MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Diane Lund and the family and friends she camps with spent Wednesday morning making snowballs, rubbing them in each other's face and throwing them at people.
Wednesday's snow marked the first time since the blizzard of '93 that measurable snow fell close to the spring races.
Snow fell from March 12-14 during the blizzard.
“I think (the snow) makes (camping) more enjoyable because it adds an element of surprise that we didn’t expect," Lund said. "The group that we camp with, we call ourselves the Martinsville Family. We look out for each other, we do dinners for each other and stuff and I’m sure there’ll be more snowball fights.”
In the eight years that she and her husband have been coming to the speedway, she’s never seen anything like this.
“We’ve experienced all kinds of crazy weather here at Martinsville, but last night, between the rain and the thunder, the lightning, and then the snow, no. Not quite like this at all,” Lund said.
Another member of the group, Cody Pagans, said waking up to snow on the ground Wednesday morning was awkward.
“We’ve never had snow racing before and it’s kind of new to us,” Pagans said.
He likes the snow, just not too much of it.
“I just don’t like too much of it, where people get hurt and you miss too much school,” Pagans said.
What he would like even more than the snow though, is to see his driver end up in victory lane.
Speedway Vice President of Operations Matthew Brannock didn't expect the snow to phase the speedway's efforts to prepare for the weekend's races.
He said preparation for each race begins as soon as the checkered flag waves for the previous race, so by the time the snow fell Wednesday just about everything that needed to be done for the races was already done.
“We touch base, generally, throughout the weekend with everybody to insure that they’re always ready should we have to transition to an event outside of the normal weekend," Brannock said.
"But this team here, and the operations team that comes in from all over the country and kind of fills in around Martinsville and Henry County, this is nothing new to us.”
He was not worried Wednesday that the races would be postponed due to inclement weather.