News
08-29-2008, 05:15 PM
(8-29-2008) BATON ROUGE, LA - At 10:40am today (Friday) State Capitol Raceway officials were informed by the Governor of Louisiana's office that the Sportsman Nationals event would have to be postponed due to an impending State of Emergency in preparation for hurricane Gustov.
The Governor informed race officials that the highways around the city would be used to evacuate and that the concern was for competitors not being able to return home.
While the weather looks to be perfect throughout the weekend, the State of Lousiana is preparing earlier for this storm than ever before.
"We wanted to do everything possible to get this race in for the IHRA competitors" said State Capitol's Gary Carter. "This is the final points claim for a lot of racers and being at the end of the season doesn't give us many options to reschedule. With a great forecast, we felt like we could do this and still have racers back home before any weather issues. We did not foresee the Governor declaring a State of Emergency this early and neither did LSU officials just down the road from us. LSU is home this weekend so right now the state is meeting with them on how to handle this situation as they obviously have a lot more people to deal with."
IHRA and State Capitol officials will meet next week to determine a suitable rescheduled date for this event. Updates will be posted on ihra.com as soon as they become available.
The Governor informed race officials that the highways around the city would be used to evacuate and that the concern was for competitors not being able to return home.
While the weather looks to be perfect throughout the weekend, the State of Lousiana is preparing earlier for this storm than ever before.
"We wanted to do everything possible to get this race in for the IHRA competitors" said State Capitol's Gary Carter. "This is the final points claim for a lot of racers and being at the end of the season doesn't give us many options to reschedule. With a great forecast, we felt like we could do this and still have racers back home before any weather issues. We did not foresee the Governor declaring a State of Emergency this early and neither did LSU officials just down the road from us. LSU is home this weekend so right now the state is meeting with them on how to handle this situation as they obviously have a lot more people to deal with."
IHRA and State Capitol officials will meet next week to determine a suitable rescheduled date for this event. Updates will be posted on ihra.com as soon as they become available.