The tale of a grandstand: Why we need to save our local tracks!

If grandstands could talk, what would they say?  Even better, imagine the stories they could tell?  Oh, the things they have seen.  What would the grandstands tell us from say Darlington, Martinsville, Talladega, or even Daytona?  Just think about what those grandstands near turn four at Daytona would say about the day Dale Earnhardt died on February 18, 2001.

Funny thing about grandstands is we only notice them when they’re empty, not when they’re full – unless you’re the track promoter, then you notice them either way.

There is one set of grandstands in my area that has seen a lot in the last thirty or so years, and if they could speak right now I bet they’d be saying, "Oh no, not again".

You see these grandstands started their spectator service back in the 1970’s at a local dirt track and saw local racing action most weekends from May to early October. 

Then the grandstands saw their first real change – the track went from an awesome dirt track to a pretty fast low-banked oval with wide corners almost insuring it success. 

Unfortunately the success the owners of the newly paved oval expected didn’t happen as the dirt track racers left for other dirt tracks instead of converting to asphalt and the asphalt racers that were expected to come from other asphalt tracks never really came and stayed at their ‘home’ tracks instead. 

So amongst declining box office receipts, expanding housing developments close to the track and the increasing complaints of noise from the new home owners the track was closed for good.

When I was kid I didn’t know about the financial problems the track had I just knew about all of the noise complaints and it was assumed by me and many others that it was those complaints that closed the track for good in the late 1970’s.

Those grandstands then sat empty looking at a slowly decaying race track until they were purchased by the Binbrook Agricultural Society and moved to the Binbrook Fairgrounds starting a new life over-looking the fairground’s horse race track, demolition derby pen and beyond that farm fields as far as the eye could see.

Looking down the frontstretch back into turn 4.  Mother Nature is slowly taking back the track as trees and shrubs are poking through the unsealed and unused pavement.  Credit: Bob Ellis (NASCAR Ranting and Raving)

Entering Turn 1:  It seems that they started to demolish the track but they only tore up Turns 1 and 2 as well as part of the back stretch but they stopped - all the banking is still there though. Credit: Bob Ellis (NASCAR Ranting and Raving)

When I was alking around the old track I couldn't believe my eyes as there were still some old car parts floating around the infield like this old GM 'Blue Flame' 235 engine. Credit: Bob Ellis (NASCAR Ranting and Raving)

Outside retaining wall along the front stretch. The grandstand now located at the Binbrook Fairgrounds were once located right behind this retaining wall with souvenier and ticket windows as well as a snack bar located underneath.   Credit: Bob Ellis (NASCAR Ranting and Raving)

But that was then, and this is now.  Those grandstands continue to overlook the fairground property but instead of farm fields it now looks at literally hundreds of houses as the urban sprawl from Hamilton has made its way to the sleepy little town of Binbrook.

Throughout the course of the year the activity at the fairgrounds is usually limited to events held in one of the many out buildings or at one of the two baseball diamonds behind the grandstands on the other side of the parking lot but for one weekend in September every year the fairgrounds come alive with the annual fall fair.

With the fair comes the demolition derby which runs both Friday and Saturday nights.

You can’t even get a seat in the grandstands those nights – even in the rain – it is standing room only!

The demo-derby is the main attraction and draw; people get there hours earlier to save their seats with blankets so they can see the automotive carnage that takes place right in front of the grandstands.

Since those grandstands have been there they have seen many an event and demonstration – including horse racing – but they are never as full as they are on demolition derby nights!  And I have been one of those happy spectators and will continue to be one as long as the fair and derby continue – those grandstands even bore witnesses to my one and only demolition derby race nearly seventeen years ago!

Problem is those grandstands that have been through so much and have seen so much may be faced with yet another change, or perhaps the end of their usefulness.

You see, all those houses have people living in them and it would seem that some of the newer residents of Binbrook don’t like the noise the fair and demo-derby make and are starting to complain about it – at least that is what one of my friends who has lived in Binbrook most of their life told me.

Can you believe it?  The fairgrounds may stand a chance of closing due to noise complaints for three days out of the three hundred and sixty five days in the year.

I can almost hear those grandstands moaning, "Oh no, here we go again!"

If what I’m told about the noise complaints is true, I just shake my head at the ignorance of some people.  I mean really you move into a housing development called aptly enough "The Fairgrounds" knowing that there are fairgrounds near your house and that there is a fair there each year and you have the audacity to complain about the noise?  What planet are you people from?  Don’t you do a little research about the area before you buy a home?

Thirty years ago it was new housing developments and the noise complaints from them that were part of the reason why the grandstands were sold from that now forgotten race track and moved to the current Binbrook location and now it’s happening all over again.  Although in this case I’m sure there are a number of land developers who are quietly supporting the noise complaints because they are waiting to get their hands on the fairground property and are willing to push the Binbrook Agricultural Society out of there so they can put houses up in place of those grandstands.

If anything, these grandstands should serve us as a reminder of what we are losing each time one of our local tracks close due to urban sprawl.  You only have to look at Riverside in California to see what I’m talking about.

We need to support our local race tracks, not push them out.  Supporting racing at the grass roots level is important because if there are no local tracks then there is no driver development and without drivers racing at the higher levels will greatly change – and not for the better.

Every sport has to have a good grassroots program, without it the sport suffers.  How many hockey players born, raised and played hockey in Italy do you see in the NHL?  I can’t name one.  Why? Because they don’t have a good grassroots hockey program.  Canada has more hockey rinks per capita than any other nation and they also have more players in the NHL than anyone else – that says something.  Canada has a good grassroots hockey program, that is why they get a lot of teenage players from all over the world coming to play hockey there and that is why a lot of other nations are now starting to copy Canada’s grassroots hockey program.

Racing is the same, without good local race tracks there will be no driver development and if we keep losing tracks and not replacing them then we are also slowly killing the sport that we love.

We need to start saving the grandstands, so that they may bear witness to the future of racing and not the future of the housing economy.