Any news on how Atco or E-town made it through Sandy?

[david ring]

I know the shore south of Atco is a disaster and northern Jersey took a big hit too. Has anyone heard about how these tracks came through the storms?

[hookdaddy]

Atco posted this on facebook "We wanted everyone to know that Atco Raceway survived Hurricane Sandy just fine and that we will be open this Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. Hopefully everyone else made it through relatively unscathed."

[John H186]

Hello Dave.

Raceway Park made it through but not without some damage. We are still without power as of 11/7/12 but a crew from Texas (yes Texas!) is there now seeing what repairs need to be done. Below is a list of the damage we sustained.

1. A tree behind the tower fell and took out some major power lines and a power poll in the pits also came down so we are without power.

2. A huge tree came down and landed on our shop located on the spec side past the finish line. We patched the roof for now but it will need to be completely replaced in the future. Also, the strong winds damaged two garage doors but they have since been repaired.

3. The main RP sign is heavily damaged when you drive in by the road course and the road course fence was folded over in three places but we managed to repair most of it rather easily.

4. Our left lane scoreboard is missing a piece of the win light but still has the inner section of the win light intact so when we do return to racing it will still be operational.

5. The 1/8 mile starting line fence and billboard wall came down and will need to be completely redone this winter.

6. Almost every small tree located where the spectator parking would be for the NHRA Nationals is down.

7. Tons of siding, small pit signs, port a poties and fence was down and scattered about but all has since been cleaned up.

8. A small plane, which was in storage and sitting at the airport was flipped over.

There was a lot of debris and such that would be expected but other than that the facility wasnt too bad but the power being out is the main obstacle right now. The office is still closed and the website is being updated from another location.

I will keep everyone updated as best as I can in the next few days and thanks for your concern.

[Rich Biebel]

John I really have never met you but am real glad to read your trying to improve things at RP.

It's not the closest track for me but sure is one I have raced at a lot and was hoping to see things improve there for weekly races....

Looks like your doing that.....Thanks for the effort.....

[John H186]

Thank you Rich and it is a labor of love because I am a racer as well and live for the sport. Raceway Park and myself will be working very hard to bring better bracket racing to the track in 2013 and hope to see you there.

[Pistol Pete]

Congrats on your new position John.

I hope you can turn things around for E-town, and i know that will not be an easy task.

It would be great to see some S/SS races there, it's just 1 Fine facility to let
that go to waste.

Maybe you can combine a S//SS race and have the Super Gas/ Super Comp guys
race there catorgories as well. Like Atco does. They promote all of the above catorgories.

Well, i'm sure there are enough of Stk/ Super Stock guys n gals out there to give you any help or ideas to promote something.

Good Luck for 2013 & your future there @ E-town.

Pistol Pete
1374
I/SA

[John H186]

Thanks for the kind words Pete. I will be talking with the owners over the winter when we do the 2013 schedule about some Stock/Super Stock races and some .90 type racing also. Hopefully we can make that happen for you guys.