PAINESVILLE, Ohio -- Response to inaccurate facts in an article dated Friday May 11, 2007.

This article inaccurately details the end of the sportsman division as being due to “professional rule changes” that caused the drivers not to be able to compete. This assertion is absolutely false. Before we go into the reality of today’s circumstances lets take a step back in time to 1999. The Sportsman division at this time was a very strong and viable division.

However, the beginning of the end started to show signs back then in a handful of cars being loaded with super expensive components which led to the average guy having feelings of “how am I supposed to compete with that kind of money”. It was the beginning of it being more about the deep pockets and not about the drivers’ ability. This in and of it self was not enough to tip the scales, because the economy was decent then. It took an incident where a championship race took place where one of these high end cars ran well but late in the race had a mechanical malfunction that affected his frame height, but this driver still won, followed up by several strong competitors in a hard fought race. The driver that won was sponsored by a high profile local sponsor. The perception at the time and today is that this sponsor’s influence caused the track not to do a post race inspection, which if done would have disqualified the winner giving the win to the second place driver. This is the kind of thing that can take the enthusiasm away from any driver. Let us now track forward a few years and review the deeper pockets deal, this never slowed down and the once strong division began to dwindle. Moving forward to 2005, when the current ownership came into the picture. We did not have any “professional rule changes” the first year. In 2006 several construction rules were introduced which reduced costs for participants not raised them. 2007 comes along and the economics of running overbuilt cars showed its end result, four cars for an opening night. The economics of out of control construction rules killed the sportsman division at the Painesville Speedway not “professional rule changes”

Moving forward again in 2008 the speedway is pursuing the concept of an economical class that anyone can participate in. Deep pockets are not a factor in this concept due to the strong national sanctioning body and its absolute mandate for economical racing. This concept could allow drivers from the now idle sportsman division to re-use there chassis and many of there parts for a savings of between $15,000.00 and $35,000.00. The cost of a new car totally laid out is only $7200.00 complete turnkey. The power of this affordability makes a division like this worth getting excited about because it’s about the driver’s ability and not about a cry baby talking about fantasy “professional rule changes”. Painesville Speedway is committed to providing affordable racing that is equitable to all who participate.