CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — People packed into Clarksville Speedway Saturday evening to watch the racetrack's last race of the season, one week after strong storms caused extensive damage to the venue.
"It's been a pretty rough week," Speedway owner William Scogins said. The last seven days have been filled with hours-long workdays as he and dozens of volunteers tried to repair the upended bleachers, knocked-down fencing and broken wiring.
"It's been 18-, 20-hour days, every day, even through the rain," Scogin said. "I left that one light pole crooked so I would remember what we'd done, and I set that in the rain."
"We had a lot of good help. A lot of good people," Scogin continued.
You could still see some of the damage on Saturday. Jaime Purcell's usual bleachers spot was no longer there, and she was sitting in lawn chairs instead.
"This is our normal spot where we sit," she said with a laugh. "Usually we have bleachers and usually we have stadium seats too, but we just bought our lawn chair so we can sit here."
But Purcell and other fans said they're just excited the Speedway was able to get back on track so quickly.
"I'm very excited," Purcell said. "We're glad we got this opened up for this last race!"
