Hickory Speedway's Piercy keeps one eye on the sky

No weather worries as full slate of racing on tap this weekend

Credit: ROBERT C. REED/RECORD

Josh Wright won the Bojangles Late Model race in the season opener at Hickory Motor Speedway.

By: Tom Gillispie | Hickory Daily Record
Published: July 16, 2011

Weather is always on the radar for Kevin Piercy.

Piercy, the promoter at Hickory Motor Speedway, says he’s already had three rainouts this year.

“An outdoor entertainment venue lives and dies with weather, and it’s not necessarily rain,” said Piercy, who is in his third year replacing Sherry Clifton as the promoter at HMS and in his 11^th year as the Goodyear tire representative there.

“Hot and humid weather affects the crowd,” he added. “If it’s cloudy or windy, the crowd could change. People don’t want to sit and get blown around. It’s a weather-oriented business. If it looks like rain, it’ll hurt you a bit. People don’t want to buy tickets with bad weather.”

His biggest problem in calling a race is the full-day schedule. They don’t run until the evening, but the day starts with the gates opening at noon, and the drivers practicing and qualifying before racing. If a thunderstorm comes through in the afternoon, there may be no practice before qualifying.

So do they still race or not? Will the bad weather come back?

He says he’s made good choices most of the time in three years as promoter, but adds that once or twice he has pulled the plug a little early on a race program. He made a decision early in the day because of the forecast, then watched the sun shine after the rainout.

“We’re very stuck on trying to not call races,” Piercy said. “We do everything we can to get racing in. If we call a race, there has to be an overwhelming chance of bad weather.”

LAST WEEKEND: The HMS winners last Saturday were Dexter Canipe Jr., with his third win of the year in the Bojangles Late Model division; Waylon Flynn in Limited Late Model; Brandon Setzer in Super Trucks, and Dillon Crouch in Red Baron Renegades.
THIS WEEKEND: On Saturday, the track will feature Catawba Science Center presents Honda Cars of Hickory Night at the Races. The program will feature the Bojangles Late Models, Limited Late Models, Street Stocks, WrenchRag 4-Cylinders and Red Baron Renegades.
POINTS: Jesse LeFevers (43) has taken the points lead in the Late Model division, 10 points ahead of Kyle Moon (19). In the Limited Late Model division, Annabeth Barnes (12) and Tyler Church (07) share the lead with 444 points.
HUFFMAN MEMORIAL RACE: The track has rescheduled the 4th Annual Dwight Huffman Memorial Race for Charity presented by Arby's & Pepsi MAX from July 8-9 to Oct. 15-16. The Dwight Huffman Memorial will run in conjunction with the Inaugural Frye Regional Medical Center Breast Cancer Awareness Limited Late Model 150, originally scheduled for Oct. 22. Piercy says the Huffman race was moved out of logistics. One thing, event promoter Doug Houser has been having health issues. Two, HMS should have more cars in October. “In July, tracks are running for NASCAR points, and a lot of drivers won't leave their own tracks,” Piercy said. “This will be a non-points race, and I think that opens the door for the race to be more successful.”

CAR COUNTS: Piercy says the track’s car counts have been good this year. "We’ve had as many as 23 cars in the Limited (Late Model) division, with an average of 16 or 17,” he said. “In Late Models, we’ve had 18 to 20 cars. I’d compare our car counts with everybody in the area.”