May 31, 2008 04:30 AM
Re:Guns aren’t welcome in Toronto
Letter, May 30
Gun owners are by far the safest and most law-abiding segment of the population, yet Adam Vaughan would bar us from entering the city because of his misguided belief that this will make Toronto safer.
If gun owners are not wanted in Toronto, I’m sure we can find other places to spend our money.
The number of empty seats is insane...looks like Southern California fans are extremely fickle...if this was at most other tracks, everyone would have taken today off to go to the race. I guess the Hollyweird crowd is not reliable; maybe it is time to move one of Fontana’s race dates?
I agree, the fans also had to be accounted for - it can take 2-3 hours to clear the grandstands and parking lots, and it becomes a safety issue with exhaustion both on and off the track.
The latest I can remember is the 1997 Coca-Cola 600, which ended around 1:15 am local time (and shortened to 333 laps from 400 due to time issues - otherwise it could have been after 2:00 am if there were a lot of cautions in those final 67 laps - and who knows with exhausted drivers).
They should, and treat this as a practice session. Start from the beginning tomorrow, and allow Hamlin, Mears, Hornish, Earnhardt and Sorensen in their backup cars - since what happened was beyond the control of the drivers, teams or NASCAR.
If they did that, everything that happened today would essentially have never happened. The only penalty would be that they would start at the back of the field.