Mouth of the South

Turn 5
Season 1
Lap 4

Race Fans Wonder How Announcer Keeps Job

by Ed Goodspeed
Salina Evening Post
Thursday, June 29, 2006

SALINA- If you didn't know any better, you would swear somebody highjacked the microphone. The sounds coming from the speakers at Salina Highbanks Speedway have kept fans guessing this season.

"I often wonder what the track owner is paying the guy. Maybe he'd be a better announcer if they gave him more money," Jerry McNally, a nine-year-old racing fan said.

Other racing fans have more aggressive opinions of the nameless track announcer.

"I don't know who he is. He never will say," said racing fan Cletus Joad, of Sallisaw. "If I knew who he was, and if I wasn't so strung out on amphetamines, I'd go whoop him upside the head right now," Joad commented from his seat near the start/finish line.

Still, other fans want to give the new guy the benefit of the doubt.

"It's got to be harder than it looks, otherwise he wouldn't mess up drivers' names so much," race fan Betty Lou Simmons, of Salina, said. "Some of these boys have tough names, like Billy Frohnapfel, Mark Schafitzel, and Jesse Muhlhauser," Simmons said with perfect, non-regional diction.

"Yeah, but this guy screws up names like Mike Collins and Steve Smith, too," argued Simmons' fiancee Ted Deerkiller, of Kenwood.

While the track announcer seems to cause a great deal of confusion and frustration in the stands, Highbanks drivers do not seem bothered.

"We have a track announcer?" asked veteran driver Allen Frailey. "That's really neat. I wouldn't think anyone could hear him because of the noise created by thirty engines running wide open at the same time, but it's a really neat idea."

Highbanks fans can gear up for another earful at Friday night's Summer Sizzler event. Racing begins at 8 p.m.