Update: Accuweather is predicting rain all afternoon Friday, starting at 4 p.m. It is not, however, predicting any rain Saturday after 7 a.m. thunderstorms.
Weather.com is not exactly being friendly to Little 500 weekend. With 40 percent chance of thundershowers on Friday (women's race) and a 70 percent chance of thunderstorms Saturday (men's race) and Sunday, weather could be THE big story this weekend.
Chief race steward Mike Howard explained the various weather scenarios to riders this evening at the riders' final race briefing. Here's a quick rundown:
- Unless there is pouring rain or lightning, riders are expected to be prepared to race at the normal time.
- However, if rain/lightning prohibits the race to start (or the race is stopped prior to the halfway point of the race), all attempts will be made to finish the race on the same day (Friday for women, Saturday for men). That means even racing under the lights in the evening.
- If the race has not reached above the halfway point (51 completed laps for women, 101 completed laps for men) and the rest of the day is washed out, the races will continue on the following day. For the women, they would race at 10 a.m. Saturday prior to the men's race and the men's race could proceed on schedule. For the men, the race would continue at 2 p.m. on Sunday. The lap of the race and race positions would be maintained for the restart.
- If the race has reached a halfway point (at least for the men) when weather sets in, the race will not be restarted on Sunday. The winner will be whoever is leading the lap when the race is halted. Howard said it could create a Miss 'N Out-like scenario as teams scramble if rain starts setting in.
- The worst-case scenario would be an entire weekend washout. Howard insisted that race officials will find two hours to complete the race at some point in the weekend. However, there would be attempts to finish the race at a later date.
If weather is a factor, it could impact the types of teams that stay in contention to win. For teams that rely on a sprinter to finish strong, he might never have that opportunity. Instead, bad weather could favor deeper teams that lacked that key sprinter since it wouldn't be a factor. If those teams are in the front when weather hits, they'll just get very lucky.
Of course, can anyone really benefit from bad weather?
