Amery Canceled

[Elanplus2]

I'll let Tom fill in the details, but since I started a post about caravaning I wanted to give people a heads up. He called me tonight with the news and will be posting more very soon. Chins up. Anyone who knows Tom knows how diligent he is about getting events going smoothly and successfully.

[ricksellner]

Oh my hope its not serious. But could work in my favour to have later date. Unless its not at all.

[tmhazen]

Sorry Guys. Here's the email I just sent out to registered participants:

Dear Amery Airport Drivers, Volunteers, Hot Flag Girls, and Fans:

I have some sad news. Jay Griggs, the Amery Airport manager, called me today. He said the resurfacing project that was completed at the airport last week - the work that was supposed to give us a nice new smooth surface to run on - hasn’t cured properly and will be a gooey sandy mess if we try to run a speed event on it this weekend. The state government contract paving company had assured him it would be ready for vehicle traffic 24-36 hours after application. Unfortunately that has turned out to be incorrect. Earlier I had pushed for the resurfacing to be postponed until after our event, but Jay was at the mercy of the state mandated schedule and had to accept the date they gave him. State and federal funds were used for this resurfacing project so they call the shots and they could care less about a little car club that wants to use the airport for a driving event.

So we will NOT be running at Amery Airport this weekend. In fact, we probably won’t have an event there again until next year. Further research has shown that this “slurry” resurfacing product, although fine for landing and parking light planes, actually won’t be ready to withstand the punishment of autocrossing until after a winter of curing.

I have been scrambling to find another venue for the 55 drivers who are paid and ready to race this weekend. So far no other airports appear viable, even on other dates. We have checked Osceola, New Richmond, Lake Elmo, Baldwin, Menomonie, Red Wing, St Paul Downtown, Crystal, and others. I called my people at Afton Alps about doing another hillclimb, but they don't have any free weekends before the snow flies.

I offer my most sincere apologies to everyone who was looking forward to driving, volunteering, and/or spectating at Amery Airport this weekend. This totally sucks.

Yours in Speed,

[austinpike]

probably too late, but...?

http://forum.mnautox.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9878

[tmhazen]

There's a chance I'll have an event at a different airport before the snow flies. Chasing down several promising leads right now. I'll keep y'all posted.