Following the 1999 Snowball Derby which many fans felt was won by Bobby Gill not Rich Bickle, the controversy started and has continued to brew. There were huge disagreements among the competitors and of course the fans. The Snowball promotion group says, it's over Bickle won. The following is CIA Sports Promotion News Release:

We would first like to apologize for the delay in answering messages and updating the web page. As most of you know we are a photographic company from North Carolina and our involvement at Five Flags Speedway is more of a caretaker. A lot of you have questions about the future of the speedway and some of you have complaints. We will try to address all of your questions and concerns.

1) Rich Bickle did win the 1999 Snowball Derby. As many of you know we had some of the best short track officials working the 1999 Snowball Derby. Their experience and knowledge is better than what you would find at any
similar race. Our officials make their respective calls in their selective jobs. However, I want you to know we had the tapes, scorecards etc. reviewed over and over before a final decision was made. I also want you to know our scoring officials were not responsible for any errors during the race. They did their job. No race is official until all scoring is complete, checked and the chief scorer makes it official. A driver must pass tech and scoring after the checkered flag to be declared the official
winner.

2) We are trying to be as fan, driver and media friendly as we can. We know there are a lot of you that believe this as you have experienced it from our staff. For you that feel differently we can only say we're sorry, we tried but maybe there is no way we could ever live up to your
expectations. Remember we are not promoters and do not claim to be. We are only here for one reason (help save racing and the Snowball Derby in Pensacola). We are fortunate that a lot of you have supported us and we
thank you! For you that love racing and want this track to continue please keep supporting us. As many of you know FIVE FLAGS SPEEDWAY IS STILL FOR SALE OR LEASE! Rest assured that if a buyer is not found we will return and
run a limited schedule. We have tried to find support and sponsorship to do more racing in 2000 but with our limited time and staff we have not had the success to warrant a full race season. What we are saying is that without
community businesses and their sponsorship we can not do any more than a limited schedule. For you that are making plans to race or attend in 2000
all we can say now is racing will be in June, July, August and, of course, the 33rd annual Snowball Derby will be the first weekend in December as it always is. We will post more information on dates etc. as they become available. We have no plans on changing rules and any changes would be
very minor, if at all! (Fritz Augustine writes our rules, keep in touch with him for any change, if any)!

3) We are a photo agency except when we are at Five Flags Speedway! We only take pictures for our own advertising and promotional purposes. We are not trying to be selfish but we need to keep our minds on the business of running the racetrack. We have tried to find an honest individual that would like to photograph the races and drivers for the benefit of the drivers, sponsors etc. This individual would work directly with the sponsors and teams. Anyone interested please contact us at this web site.
The only photos we will release are those posted on our web site and then only to the team pictured. This is for legal reasons. Sorry! Please, be patient on these requests.

4) The 33rd annual Snowball Derby will have a change for the Saturday night race. We will, to our best ability, try and make the Saturday program better than it has ever been. We do apologize to the fans for the 50-lap race. We expected more cars and were only trying to offer an additional 80 late model cars to race. After 1998 and having to send too many good cars home without ever competing in a race we tried to fix it. We are planning
but we are also listening! E-mail us, we do listen and we do care!

Thank you for your continued support and we, once again, we apologize for our delay in responding to your concerns and questions.

-CIA Sports Promotions and staff of Five Flags Speedway

Thanks to Don's Short Track Racers for this report.

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