In my quest to find the most compelling story this past weekend at Round 7 of the JBRL Electric Series race hosted by Pegasus Hobbies nothing scratched to the surface on Sunday as much as the drama that took place the day before. By now most of the local RC racing community here in Southern California has heard about the dismissal of Louis Flood.
For those of you that don't know Louis Flood, he has been the Race Director at Pegasus Hobbies for the past 7 to 8 months. This past Saturday Pegasus Hobbies Management fired Louis Flood. He was kicked off the property indefinitely, and not allowed to race in last weekend's race. Sources close to Louis told me on Sunday that management made a big scene in the parking lot with him. Another source told me he was being accused of stealing from Pegasus Hobbies by letting racers race for free. My first question is why didn't management pull Louis aside and take the matter into an office at the hobby shop and dismiss him? You know the proper way of firing someone! Why make a scene for everyone to see? Especially on a weekend that showcase's your race track and hobby shop...
On Sunday I talked with several people that race at that track on a weekly basis. Most of them were really upset about the events that transpired and mentioned to me that they were kicking around the idea of not racing at the facility anymore. A few told me they would be looking for a new home track. Before this past weekend I had been e-mailing back and forth with Louis about promoting the Saturday racing program at Pegasus for my blog. He was very accommodating in his spare time. He provided me all the info I needed to get the word out about the racing program that he ran on Saturday's.
This past Monday I started to contact Louis, he and I traded text's and PM's all day. Tuesday we spoke for a good 45 minutes. I explained to him I wanted to blog about what happened and explain his side of the situation. He went into detail about everything. He answered everything to the best of his knowledge. I felt I left no stone unturned. Louis, asked me during the interview not to print anything that he commented on at this time, until he has a chance to speak with Tom who is the owner and runs the RC side of Pegasus Hobbies. Louis explained to me that he wanted to see if he could resolve the matter with Tom first before I printed his side of the story. I told him I would hold the information until he was ready.
After my interview with Louis I formed my own take on the situation, however until I blog about what Louis said to me. Right now my take is meaningless. Just know that Louis has alot of support from his friends and people here in the RC community. I want to thank him for taking the time to speak with me about a tough situation he has been put in.
I haven't contacted Pegasus Hobbies for a comment yet because Tom has been out of town since last weekend. I plan on making a call today and Monday following up and seeing if he or someone in management at the hobby shop can comment on the situation.
For the local racers who are contemplating whether or not to go out to Pegasus this Saturday just know that you can race at Revelation Raceway today and Hemet Raceway as well for $10 your first entry. I know for a fact those tracks are looking for electric racers and will welcome you with open arms.
http://www.revrace.com/
http://hemetraceway.com/
Stay tuned for my next blog...
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