Around 150 racers entered five classes during the weekend.
War in the Woods weekend saw around 9,500 spectators at the Brown County Dragway between Sept. 13 and 14. Event Organizer and Track Owner Jeff Thomas estimates around 3,500 people in attendance on Sept. 13 and 6,000 at the track on Sept. 14.
“The race was awesome, especially with the forecast,” said Thomas. “It was looking really bad for the weather, we were concerned we would have to cancel the race or that the weather would hurt the turnout, but we had one of the biggest races we’ve ever had.”
Around 150 people competed in five classes, small tire, big tire, gangster 26, hard tire and true street between the two days.
In a previous interview Thomas told the Democrat that each class has a 100 percent pay back, in which the entry fee is totaled up as well as extra money from sponsorships for the overall prize money.
Prizes included approximately $3,500 for big tire, $4,000 for gangster 26, $4,000 for hard tire, $8,000 for true street and $21,000 for the premier small tire class.
Spectators traveled from around the world to see the War in the Woods no prep race, Thomas noted people from Germany, Australia, Sweden, Spain, New Zealand, Canada and nearly every state that came to Brown County for the event.
Thomas wanted to address the rumors that were spiraling on social media about an incident at the track involving spectators being sent to the hospital.
“There was a small incident, three people were involved in it,” said Thomas. “No one was hurt, there were no severe injuries. Some people were in a place they weren’t supposed to be after they were told multiple times. It’s one of those things that can happen when you aren’t paying attention. Thank God everyone is fine and we are going to move on and do some things to make sure something like that doesn’t happen again. It’s so crowded there, it’s just insane. A guy was doing his burnout and kind of lost control and went to the guard rail, some people were over there. He wasn’t even going 10 miles per hour, it wasn’t a car going physically down the track.”
One spectator was airlifted to the hospital by a helicopter, but was checked out and allegedly released without injuries. The worst injury was a spectator who was transported to the hospital for a cut on his head that required two stitches, said Thomas.
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a good thing obviously,” said Thomas. “It’s not something as a promoter or track owner that I ever want to happen, but thank God no one had any serious injuries.”
Brown County Dragway recently installed permanent lighting, which is the first time it has had permanent light fixtures. They are going to continue improving the raceway with things like making guardrails taller, improving spectator areas and more, according to Thomas.
“It was another phenomenal turnout especially for the weather, the race just continues to grow and we appreciate all the support,” said Thomas. “We are going to keep making the track a better place, as the race continues to grow I keep having to create more space for spectators so they can actually see the racing.”
