CANFIELD Hot rod event cruises away

The event promoter simply made a business decision, an official said.
CANFIELD -- The Hot Rod Supernationals, for the first time since 1987, won't be coming to the Canfield Fairgrounds next summer.
The event promoter, The Promotion Company of Indianapolis, is citing scheduling conflicts. The company couldn't be reached this morning to comment.
Timm Schreiber, Canfield Fair Board president, said that the board met Wednesday and discussed correspondence from the promoter.
"We have received a letter [that] they would not be reserving a date for the Supernationals in 2004," he said.
A representative of The Promotion Company will be in town Tuesday to explain more, Schreiber said.
He noted that the fair board has several contracts with the promoter for other events -- not just the Supernationals -- and that the promoter makes business decisions to move its events around to various places.
"If it's a business decision on their behalf, then it's their decision," he added.
Visitors bureau
A member of the Youngstown- Mahoning County Convention and Visitors Bureau suspects a funding cut the agency suffered recently is one factor in the promoter's decision.
Bob Campbell, a CVB board member, said today the agency paid the promoter $50,000 a year as an incentive to keep the event here. That won't be possible now that Mahoning County commissioners have taken back $450,000 a year in bed tax revenues from the CVB, Campbell said. The money is the agency's primary source of revenue.
Commissioners are giving two thirds of the money to the Western Reserve Port Authority, which operates Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.
Campbell said he doesn't know for sure if the funding cut is a primary reason for the pullout. But the missing incentive has to be at least one reason, he said.
"It has to factor into the picture."
Canfield Fairgrounds was selected from among a dozen Midwest locations in 1987 to host the Hot Rod Supernationals.
The event drew thousands of cars and fans to the fairgrounds annually, and the hot rodders regularly took to U.S. Route 224 afterward.
The promoter said in a press release that it will continue holding two other events at the fairgrounds next year.
The second annual Falken Tire ITB, a sport compact and minitruck event, will be May 22 and 23. The seventh annual Summit Truckstyle 4-Wheel Jamboree, a show featuring four-wheel-drive trucks, monster truck racing and mud drag racing, will be July 24 and 25.