We are quickly coming up to the opening weekends for the 2021 season and there are many excellent and sharp looking cars being put together. The drivers and pit crews have been burning the midnight oil to be ready for their respective track openers. The fans have been looking up their local track schedules and may even be planning that special race trip for later in the summer. To say the racing world is ready for the green flag to be dropped is an understatement but there is one part of the racing world still hustling to get the final pieces in place before the green flag drops. So what is the one part of the racing world that is in such a bind? Sadly, it's the race tracks.
Many fans and drivers probably haven't noticed this issue before but there is a severe crisis that is approaching a lot of tracks across the Midwest. What's the crisis? Well, it's simple, there's a lack of volunteers, workers, and overall help to keep the tracks going. Most would think this is absolutely insane but it's true. The current number of volunteers and workers continues to dwindle and the number of new faces willing to step up and help continues to shrink. Think this isn't true? Take a look at a lot of the track facebook pages. You will notice that within the past month or month and a half you will see a post asking for people to come volunteer or specific positions being advertised to be filled. The sad part about it is that it is becoming more and more common and a greater number of positions are being needed to be filled. Yes, it's common for tracks to fill multiple positions but it used to be only like one or two positions. This used to be an easy feat for tracks to accomplish but now tracks are trying to replace upwards to ten positions which is absolutely crazy. So what's causing the shortage of help?
Well, the shortage of volunteers is a multi-pronged problem. First, many people just don't have the time to volunteer every Friday, Saturday, or Sunday night all summer long. It truly is a summer long commitment that keeps you based to only one place just about each and every weekend until the fall comes. Second, is that it appears to be extremely difficult to get the youth into racing and committing to a summer job that takes place on a weekend night. This isn't strictly a youth problem either as adults seem to struggle with the same commitment as well. Finally, the last prong is a tougher one to accept by many. Simply put, time holds no punches and like many generations before the core of the volunteers are getting older.
Whether we want to admit or not our older volunteers are leaving the track for various reasons. Not all are leaving at once but the departure of the veteran volunteers is starting to become noticeable. This changing of the guard is just a process that every track faces but lately it seems like their positions are becoming harder and harder to fill. You will see volunteers slowly start taking over multiple positions to fill the gaps and it's great we have individuals willing to do that. However, the increase of duties starts to put a strain on the volunteers and what may have been a passion slowly becomes a job. With this transition of passion to duty comes the burn out phase where the volunteer no longer wants to come to the track anymore.
So what can fans, drivers, crew members, and tracks do to combat this problem? Well, the tracks are combatting back and they've came out swinging as they are using the technology given to them to find help. We are seeing tracks put out help ads and using social media to search for new volunteers. It may not seem like much but it's the groundwork that needs to be laid for the tracks to get the doors open. How about the fans, families, drivers, and crew members? Well, it's simple offer the help that you can, when you can. It doesn't have to be a full night or a full season position but there are plenty of roles that need to be filled or at least assisted with. I've seen family members sell 50/50 tickets, help with the pit shack prior to the race, help with corner duties, and many other roles. Heck, even helping with the track clean up days is a major boost to the tracks. It doesn't have to be something super important or takes up a lot of time, it's the general fact that you're willing to assist your track that matters.
I'm not stating that tracks are going to close anytime soon but this situation is putting a silent strain on many race/fair boards across the track. So it's up to us the race community to try help fill the roles and to help find individuals who are willing to work. Remember without the volunteers, the tracks won't be able to host a season of racing. We are all in this together, so thank a volunteer.
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