Cordova International Raceway Hit by Storms - Racing Cancelled
6/25/2015
Cordova, IL
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2015 has been a year full of challenges for the new management team at Cordova International Raceway. Mother Nature has shown her bad side almost every weekend since opening for the season. "We've been rained out more times than I care to count this year," said General Manager, Bobbi Jo Cox, "it's just been one thing after another. We've got this beautiful new track and we just want to race on it! It's been nine weeks since we've started racing in April and we've yet to get a full weekend of racing in."

Mother Nature dealt Cordova another blow between Monday and Tuesday. The storms that crossed the Midwest that day definitely packed a punch with tornadoes, hail, strong winds, torrential rain and lightning. "We were sitting in the office Monday afternoon when lightning struck right outside our window - it scared us so badly! The whole office turned blue," added Office Manager, Brenda Stuart, "we had a feeling we weren't going to be very lucky with that lightning." Among losing some phone lines, electronic equipment, and coolers - the entire racetrack timing system took a direct blow. Lightning struck the ground at CIR, where it continued through the timing system and entered the tower creating havoc and damage on several key components of the whole system.

 

"It was a gut-wrenching discovery," Cox said, "all the time and effort we've put into this facility this year - to have the timing system taken out by lightning was the worst feeling. We consulted with JJ Koehler at FSS Inc, Rod Cady at Cady Electric and Bob Brockmeyer at Compulink to see if there was any way possible to fix the timing before this weekend, but there's not. We finally have a good weekend weather-wise and we won't even be able to race. We're sorry to say that Cordova will not be open for racing on June 26-28. Friday Fun Night, Points Race #4, and the Battle of the High Schools have all been canceled for this weekend."

 

While plans have been underway to install the fiber system in early August 2015,the injured timing system created an opening sooner to replace the current timing system with the new fiber optic system this coming week. IRG staff, along with FSS, Compulink, and Cady Electric will begin the install over this weekend and complete it in time for racing on July 3. "I'm glad for the new fiber system, but just not this way. We want to give our racers a chance to make other plans for the weekend, which is why we've reached out as soon as we found out. We appreciate the racers' and fans' dedication that they've given us this year with the crappy hand we've been dealt. Stick with us - it can only get better!" finished Cox.

For more information on upcoming events, visit www.RaceCIR.com.

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