I wasn't there so no clue about how bad it was. But I'm one of those who says that. I haven't lost touch with reality, that was the reality back then. Now my back in the day were the very late 80s and 90s. I can remember quite a few races that were extremely muddy and raining during racing, I actually would pray for rain at some of the bigger races.
Today's crowd has 2 very important differences causing the cancelations.
1. The internet. Back then tracks couldn't cancel because there was no way to tell anyone ahead of time. All you could do was call a track the night before and generally you didn't get someone. So people just showed up not knowing how much rain the track got or if it was bad. Didn't want to chance missing a race that was good.
2. Sissification. Yes, sissies. The bigger percentage of the racers simply raced in the mud. Bikes were expensive to fix back then too. And bikes back then broke down and didn't last as long as today either. So that's no excuse. It's just a different time. It's only when you get to the bigger events that are important do you see them not getting canceled.
Of course there is a point when they canceled back then and now too. So it was not a "never canceled" scenario.
It sucks for this weekend because I know JO put a ton of effort and cash into this. Sorry to hear it was that bad.
And Kreps wasn't even there