MARTINSVILLE DIGGING OUT FOR RACES DOUBLEHEADER NOT IN JEOPARDY

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 17, 1993                   TAG: 9303170035
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
MARTINSVILLE DIGGING OUT FOR RACES DOUBLEHEADER NOT IN JEOPARDY
Engines were rumbling Tuesday at Martinsville Speedway. And there wasn't a race car in sight.
The rumble was coming from the speedway's arsenal of dump trucks and front-end loaders, which were working overtime removing snow and ice in preparation for this weekend's Miller Genuine Draft 500 doubleheader.
"We've got every piece of equipment we've got moving the white stuff," speedway president Clay Campbell said. "This is the first time I can ever recall a snowfall of this magnitude the week before an event. We've had snow fall during an event, but nothing like this."
Access roads leading to the track from Route 220 were cleared Tuesday. Campbell's biggest headache before Sunday's race will be making spectator parking areas accessible. Some of the parking areas, located on sides of hills, undoubtedly will be too soft to handle vehicles.
Campbell said the fact that this event usually draws 15,000 spectators compared with 45,000 for the later Winston Cup dates is a blessing in disguise.
"I would be pushing for a postponement if this had been a Winston Cup weekend," he said. "It would have been real difficult. I would have hated to have gone into a Winston Cup weekend like this.
"The key thing here is we're not dealing with a Winston Cup event. We're not using every square inch we've got. The crowd we anticipate for this one we kind of place where we want to park. We'll start at the top of the field and work in flat areas rather getting on the slope down close to the lake."
Campbell said the track's asphalt and concrete surface was not affected by the heavy snowfall.
The top 20 spots in the 200-lap Late Model Stock Car portion of the doubleheader will be established in time trials Friday at 3 p.m. The remainder of the 30-car LMSC field will be determined in two 50-lap qualifying races on Saturday at 2 p.m.
The 30-car field for Sunday's opener, a 300-lap Busch Grand National race, will be established at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Sunday's doubleheader, which carries a purse of $186,043, takes the green flag at 1 p.m.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB