Arena Racing signs its exit papers

[billybob]

I went, I laughed and realized that officials still let their own emotions dictate races. It was a joke. I am glad I got my tickets free. Gritter is not in charge or that would not have happened, but wait, it did happen. The little midget cars were great and those little people even wondered how that could happen in the Arena race. Well people, the joke continues and I am positive it will never be back as a serious series. It will only be a rich kids sport. I went, I laughed and I felt bad that it was so screwed up. It is not the vision Todd brought to Joel.

[billybob]

Update - there were disqualifications I heard about today - What do you know George ??

[George Keen]

I also heard there were disqualifications and I talked to Mr. Ungrey from the Press and he was going to do a followup and I contacted Peter Jackson and Jack Gritter and they said there would be a Press Release. I have not seen anything yet, but if I don't I will followup on it and let you know what happened. Thanks for the headsup. Geo

[scales]

Well it seems Jack Gritter is once again making up his own rules on the fly with no regard to right or wrong. According to the Grand Rapids Press ”Kelsey Steele and fellow driver Brad Huisken were disqualified by Arena Racing officials”. Steele said she and Huisken were approached by an official from the tech crew just minutes before the event was to start. Steele and Huisken then placed indents in their tires of about one-eighth of an inch. The process, called siping, is meant to improve traction. Steele claims tire siping was nowhere in the rules and therefore no violation was committed. “Last year, there were a lot of rules and everything was very strict,” Steele said. “This time, there was only one page of rules to follow and one of the rules was to use the approved tires, which we did.”

This is not the first time that this has happened. I know this because I am a former track official and Jack Gritter one evening went to a racer that was using a tire that was not sold by Arena Racing prior to the feature races and told him he would not be allowed to run that tire and had to change them. I and the head tech inspector went over the rules, all the rules said was you needed to buy tires from Arena Racing. There was no mention of what tires you had to run on the car. The rules also stated that changes to the rules had to be made by the National Race Director. When I confronted Jack about these facts and that the racer did not have to change his tires. He informed me he could do anything he wanted because he was in charge.

So there you go Jack Strikes Again.

I hope Kelsey and Brad fight this as they did nothing wrong in my eyes! Fair is fair and you can't go around just making up rules on the fly because the racers read the rules better than you did!

Here is the complete Grand Rapids Press Story: www.mlive.com/autoracing/index.ssf/2011/01/coopersvilles_kelsey_steele_st.html