D. I. COLUMNIST The Real Deal with Tommy D ' Aprile
Many of you know how nice the weather can be in Florida during the winter. Cool air – but not too cold – and just beautiful days. The Winter Series races at Bradenton Motorsports Park are packed during this time of year. People and race cars love this weather.
It was during one of the Winter Series races that Scott Palmer had a horrifying crash at the end of the racetrack. I’ m happy to say Scott was not hurt, but the car was a mess. None of us racers like to see this happen because it becomes a reality that this can occur to any of us. Pro Modified cars are fast and are sometimes very unpredictable. Scott’ s crash was a testament to keeping drivers safe in such crashes.
The day after the crash, my wife and I were walking about the pits and came to Scott Palmers pit area. Unlike what you would normally see or should I say not see was his wrecked car with all of the parts and pieces piled up for fans to see. In all my years of racing this was the first time I’ ve seen this. Not only was the car out in the open for all to see, so was Scott! He talked with people, and in true Palmer fashion was just wonderful with the fans that came by. This type of open approach to allow fans to see what had happened to the race car following the crash was just truly amazing and I commend Scott Palmer and his team for allowing people to feel the experience. I’ ve talked about this before and I will again. The show we put on will keep the fans coming back. They won’ t remember who won or who set the record but they will remember experiences that involve them. How you treat them and how you make fans feel about being there is what’ s important. Scott Palmer has always put the fans first and once again, even in a not so good situation and crash, he has done that again. We are lucky to have Scott and his team in our sport, because people are always going to remember what he did and continues to do for the fans. A people’ s champion forever. We can all do our part at the races to make a fans day a little better and more fun. Let’ s take the example set by Scott Palmer and all do our part to make a fans race day experience one they will always remember. As always the choice is yours to make! DI
Email Tommy at tommyd @ dragillustrated. com
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