TALLADEGA — While race fans lounged and drank under sunny Alabama skies Thursday afternoon, a storm rumbled across the central Plains.
That storm is expected to darken the sky above Talladega Superspeedway early this afternoon and threaten races and revelers with strong tornadoes for a second consecutive year.
Planned practice, Nationwide qualifiers and the 3 Amigos 250 will go on as scheduled, but track officials will keep an eye upward, said Grant Lynch, chairman of Talladega Superspeedway.
“We’re going to get up in the morning and start the day like we always do,” Lynch said. “As things unfold you start making adaptations to your plans.”
The National Weather Service will brief officials on the storm’s track at 10 a.m.
As of Thursday evening, the forecast showed the greatest severe weather threat will exist between 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. Severe thunderstorms, large hail, heavy rain and strong tornadoes — above an EF-2 — are possible, said Scott Unger, meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
The system should leave Alabama by midnight.
People camping near the racetrack need to stay alert to any changing weather conditions and stay near a radio, Unger said.
“Even if we had an F-1 go through that area it could potentially be devastating,” Unger said, referring to a tornado of lowest strength. “The biggest thing is just not to take the situation lightly.”
Between 20,000 and 40,000 fans are expected around the track today, estimated Andrew Smith, Superspeedway spokesman.
A few of these fans Thursday acknowledged the threat of severe weather and the danger posed by camping in a large open field with tens of thousands of other people. But most took a fatalistic view of the situation.
“Our forecast for tomorrow is slightly drunk and partly hung-over,” said Bob Butler as he washed the mud off a red Ford F-250 behind a large RV. “Bottom line, you just hope it doesn’t come.”
This spring marks the 20th year he and Doug Gesar made the drive down from Nashville. They were here for last year’s storms, Gesar said over a David Allan Coe song radiating from the truck. You’re in a big field and there’s really nothing you can do but wait it out, which they plan to do, he said.
Eddie Stephens, a 48-year-old shirtless construction worker, echoed their sentiments. Last year it rained so hard he couldn’t see the racetrack and tents were “rolling like tumbleweeds.”
It’s just spring in the South, Stephens said as he tied a tarp up to a fence for shade. The Georgia resident says he’s ready for severe weather.
“I’m a diehard Talladega warrior,” Stephens said. “When it’s your time to go, it’s your time to go.”
Two people died and more than 36 weather-related injuries — none at the track — were reported after a number of tornadoes hit Alabama at the time of last year’s spring race, according to The Star’s archives.
The storm approaching this year has a similar setup in terms of the conduciveness to tornadoes, said Unger.
Outdoor sirens will sound when and if severe weather threatens the area, said Steve Dover, spokesman for the Talladega County EMA. Because the racetrack is private property, any evacuations or further warnings are up to Talladega Superspeedway and NASCAR officials, Dover said.
There were 17 straight hours of tornado warnings at the track in 2010, recalled Lynch. What may have been the closest tornado struck Albertville in Marshall County, about an hour north of Talladega Superspeedway. Not surprisingly, race officials had reason to activate their severe weather plan.
The plan includes alerting fans to threatening severe weather through Jumbotrons, PA announcements, and advising them to take awnings in and take whatever shelter they have available, Lynch said.
“Obviously, we don’t have buildings to send people in,” Lynch said, noting personal safety is up to the individual. “If that means leaving … that’s at their discretion.”
If the thousands of people expected at the track were to leave at once, state troopers and track security would establish traffic patterns, he said.
Today’s schedule has not changed, Lynch said Thursday afternoon. Activities will continue as planned — as weather allows.
