Bring back Old Dominion! I have recently attended a couple of the Saturday night races at Dominion Raceway. I have to say that I am disappointed on a number of different levels. This place is not suited for the true racing fans out there. For starters, the race track was built wrong. The grand stands sit too low and don't offer a good view of the racetrack. If you sit in the front of the stands, like in the first five or six rows, you can't see the cars over the fence on the front stretch and basically obstructs your view of the racetrack. So, the only way to get a decent view of the track is to sit all the way at the top of the stands.
The problem with sitting at the top of the stands is there an area where people can stand, directly behind you. This seems to be a gathering area for all the drunks, so you have to endure the loud obnoxious drunks standing while trying to watch the race. Now if you go to the racetrack to get drunk, then this place is for you because it has indoor bar behind the stands. Also, I think the stands were built on the wrong side of the track because the sun is in your face. The green flag drops at 7, so the sun is in your face for about an hour or so until it goes down. Which also effects your view because obviously the sun is in your eyes, even with sunglasses and a hat it's tough to see the cars when they are on the backstretch.
Another problem is the constant loud music being played throughout the entire event. I don't need to hear AC/DC during the pace laps before the late models go green. I come to a racetrack to hear race cars not loud music, especially if the music is so loud I can't hear the cars. The race cars make their own music, and that's music to my ears and to any true racing fan.
It seems that the actual racing is secondary to the track management here and it doesn't appear to be their primary concern or focus. I say that because there is too many distractions and other things going on that detract from the race itself. Such as, there is jumbo screen in the middle of the pit area. It is full of advertisements for concerts, a goat, people's twitter feeds, Instagram, oh and did I mention the loud music. Yes I said goat, for some reason they play a goat making an obnoxious sound that only goats make, and I have no idea why anyone would find that amusing let alone tolerable.
You can't hear the track announcer in most cases, because he is usually trying to compete with the loud music being played and you can't hear a word he is saying. When you do hear him, he is usually rambling on about raffle tickets or something that has absolutely nothing to do with the race. They don't talk about the drivers, to let you know anything about them because they would rather play AC/DC and rap music or goat sounds.
The facility doesn't promote a racing atmosphere like I have experienced at other racetracks. I noticed that most, not all, of the people in the stands could care less about the race and are totally oblivious to what is happening on the racetrack. This is because they are too busy tweeting, socializing, drinking, talking on the cell phone, dancing, etc. Now what I just mentioned doesn't necessarily bother me, but it speaks to the atmosphere that the facility promotes. Which is not racing! It is more of a neighborhood bar than it is a racetrack. You are supposed to go to a racetrack to watch a race and the focus should be on the racing, the race cars, the drivers, the track and everything else that goes with being at the racetrack. Now that doesn't mean that you can't have other things going on separate from the race, but those other things should be the secondary focus and not the main attraction. read more