A fire has caused serious damage to the judges' stand and photo finish booth at Hanover Raceway, putting this weekend's card in jeopardy.
At 3:00 p.m. Thursday afternoon, workers installing glass at Carriage Hall noticed smoke coming from the photo finish booth on the roof of Hanover Raceway. GM Gord Dougan and the worker went up with fire extinguishers and noticed flames shooting out from under the photo finish door. Attempts were made to put out the flames but the Hanover Fire department was called in, and put out the fire.
Fire gutted the photo finish booth, and the ceiling above the judges' area, Standardbred Canada Field Rep area and the announcer booth. Fortunately the camera equipment on the roof was spared but there is serious structural damage to the judges' area.
According to Dougan attempts will be made on Friday and Saturday to put together a makeshift judges area, and reconfigure cabling from cameras and the sound system. However, Dougan notes the ORC will have to determine if they are able to judge the races without the use of their booth.
The track GM also notes that "it’s very unlikely we’ll be able to video stream our races to our customers at other tracks or on HPI."
Dougan is hoping he’ll be able to put together a makeshift camera, replay and photo finish booth in the grandstand area, in time for Saturday night's races.
FRIDAY AFTERNOON HANOVER RACEWAY FIRE UPDATE
Officials with Hanover Raceway have provided an update on the fire which caused serious damage to the judges' stand and photo finish booth at Hanover Raceway on Thursday, September 13.
Via release, Hanover Raceway GM Gord Dougan has stated that electrical, on-track TV crews, carpenters, and Wightman fibre and internet officials are now building a temporary judges booth in the grandstand in the hopes that the track can still provide live racing for Heritage Day on Saturday night.
"I'm optimistic that we will have this completed before noon on Saturday, and will await word from the ORC judges and CPMA as to whether or not we can race," Dougan said.
"The ORC and CPMA must have a clear view of racing and communication to determine the finish order of the race, and once they inspect the set up, we will know if we can race."
Dougan added that everything possible is being done to keep the track's heritage plans in place for this weekend, which includes fundraising for a pair of local horsemen.
"We will make a final announcement on live racing no later than 1:00 Saturday afternoon," Dougan said.
(With files from Hanover)