In video posted Thursday on Twitter, and since removed, race announcer Lon Oelke excoriated athletes and teams who have chosen to protest during sporting events by kneeling during the national anthem or turning away from the flag, he further derided the divisive, neo-segregationist concept of a “black national anthem”. The Crowd. Went. Wild. The Kossuth County Speedway in Algona, Iowa where Oelke spoke his peace on July 15th has since distanced themselves from him stating they ‘do not condone’ the comments. Lon was filling in at Kossuth County Speedway whose normal announcer was not available.
Mr. Oelke told the gathered crowd,
“Here’s your social service announcement – if you won’t stand for our flag if you’re gonna take a knee…I got four words for you: Find a different country.” He added: “Get the hell out of dodge.” “A lot of people have sacrificed many things in their lives for us to be able to do these liberties.”
“I’ve heard about all the stuff going on in the NFL and now they’re going to have another national anthem for those folks, for the…I guess…darker-toned skin color, I’ll just say blacks.”
“They want a different national anthem and the NFL is thinking about doing it. So I say shut the TVs off and let them play in front of nobody. Yes, that’s my announcement.”
“I salute the veterans coming up.”
The Crowd Went Wild
Scorn From The Track But Support From His Home Turf
While representatives of The Kossuth County Speedway informed the press that Oelke “would not be employed at any future track events.” adding in a statement that “It was not okay, and it will not be happening again,” the statement said. “Kossuth County Speedway looks forward to proving to our fans, drivers, and crews that we can and will do better.” And even broadcasting platform FloRacing chimed in after taking down a video of the race saying Oelke’s “opinions and language do not reflect our core values or have a place on our platform.” The Fairmont Raceway identified itself as Lon’s typical venue and leaped to his support with their promoter Jon McCorkell writing the announcer would “absolutely be announcing” races on Friday night and would receive a standing ovation before the national anthem according to The U.S. Sun.
Mr. McCorkell went on to add,
“I, John McCorkell am the promoter at Fairmont, and I do agree with all of Lon’s comments and opinions!”
The Iowa Standard, reported that the local donning “I stand with Lon” shirts gathered just as McCorkell had asked in his later-deleted post. The Standard spoke to a businessman stationed outside the racetrack.
“What Lon said was true,” he told us.
“I don’t think that any of us, many of us, out here disagree with what he had to say. But the fact is the death threats and the things that have happened are unreal. We don’t need that, that’s not what we’re about. Everybody has a right to believe what they want to believe. We believe one way. But to make death threats and to call people racist – I’ve been called racist probably 50 times today because of different things – just saying we need to take care of this and this has to stop.”
“We need to take a stand,” he said. “This is our stand. When tyranny overtakes the government, then it’s time for us to stand up and defend ourselves.” Adding that Lon had been part of the community “forever”.
“We all know Lon. Lon’s a great guy and they’re going to stand up for him and I think this is probably going to be more about Lon. They’re behind him 100 percent and they’re behind Jon McCorkell (the track promoter).”
