NRP Storm Damage Report

See photos of the damage here

From Tom Gutowski, NRP Gen. Manager

I want to start off by thanking everyone who has stopped by or called and offered their help and support. I’m going to describe what I saw, pretty much as I saw it when I arrived at the track at 8:15am....about 45 minutes after I got the call that the Greenwood Fire Dept. had been dispatched to the track.

First and foremost, we’re so very lucky that nobody was hurt or injured as a result of the microburst (http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/whys/ubrst.htm ) that the weather service said hit our facility. Copart’s security cameras recorded a large flash at approx. 3:15am, the time we figure that all of this happened.

Thankfully Doug was attending the races in Knoxville but he had headed for his usual overnight stop in Winterset, IA before heading home in the morning. If they were full he said he would have driven straight back and probably would have been in his bed when the storm hit. Thankfully, they had a room and he wasn’t inside the mobile home when it was destroyed. I had dinner with Doug tonight and he is doing well but shaken by what might have been.

Corey, who takes care of our MX facility for practices and watches over it during the week, wasn’t so lucky. He was in his trailer when the storm hit and it moved a couple of feet in two different directions but he is fine and his camper was not damaged.

Jon Schwartz’s motor home was on its side and was missing a number of front end trim and bumper cover pieces. The insides were a mess.

Steve Kosiski's camper trailer suffered much the same fate. His slick golf cart now has Doug’s trailer sitting on top of it.

The I-80 pit shack was not so lucky but it’s salvageable. It ended up in the ditch with JR’s end of the building (the pass window) half gone and Don’s end of the building (driver check-in) having all of the windows blown out. The roof shingles are a mess but the roof looks solid.

Our grandstand ticket building is destroyed as well as the building that served as Little Sunset’s pit shack. They were moved a number of feet and flattened. They are junk. (3 of the 4,000 lb concrete barriers at LSS that had a small, 4 x 8 billboard on them were flipped over and into the drainage ditch! The big steel storage container that we all thought was OK was actually laying on it’s roof! There were at least 6 cage karts and most of LSS's track equipment inside.)

The bleachers on top of the CFB&G would have ended up in turn 1 & 2 but the railing on the back side stopped it from going any further. They’re pretty bent up and basically scrap iron now.

The 5 year old plastic fence (that obviously was having problems of it’s own without this) is gone and scattered everywhere.

Other damage included many billboards, large and small, both scoreboards, the Cookies Pavilion roof and many of the picnic tables, all over the grounds.

The turn 3 wheel fence, with the big fabric billboards on them, was laid over, pulling the concrete anchors out of the ground or shattering the concrete. At least 2 of the 5/8” cables were broken!

Two of the traffic lights (turn 3 and 4), including one set of the Whelan strobe lights (turn 3), were pretty torn up. Others were turned in their mounts but not damaged (we think).

The infield concession trailer is toast and everything inside of it too. It’s about 100’ from where it should be and rolled at least 5 or 6 times during its journey. Total Performance Parts’ storage container was moved but stayed upright.

It’s amazing that the grandstands, scoring tower, VIP booth and the decks were not damaged at all! Damage on all 4 sides and nothing that we can see is really damaged that badly. Go figure.

The entire facility is without power but we hope to bring it online tomorrow once we get everything shut off so we can bring it back online one circuit breaker at a time. We’ll need to check everything to be sure it works properly.

None of the light poles show any damage but “shaken” lamps have a way of not working.

Also, when the buildings were lifted up, moved and/or destroyed, they pulled the underground electrical wiring until it snapped. Hopefully we’re not going to have a big problem there.

Enough about that – it’s time to move forward and go racing!

A big thank you to Dave Doll and Double D Excavating for bringing two portable offices and a 36’ trash container, which will go a long way in helping us get back up and running.

A big thank you also goes to Nubbin’ for his generosity with window A/C units and everyone else who gave us tips on where we might locate things or have volunteered to help with the cleanup.

Another big thank you to Steve McKee and Scott Saltzman for pitching in and getting the pit shack ½ way together. You guys are always among the first to pitch in.

I will try to call all of you tomorrow that have posted, but if you don’t hear from me by noon, please call my cell 402-350-6120. I must’ve had over 100 calls today, especially counting the insurance stuff, so it’s easy for an old guy to get lost in all of that.

Our plan is to spend Friday and Saturday cleaning up, powering up the facility and getting the necessary buildings, equipment and safety items in 100% working order and to race Sunday.

I’m sending over 70 photos to our web site guy and hope he can get them up on the web site ASAP. He is on a family emergency trip to WV so be patient.

If you have any questions, please email me at tgutowski@aol.com.

Finally, to close this long post, I want to thank each and every one of YOU, our racers and fans, AND the owners (and their families) for not giving up, for going forward, for rebuilding this facility, not only after the storm, but the efforts before the storm too.

Thank you everyone!!!

Tom G