Mother Nature didn't do the Lebanon Valley Speedway any favors Wednesday night.

An estimated 7.8 inches of rain fell in a five-hour span Wednesday, and flooded the facility, which is in New Lebanon N.Y.

"This was a tragedy that we couldn't control and we're doing the best we can right now," said Howard Commander, the speedway's owner, in a phone interview Friday evening. "This has been an unusual weather year, and we got nearly eight inches of rain in five hours. Think about that. That's crazy."

The speedway opened in 1953 and Commander has owned the facility since 1986.

Mother Nature didn't do the Lebanon Valley Speedway any favors Wednesday night.

An estimated 7.8 inches of rain fell in a five-hour span Wednesday, and flooded the facility, which is in New Lebanon N.Y.

"This was a tragedy that we couldn't control and we're doing the best we can right now," said Howard Commander, the speedway's owner, in a phone interview Friday evening. "This has been an unusual weather year, and we got nearly eight inches of rain in five hours. Think about that. That's crazy."

The speedway opened in 1953 and Commander has owned the facility since 1986.

Commander said the water entered the facility from an entrance road that leads to the track's big parking lot/field.

"The water came in through a hole and it washed away about 500 yards of gravel and dirt as went into the track," Commander said.

According to Commander, at the dragstrip, the water was its heaviest at the right side of the shutdown area The water pushed the barricades that were there off their respective foundations. With the barricades on the ground, the water flowed back and forth across the shutdown area.

Commander said the quarter-mile dragstrip avoided any damage.

"The dragstrip is in perfect condition, we had like 30 timers and sensors at the dragstrip and we just had to replace three of those," Commander said. "We stood up the barricades and they're going to be fixed with stone and then we're going to put new pavement on that side of the track to seal things where the barricades came loose."

The Lebanon Valley half-mile, high-banked clay oval stock car track, located next door to the dragstrip, was never under water, but the pit area was.

"The stock car track wasn't damaged at all, but the pits were," Commander said. "There was a substantial amount of water in the pits and we're pumping that water out now and trying to get things cleaned up."

As a result of the flooding, this weekend's races at Lebanon Valley were canceled. Saturday, a Test & Tune session was scheduled at the dragstrip and also Top Dragsters were supposed to be on the track. Sunday, the NHRA championship drag racing event was on tap and was going to run in conjunction with the All Stars High School Series.

"We're about one-third done with our clean-up, and the worst thing about this rain is all the mud that came with it and that needs to be swept away," Commander said. "Once the water receds, we will get out there and start cleaning up our buildings. This act of Mother Nature kept us from running races this weekend, but we will resume racing at the dragstrip on Wednesday (Aug. 5) and stock car racing (Aug. 8). Racing is what we do here."

The plan, according to Commander, is to have some cars come and do some testing at the dragstrip on Sunday to make sure everything is ready to go for this coming Wednesday for the Street Night/Test & Tune Plus and the King of the Track events.
 

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