For one weekend a year each and every June in the small Oklahoma town of El Reno — population 16,729 — cars of all walks take center stage. A Small Town Weekend, as it’s known, is a charitable event put on by the El Reno Cruisers, featuring car shows, drag races, children events, live music, and a cruise on Highway 66 through town. It’s an event that’s been held in El Reno for the last 17 years, and drag racing — held on a closed section of 66 — has been a highlight of the event for the last five years. But this year, the event that’s been relatively foreign to anyone outside of the Oklahoma area gained national attention when the first major incident in its five-year history put it under the microscope and its future in serious jeopardy.

Jeremy Robertson, an El Reno resident who, along with a handful of other volunteers, helps put on the drag racing portion of the Small Town Weekend, reached out to Dragzine to tell his side of the story and set the record straight after a firestorm of criticism came down on he and his fellow officials in the wake of the accident last week when video and photos of the crash made their way onto the internet.

Robertson took the lead in launching the drag races at El Reno five years ago, borrowing the concept from another city that held a similar event in years past. In a direct marriage with the Fraternal Order of Police, the El Reno Police Department, and the city, Robertson and his team have hosted the amateur drag races right on Highway 66. The event is planned and carried out under careful police supervision, with roads blocked off and monitored at both ends, crowds kept in safe locations and in safe viewing distance, and with barriers laid down to protect the throngs of spectators that turn out each and every year.

“I started the event five years ago, but this has just killed it for me. I don’t know that anyone else is going to try taking it over, but I don’t think at this point that I’ll be a part of it. I’ve been absolutely crucified over this deal in my hometown, in the local newspaper and everywhere on this race — how that one crash overshadows the whole weekend and ruined it for everybody.”

Robertson has read and heard the commentary from individuals both local and national, and says the opinions are split — just as many are supporting the efforts he’s made as “are throwing me under the bus,” he tells us.

“In the past five years we’ve had zero incidents. And there’s a lot of misinformation out there that’s really painted this whole situation in a really bad light.”

According to Robertson, the Corvette that crashed wasn’t the quickest car on the property — he contends at least one other car made a quicker lap, going straight down the same lane that the accident occurred in without any trouble. As he goes on to share: “we’ve had over 1,000 races made down that road in the last five years, and everyone is blaming the road now. It wasn’t the road that caused that.”

He says the city Police agreed to the barricades that were set up. The Police handle crowd control 100-percent, and fans were kept behind the concrete blocks, a full median and double-lane width from the race course. “I’ve seen several people on the internet saying the safety of our spectators wasn’t thought of. But we had ample safety personnel, crowd control, the barricades, fire, Hazmat. We cleaned up after that crash in less than 30 minutes — you can’t go to any drag strip and get it done that fast with this kind of crash. We got it cleaned up safely and professionally, because we had more [people and equipment] there than any drag strip in Oklahoma.”

Priority one for everyone involved is the safety of the fans, and it’s for that reason why Police kept fans behind the barriers at all times. And although poles and buildings were still in play for drivers in the “shutdown area” portion of the road, the spectators were kept out of harms way.

As Robertson tell us, “this whole event is charitable. We’ve got a guy that brings all of those concrete blocks out to line the road, and he doesn’t charge us anything. Not fuel, not his time. He’s running three semis and two backhoes on each side of the road, bringing and unloading the blocks. It’s all donated. We buy a permit from the city for the event. And every red cent we make from entry fees we give to someone in need. We’ve given it to a woman who lost her husband, we’ve given it to a guy who lost his house in a tornado, a man who needed a kidney transplant. Every year we’ve done this, the money has gone to someone in our community.”

The event, Robertson believes, costs the city itself very little, if anything, to host. Meanwhile, he estimates the drag races bring in some 3,000 people annually to the small town, which benefits the entire community bottom line.

Unfortunately, he feels this one event “killed it.”

“We did everything we could to keep the public safe. Regardless of the venue, drag racing is dangerous,” says Robertson. “We had all the safety measures in place, and it’s terrible for this town and for me personally. I don’t see it being anything that I’ll be a part of again.”

Local media and officials have suggested, that “major changes” may be necessary in order for the drag races to happen again — perhaps limiting the types of cars allowed to compete.