Richmond, Ky., racetrack pelted by storms
Richmond (Ky.) Raceway owner Bill Lupinos is “in a holding pattern” after overnight storms swept through central Kentucky late Sunday and early Monday. Storms that damaged the Richmond Mall, Lake Reba Park and other local businesses ripped through the speedway severely damaging the backstretch bleachers, bringing down poles and power lines, fences and trees.
“The entire left side, looking at it from the back, of the pit grandstands (pictured) are destroyed (and) into the catchfence, which took down half to that, too,” Lupinos said Monday evening. “The damage up front, a lot of that’s messed up, a lot of wires and poles down. Basically we can’t even mess with that until we know that it’s safe.”
Of the nearly 100,000 power outages reported early Monday morning throughout Kentucky, the Richmond Register newspaper reported that nearly 17,000 households were initially without electricity in Madison County, where Richmond is the county seat. Like many in the area, Lupinos said there’s little he can do but wait.
“The insurance adjuster is supposed to be out in three to five days and tell us what we can do because the buildings and everything are insured,” Lupinos said. “Once they’ve assessed everything and we can start major cleanup we’ll have an idea of which direction we can go. All we did today was put the fence back together up front which is not covered by insurance. That way nobody can just walk in.”
As for Richmond’s upcoming events, including four remaining Ultimate Heart of America Series shows, Lupinos said he’s not sure if he’ll be able to get them in, though he remains hopeful.
“Everything is uncertain,” he said. “If at all humanly possible, we’d like to be able to run July 22 with our Heart of America Series; we don’t think that’s probable. That puts us to Aug. 18-19 for the (36th annual Paul) Butterball (Woodridge Memorial). That is a goal or a little more realistic. We won’t know until we dig into everything and see exactly what we’re up against and we can’t do that until the insurance adjuster comes.”
