Running The Show: Drivers As Track Operators

Decisions

On Saturday nights the association president assumes the role of race steward. He makes decisions. He makes friends. He makes enemies.Some presidents thrive in the job and look back on the year as one of great satisfaction. Others leave at the end of a season in the hot seat and vow never to return.

"It's awfully high pressure," says David McDaniel, who was the association's president in 2004." "Even though it is an association, when all is said and done, someone has to be put in the position of being in charge," he says. "I'm glad I did it. It was a way for me to do something for the organization, to give something back to it."

It isn't a job for everyone, agrees Ed Brasmer, who is in his second year as president.

"I get all the drivers together at the beginning of the season and tell 'em to get their cars legal, 'cause if they aren't it is their fault, not mine," he says. "That eliminates a lot of problems." "The toughest call to make is for something like rough driving. It's hard to black flag a guy [for] being too aggressive, because they probably don't see it that way. It's really a judgement call."

Unlike most tracks, where a race steward's decision is final, the association's board of directors meets every Wednesday following a Saturday race to plan for the next race and hear appeals of a president's decisions made the previous weekend. They are upheld or overturned by a simple majority vote. It can be tough on the egos involved.

"The board members try to be as fair as they can," says Fast. "But if you are on the losing end of the vote, it can be hard not to think the board is stacked against you. It is especially true if you've been racing at a different track and are a newcomer here. You have to race by our rules, and maybe they aren't the same as the ones you had someplace else."

McDaniel likes the system.

"No matter which way it goes, you have the majority of the board making decisions, so you know you have their support in whatever it decides," he says. "The board tries to keep personalities out of the decisions, and I think for the most part they do. But these guys are racers and they are very passionate about their sport. Sometimes it is tough for a driver to accept that a decision that went against him was based not on what was best for him, but what was best for the track."

"At that point, he has to decide to either race by our rules, or race someplace else. The track's been around for more than 20 years. It wouldn't have lasted this long if most of our decisions weren't right."