Nashville Fair Board to enact fines for Fairgrounds noise violations

A provision has been added to the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway lease with Track Enterprises that will issue a monetary fine to promoter Bob Sargent for any instance in which a division runs without the proper noise suppression mufflers.

This stems from an event on July 29 in which the 500 (Sprint Car) Tour contested a race that produced decibel levels in excess of the maximum noise allowed by the city owned property. Track Enterprises paid a sanctioning fee for the series to compete at the Fairgrounds and Sargent says a handful of competitors did not unload with the proper noise muffling equipment.

The multi-time national promoter of the year says the series was notified in advance of the special provisions required to race in Downtown Nashville but not every team was in accordance with those rules.

“They were well notified about our muffler rule and they showed up and some of their participants did not have mufflers,” Sargent said. “That was unbeknownst to us … There were some race cars that raced without mufflers. So we take full responsibility for that.”

Sargent pointed out, accurately, that the Fairgrounds has hosted numerous national and regional series like SRX, ARCA and NASCAR East without any issue of teams racing in accordance with the muffler rules. His argument was effectively this being a first strike against the promotional group.

“We forced them to have mufflers,” Sargent said. “Again, this was a group that we pre-warned and told and then they didn’t oblige by it.

“So maybe we’ve learned a lesson too on how to control that better and not let that happen again. We’ve notified this group (that) they cannot come back so hopefully we’ve rectified this situation.”

He points out that local racers all have had the proper mufflers since his group took over and he’s worked personally with fair board commissioner Sheri Wiener, who works professionally as a licensed audiologist.

She’s a hearing doctor.

The following penalties and fines have been added to the current agreement that runs through the end of the year.

The first fine is $1000, the second fine will be $2500 and each instance will result in that escalator. In other words, two cars in one race would be the first and second fine, not one day with multiple cars amounting to just a $1000 fine.

Jasper Hendricks, interim Fair Board chairman, says these are more ‘damages’ than a penalty.

“It is a damages because when things like this, and it’s important for us to realize that these are damages, because it took a lot of staff time and meetings and we pay our staff and we’re diverting their attention from other things.

“This is a structure that said that these are our liquidated damages, how much it costs us to settle a complaint of this magnitude.

Sargent said future contracts will be written in that the touring series will be held liable for paying those damages, the fines, should that division not be in compliance with the rules.

Sargent says he didn’t cancel the race when he suspected the tour might not have been in compliance with the rules because it could have resulted in a lawsuit or PR nightmare … but one he will have a provision built into future agreements.

“They could have sued all of us for their travel,” Sargent said. “We could have sued them because we warned them. It would’ve been a court thing, I’m assuming, I don’t know the outcome. It could have been a PR nightmare also.

“They all have fans and people come here and pay to get in. So that’s one reason it was new to me to have that. I’m not sure what would have happened if we canceled that race.”

The motion for the escalating fines passed unanimously without protest from Sargent.

The fair board also very briefly discussed plans for 2024 for Track Enterprises and how it could fit with any future agreement with Speedway Motorsports and its NASCAR plans. Those details will be further discussed in the next meeting next month.

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