The Grand Strand's season-ending Labor Day weekend will take another hit starting next year with the loss of the event at Darlington Raceway, further shrinking the beach's summer season.

The traditional three-month summer already is slow to start because of May's bike rallies and ends sooner as early school starts - and now the loss of the race - hurt the late season.

"That's one more thing we've lost," said Pat Dowling, spokesman for Burroughs & Chapin Co. Inc. "We'll miss that. The tourism season already is shrinking quite a bit. It's basi-
cally down to two months."

During the past few years, some race fans stayed at the beach instead of sold-out Darlington or spent a day here, then drove the 75 miles to the raceway.

Officials don't know how much money the race traffic brings to the beach but say it is enough that the community will notice a difference come Labor Day 2004.

It will translate into a $50,000 hit for the NASCAR Cafe, where fans would eat NASCAR-named food and fill up on the latest stock-car retail, said Al Varlan, the cafe's general manager.

"It's probably more significant than most of us realize," said Brad Dean, chief financial officer at the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.

NASCAR officials announced Friday that Darlington would lose the Labor Day weekend race to California. The raceway will keep its spring race and play host to a second race each year in mid-November.

Grand Strand tourism leaders turned to Darlington a few years ago to try to boost the Labor Day business, which had dwindled because of schools starting classes earlier in August that kept families from taking late summer vacations.

Last year for the first time, the chamber bought advertisements in markets where schools start later, trying to lure them for a late vacation. The chamber will begin those ads again this summer.

Some businesses say they never got much race traffic, while others say the fans made a noticeable difference.

"Anything like that that affects the surrounding communities affects Myrtle Beach," said Paul Garcia, operations director at Strand Development, which has four Grand Strand hotels. "It's sad that Darlington is losing it."

The Grand Strand rallied to save the race. The Myrtle Beach and Surfside Beach city councils approved resolutions in March urging NASCAR not to change the race schedule.

And the Myrtle Beach chamber and B&C sent letters lobbying to keep the event. B&C, which has the licensing for the NASCAR SpeedPark, has an added interest in the sport remaining popular.

"NASCAR fans come to the beach and spend a lot of money here, and they won't be doing that anymore," Dowling said.

The move to a November race could shift the benefits to later in the year, Varlan said.

"It's a big concern to us," he said. "But it could be a boon to us during a slower period of time."

Although the Grand Strand could benefit in mid-November, the late summer, when all the attractions are open, needs the boost, the chamber's Dean said.

"It was so perfectly timed," he said. "There's no way to replace the loss of that event."