Flooding from Tropical Storm Isaias damaged several homes in Carbon County when it swept through the area last week. It also caused damage to the track surface at Mahoning Valley Speedway.

The track was forced to cancel racing last weekend due to a 3-foot-long hole in turn 1, which has been nicknamed “the crack in the track.”

“It dumped about 7-8 inches down there. It just saturated the grounds,” said track announcer Dino Oberto. “That went underneath the pavement and lifted up the track.”

The racetrack near Lehighton is set to resume racing Saturday night, after races were canceled last weekend.

Workers from Franzosa Trucking in Hazleton cut and patched the section of damaged asphalt to get it ready for a return to racing Saturday night.

Tom Wanick, a superintendent at Franzosa Trucking, is a Mahoning racer himself. He currently owns two cars competing in the modified class.

Shortly after Isaias came through Pennsylvania on Aug. 4, Wanick inspected the track. He told the management the best thing to do was cancel the scheduled races for Aug. 8 and let the ground dry so the track could be repaired properly.

“I just told them the best thing was to not even race on it - there’s so much water, seeping off the mountain and under the track - it would have caused more damage,” Wanick said.

Wanick said he’s always willing to lend a hand to his local tracks like Mahoning, and Evergreen Raceway outside of Hazleton. He’s done track repairs before and other work when the track needs it. “I don’t want no favors. I want to see the track race. If I owned the track and I knew somebody who could help, I’d want that in return too, he said.

For some drivers, the fastest way around the track goes right through the patched section. Others prefer to drive closer to the wall.

Longtime racer and car owner Gary Wentz said the repairs seem to have addressed all the damage, but that the real test will come when drivers are cornering at race speeds with wide, sticky race tires.

“It looks OK. I don’t know how much pressure is going to be right at that point. It depends how you enter into the turn,” he said.

The last time the track was fully repaved was 1999.

Mahoning originally opened as a dirt oval in the 1950s. Pavement was added in 1970.

Despite its age, the current paving has held up pretty well, Oberto said. It’s used about 20 days a year between April and October for races and practice days.

“One of the benefits we have, we’re not driving on it like a regular road, it’s only being used once a week. You don’t have big trucks going over it -- these are as light of vehicles as possible,” he said.