PENSACOLA, FL – Lets be honest. The weather forecast in Pensacola doesn’t look great for the week of the 58th Snowball Derby at Five Flags Speedway. As of Wednesday night, both Thursday and Saturday chances of rain over 90%, while Friday and Sunday seem to have somewhat significant chances of rain as well.
Now, everyone knows that the forecast is ever changing. We could all wake up tomorrow and the chance of rain have been completely wiped away. That just doesn’t seem likely with this one. Officials went ahead and made the move Wednesday morning to move the Modifieds of Mayhem feature scheduled for Friday night to Monday afternoon. Any other changes have not been decided on, but Five Flags Speedway is certainly keeping a close eye on the forecast that lies ahead.
“You know, it’s the elephant in the room,” said Five Flags Speedway Race Directory Nicholas Rogers. “It’s the thing everyone wants to know. If we had all the answers at one time, we’d be millionaires. You have to approach it as you want to get some races in, there’s a lot of teams that spent a lot of money and time to be here, a lot of fans have traveled lots of long distances to be here. So you have to take into account what you can do to at least get the most amount of racing done.
“We have plans for 90 different scenarios that we’ve talked about, have on paper,” Rogers said. “But you’ve got to wait until it happens and then you can change those plans and adjust. They’ve got to have practice time. You want to get qualifying in because if you have full fields, it’s not fair to the teams to do a group qualifying session but we can do that as a last resort, because the main goal is to get the race in. We have to look at it from all standpoints and some things people may not thing about is like moving a race to Monday. Can we get enough staff, officials, get an ambulance. Can we get police officers here. There’s a lot of things on the backside you have to do to change any of this around.
Above all else, the goal is to keep Sunday’s Snowball Derby schedule as close to uniform as possible. Fans ultimately come from far and wide to see the Supers on Sunday. Sure, the entire weekend of racing is great and certainly deserves their flowers, but Sunday is the big show. If the weather looks decent for Sunday afternoon, the priority will be the Derby over all else.
“Sunday is the primary,” Rogers said. “If we get a clear day on Sunday, the goal is to do Sunday and get the Derby done before anything. That’s what most of the fans have come to see, that is the primary being the main show. Everything else while just as important, we turn around and try to fit it in where we can the next clear day.”
This forecast has Roger, Tim Bryant and the rest of the staff at Five Flags in a tough spot, no doubt. It’s hard to imagine a Snowball Derby where teams haven’t gotten practice time, or the lineup is set on practice times rather than a qualifying session. The possibilities are wide open, and none of them are ideal. Many teams have speculated, could they qualify late in to the night?? If there’s rain Saturday, where does the Snowflake move? Bryant and the team at Five Flags will be asked to make decisions on the fly as the forecast continues to evolve.
Down in the pit area, everyone sees the weather on the horizon over the next few days. Some drivers take the approach of constantly monitoring the weather, while others believe it is what it is, and their job is just to go race. Spencer Davis is one of those keeping a close eye on the weather ahead.
“It is what it is but you’ve definitely got to monitor it and keep up with it,” Davis said. “As a driver, you should be well enough to know hey, this is what we’re going to be facing on our important days, lets kind of keep that in mind and talk it over with your crew chief. You’re both staying on the same strategy right, being on the same page is the key to success in racing.”
On the opposite end, Five Flags Blizzard Series champion Cole Butcher won’t concern himself with the weather, knowing he’ll simply be asked to jump in the racecar whenever the time comes. Butcher said his job is to driver the racecar, and that’s all he can do at the end of the day.
“I mean it is what it is,” Butcher said. “I feel like we could qualify right now and we’d be fine. Yeah, I’m not really too worried about it, it would be nice to get a couple laps in but if we have to go right in to qualifying and the race, that’s why we’re the professional Super Late Model racers that we’re supposed to be. I don’t see why we can’t just jump into it but I totally understand that practice would be nice.”
Somewhere in the middle of the two was Bubba Pollard. The Derby is a race that has eluded Pollard for his entire career, so he’s seen it all in Pensacola. Pollard noted the challenges that face Bryant, Rogers and the rest of the Five Flags crew from his families experience with weather challenges at Senoia Raceway in Georgia, the track his family owns and operates.
“It is, it’s tough,” Pollard told Short Track Scene. “Our parents and sister take care of the race track back home and getting put in these situations is tough, because it seems like no one’s going to turn out on the good side whether it’s the promoters, the racers and they just kind of have to suck it up and make it happen. It’s part of it, the weather can change, we’ve just got to be able to adapt, change and make quick decisions. That’s where it goes back to just having good notes, good data throughout the years at this place.”
Another perspective worth noting is that of the race teams. Many members of late model teams are volunteers, or have day jobs that pay their bills come Monday morning. An extra day off work may be costly for the teams, or some of the crew may be forced to head back home should the race be postponed. Mark Rette, co-owner of Rette Jones racing offered his point of view from a team management perspective.
“I’ve got guys down here that might have to get back to work on Monday,” Rette told Short Track Scene. “I’ve got Airbnb’s we’ve got to work about, there’s a lot that goes into that behind the scenes that we’re already working on. So we’ll just see what the weather does in the next day or so and play it from there.”
With weather already arriving at Five Flags Thursday morning, the fun has officially begun. It’s unfortunate to be so focused on weather during the Snowball Derby of all things, but that’s the reality everyone is faced with. The situation will be monitored throughout the week by all parties and updates will come along as we have them.
