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And the beat goes on.......... or flag waving or lack their of.

More fallout from flag incident
Langley loses seven officials after threatening to disqualify a driver for flying the American flag on his infield hauler.

BY MARTY O'BRIEN
247-4963

Published July 3, 2004

HAMPTON -- Seven officials at Langley Speedway resigned on Friday, a day after track officials threatened to disqualify a driver after he refused to take down an American flag he was flying on his hauler.

Bryan Bowyer, the track's chief steward, confirmed that he and six other track officials quit Friday, protesting track owner Dwight Schaubach's policy against flying flags in the infield.

"I told Brink Nelms (Langley's general manager) that I could not agree with a ban on the American flag in the infield," Bowyer said. "That's why I and the others quit. It's a matter of respect for the American flag."

Bowyer said that Nelms asked him Thursday to disqualify DeBolt because he ignored an earlier request to take down a flag flying on his hauler. Bowyer refused and all 15 entrants in the Late Model Sportsman Division 75-lapper threatened to boycott the race if DeBolt was punished.

Langley's management issued a rule June 21 banning all flags, banners and windsocks from being flown in the infield pit area because they block views and are distracting. Haulers are restricted from having anything attached that extends higher than the roofline, with the exception of approved platforms and rails.

Schaubach defended the rule Friday.

"Drivers and teams are allowed to fly flags in (outside) pits and they can display them in the infield if they like," Schaubach said. "They can attach flags to the sides of the trailers, for instance, and I wouldn't have any problem with that."

Nelms, standing in front of an American flag flying at half-staff in honor of late president Ronald Reagan, added, "We're not anti-flag; we have American flags all over the place. But we have a rule about flying flags on the infield, and it's my job to enforce it."

Schaubach denied that the rule was instituted to prohibit the team of Late Model driver Jeff Shifflet from flying Confederate banners in the infield pits. However, Bowyer said a track official told him that Schaubach asked Nelms to issue the rule after seeing several Confederate banners in Shifflet's pit.

DeBolt said he also believed the rule was made to prohibit Confederate flags.

"It's pretty much about that and everybody knows it," he said.

Shifflet had a Confederate flag painted on the roof of his car Thursday night, but didn't fly any flags. DeBolt was the only driver to fly a flag, which was at the back of his hauler, just below the roofline.

DeBolt said he was celebrating the Fourth of July. DeBolt said he considered leaving when Nelms told him that he would be disqualified if he left the flag up. DeBolt took the flag down and taped it to the opening of his hauler, which was within the rules. An hour later, Bud Carteret, who owns DeBolt's car, raised the flag back above roof level in protest. Nelms said that DeBolt will not be reprimanded and that DeBolt has agreed not to fly the flag.

"Being that it was the Fourth of July weekend, track management could've said, 'Look, after this weekend it needs to come down,' and we'd have had no problem," Late Model driver Billy Fisher said. "That ain't how it happened, and we ended up with a big delay. It was the wrong weekend to show authority about that."

Langley officials canceled the Late Model race, but decided to run it 40 minutes later. None of the drivers boycotted after being told DeBolt wasn't going to be punished.

DeBolt said that Nelms apologized to him about the flap and that he will be back racing at Langley next Saturday. Late Model driver Shawn Balluzzo said he expects the other drivers to return also, with no hard feelings.

But it will take some time for Langley to repair the public relations damage. Chuck Hall, owner of radio station WLRT/1490AM, said that 150 people, four times the usual number, called during the first two hours of the Bucky Show on Friday to talk about the controversy.

"Every one of them feels he should be able to fly the American flag," said Hall, a former promoter at Langley. "They can't understand why he can't fly it, particularly with the situation around the world and the fact that the racetrack is across the street from Langley Air Force Base. A lot of the callers are military and they are angry."

Late Model car owner Rick Hester added, "That was the worst decision I've seen in 21 years at the track. Personally, I think Brink Nelms has brought a lot to the table. He's cleaned up the track a lot and made a lot of good decisions. I think, occasionally, when you make a lot of decisions, you're entitled to a bad one every now and then.

"This was a bad one."