Who's in charge at the races?

Not many weeks go by that someone doesn't ask me who's in charge or who made this or that decision. Well at the West Plains Motor Speedway the buck stops with Dennis Burton. Dennis lives in Sharp County, Arkansas and works for the Arkansas Department of Community Corrections as a Probation and Parole Officer for the past 17 years. Dennis is a husband, father, and grandpa and like me, loves that grandpa stuff.

Burton started working at the track in 1992 as security, later Tech Director, then became the Director of Competition in 2002. On any race night a staff of 8 do the job of making the show go. Dennis says that delegating is the Key to making it work, and he feels that the current programs go well because of teamwork. As the Announcer I've seen it work week after week, and they all will admit that no one is perfect, but the total effect is great and exciting entertainment week after week.

To me there are obvious questions and the first was the decision making process. As I have observed on the On Track Communication System, the decisions usually go to the official nearest to the situation, but the nobody saw what happened decisions go to Dennis. Then I asked him what three events stand out the most in his memory bank. One was when his brother, Kevin hit the wall in turn three back in 2003. Kevin sustained serious injuries, but recovered to race again. Number two was the modified race in 1999 that ended with serious burns for an Arkansas Driver. The most recent outstanding race was this years Show-Me 100 when Brian Birkhoffer of Muscatine, Iowa totally dominated a field that included several past champions. One of his favorite stories seemed to be when Mike Mayfield was racing a truck and was getting some help from Wayne Brawly. As usual the racers were accusing each other of cheating and Mike and Wayne decided to give everyone something to think about. In the bed of the Racing Pickup they created a fake opening and welded a socket on the end of a tool and just before each feature for a while Wayne would go over and pretend to adjust an imaginary illegal weight jack. It made everyone crazy and the complaints rolled in. This is just some of the many stories you can dig out of Dennis Burton the Director of Competition at the West Plains Motor Speedway. Oh yah. His favorite driver? Freddy Smith 00 and his favorite event, the staff singing and potluck after the Show Me Modified Special.

I hope to see everyone at the track this weekend and remember #13 Larry Piper, my half brother, that we lost the Monday before Memorial Day, and thanks to the Gibsons for the privilege.