at the event.

Just my .02 cents!

Mike Ferstl
Calgary, AB

[Daran Summerton]

Torco is no longer

[luckydog]

I commend IHRA for sticking to their guns. Last year was the first year I attended TMP and was a little disappointed in the facility. Some of the pit roads really sucked and the lighting was the worst I've ever seen anywhere. I had to have someone lead me to the staging lanes at night, I couldn't see anything. Something I also noticed was the amount of trash laying around the place, definately was not up to national event facility standards!! The washrooms, however, were very nice. They make Milans look like a whole in the ground, oh wait, they are. It does suck that I won't get to defend my 1st national event win, and the fans up there were absolutly awesome, eah. Hopefully they can get something worked out for next year. The thing I don't fully understand is why they don't make some of the other tracks upgrade certain things also, like Milans bathrooms, and some of the few paved pit roads at rockingham (potholes as bad as TMP) . Just my $.02

[tpoh815]

the be all and the end all is that this sucks for everyone! to me, it wasnt bad enough for me to-not race there. it also has to do with whos complaining. example if they cancelled edmonton instead, how many of us would care?? cmon now really. im bummed because this event was in my backyard .so if you live down south it dosent affect you.(as much) also i am a sportsman racer not a top fuel car. pitting a team in a potholed track is another story. now, who will the top brass pay more attention to? im hoping that it can be worked out in the very near future for the good of the motorsports aspect. how many more tracks can we lose?