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| Ernie Ledwidge - Full time job, Part time pay Ernie Ledwidge of Enfield, NS, is the race director at Scotia Speedworld, just three minutes off the Trans Canada, at the Halifax Airport. Ledwidge, and his wife Cathy, can be seen going in different directions on any given race day. Ledwidge was never a racer, just a fan, who attended the races at Atlantic Speedway back in the 60�s and 70�s. When asked how he became a race director, Ledwidge replied, �In the 70�s I went to a race in Oxford, Maine and everything there just went click, click. Here it took four hours to run a race card. I knew there had to be a better way.� Ledwidge continued, �I didn�t start out as a race director, I was a scorer at first, then one thing led to another and I guess by default I got to be the race director.� Ledwidge is also the race director of the long running Carquest Maritime Prostock Tour. In reply to the question - What is contained in the preparation of a race, on a regular race day since it was pouring down rain? Ledwidge replied, �I get here one hour before the pit gates open, make sure everything is in place, so that things will run on time, be sure all staff arrive when their assigned times are so that I know that position is taken care of, assign areas to the rigs according to size, make sure ticket booth is being managed, trucks are fuelled and ready to go, the tire trailer is ready, and be ready for damage control�. What has been your biggest difficulty? Ledwidge replied quickly, �Rain�. Do you think gas prices are going to effect the racing this year? � No, when we got $65. per week and gas went up to .47 a gal. we got used to it, we�re not catching up as fast but we will�Ledwidge said. How is Scotia doing now? Ledwidge said, �We�re struggling on our weekly shows like the other tracks are, but we have enough momentum and if we get the weather we can pull it together as our car count is good. We have three pretty good classes that we are very proud of, our weekly racers are as good as any tracks are, we�d put them up against all takers on equal bases�. Ledwidge has no favorite race or even driver since Davey Allison. �I go for the under dog; new rookie drivers, and in Nextel, its nice to see some of the old guys coming back to the front� Ledwidge replied.. �I don�t get time to watch races when I�m here. I work them so my favorite race would be the one I�m not working . This is a fifty-two week a year job. We take Christmas Day off and have nothing to do with racing. �I�m a �over all big picture race fan� more so than a regular race fan.� Ledwidge concluded. |