Arts, Leisure and Sports
Due to a forecast of rain throughout the day and evening, the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway has been postponed until Sunday, September 24. The qualifying races will begin at 1:00 p.m. ET, while the main event will start at 5:00 p.m. ET.
The autograph session has been canceled. Bobby McCarty, who trails Brendan “Butterbean” Queen in the Virginia Triple Crown standings by only a half position, will lead the first of four qualifying races to green on Sunday following a lap time of 19.704. The time bettered his own Martinsville track record in the process.
This year, no drivers are locked into the field for Saturday evening’s prestigious ValleyStar Credit Union 300 through qualifying. Instead, the field will be set by those four 25-lap afternoon qualifying races. The top 10 finishers in each of the qualifying races will comprise the 40-driver field for the main event.
Four months after the announcement that Roanoke College would be restoring football after a 75-year absence, the Maroons have taken another step that could speed up the process. That was clear Monday night at a meeting of the Roanoke Valley Sports Club, where the featured speaker was new Roanoke College athletic director Curtis Campbell.
Campbell succeeds Scott Allison, a former Roanoke lacrosse standout who had held the position for 36 years before retiring. Campbell, who grew up in Pulaski County, comes to Roanoke College after serving as athletic director at Morehouse College in Atlanta following stops at Western Oregon, as well at two Alabama colleges, Tuskegee and Stillman.
“I really wanted to be a part of that,” he said. “I managed football everywhere that I’ve been. In my interview with [Frank] Shushock, how often do you get to do something for the first time.” “Especially as you get a little older and think you’ve done everything, Now I get to something that I’ve never done before. It’s exciting and it’s sort of scary, too, at the same time.”
Forward Mac Jansen has been added to the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs training camp roster for the upcoming season. The team captain helped Roanoke to its first President’s Cup SPHL title last season. Dawgs head coach Dan Bremner said today they look forward to raising the championship banner at the Berglund Center on October 20. Hear more in this extended conversation:
A Minnesota-based non-profit called Artspace was in Roanoke this week, talking to local artists, city officials and others, while also surveying local properties that could be redeveloped as working studios and affordable living spaces for artists. WFIR’s Gene Marrano with some details:
Twenty years ago what they describe as Roanoke’s Oldest Fine Art Galley opened on Market Street. Three years ago it moved around the corner at 22 Campbell Avenue and now the Market Gallery will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a ribbon-cutting tomorrow at 3-pm. At tomorrow’s ribbon cutting member artists of the collective will be on hand and refreshments will be served. Until November 30 visitors can sign up for a drawing to win two-thousand dollars of art from the studio. Cathryn Hankla is an artist and co-president of the “Market Gallery.”