Heavy rain moved across Southcentral Ohio on Friday evening and saturated K-C Raceway's grounds, forcing World of Outlaws Late Model Series and track officials to cancel the 50-lap, $12,000-to-win tour event scheduled for Saturday night (May 2).
After precipitation that struck the three-eighths-mile on Thursday led officials to cancel Friday night's scheduled Buckeye 100 qualifying night and condense the weekend into a one-day show, a relatively dry Friday afternoon raised hopes that the grounds would dry sufficiently to allow racing on Saturday night. But a strong line of storms that began inundating the area around 9 p.m. nixed any chance for WoO LMS competition.
A raindate was not immediately announced, but WoO LMS and track officials are discussing the possibility of rescheduling the tour's visit to K-C Raceway.
“We were encouraged when the rain missed us all afternoon,” said Jeff Schrader, who is in his first year as the owner of K-C Raceway. “But we got a gully-washer around 9 o'clock that dropped an inch of rain in about 45 minutes, and that was it. It looked like a creek was running through the pit area and the parking lot was saturated, so we knew there wouldn't be enough time for the grounds to dry up by Saturday night.
“You're at the mercy of Mother Nature in this sport. Hopefully we'll find a suitable date to bring the World of Outlaws back to K-C Raceway and get some better weather.”
This marks the third time in the last four years that a WoO LMS event has been rained out at K-C Raceway. The opening night of a two-day show was lost in 2006, and in 2007 a late-summer program was washed out and not rescheduled.
The WoO LMS will return to action on Tues., May 5, at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa. The 50-lap ‘Showdown in Sarvertown' will be taped for later broadcast on the SPEED cable network.