| | FORT WORTH, Texas -- With thousands of campers already on
the grounds and preparations under way for two NASCAR races this
weekend, Texas Motor Speedway officials kept a cautious eye on
Tuesday's storm as it approached but missed them.
"If you didn't believe in God, you should have been here
Tuesday. You could see it coming, and it split ... it went north
and south of us," Eddie Gossage, the track's general manager, said
Thursday. "I definitely believe God played a role in that because
there were thousands of people in the campground."
While only a little bit of ran fell at Texas Motor Speedway
during the Tuesday evening storm, a tornado went through downtown
Fort Worth about 15 miles south and did at least $450 million
damage. At least one more tornado went through Arlington and Grand
Prairie, heavily damaging houses and leaving some people homeless.
Four people were killed and a fifth person is presumed dead.
There were no ill-effects at the track, where more than 200,000
people are expected for Sunday's NASCAR Winston Cup race, the
DIRECTV 500. More than half of that total are likely to be at
Saturday's Busch race.
Even though some areas of downtown Fort Worth remained closed to
the public, Gossage said he doesn't believe attendance will be
affected.
"The people that by and large are coming have tickets and are
coming from all over the world," Gossage said.
Gossage didn't know how many people were staying at hotels in
the downtown area, but a couple of hotels were trying to relocate
people if necessary, he said.
Thousands of race fans sleep at the track in mobile homes,
trailers or tents. Many of them were already in place Tuesday and
were warned by track security personnel of the approaching storm.
"I had no idea that it was as bad as it was," Gossage said.
"We gave them all the warning we could, and fortunately for us,
the bad stuff didn't hit us. It could have been really, really
devastating."
The close call also re-emphasized plans should the track ever
face severe weather conditions on a race day.
"We did have a meeting that we have every race where we walked
through the plan if we are hit with inclement weather with all of
the fans here," Gossage said. "It just kind of refreshes your
memory on what you are supposed to do, and that certainly brings it
into focus when something like that happens so close by." | |
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