Lof8 wrote: In reply to ckosacranoid: It appears that they're going to give us some. GRM, you guys doing fwd or rwd? Don't you have an acr neon sitting around?
No, no more Neons.
Lof8 wrote: In reply to ckosacranoid: It appears that they're going to give us some. GRM, you guys doing fwd or rwd? Don't you have an acr neon sitting around?
No, no more Neons.
I have a friend who does it on the cheap racing Super 6 (basically GM 3800s) - boring as hell to watch but he loves it.
Some of the races can be boring, but other times it can get really fun to watch when they get a good set of drivers and things happen to reset the field after a yellow. I have been having fun more this year then the last 3 years out at the track. I happen to be having my name on cars this year so I think that is getting me more happy to be out there on sat night watch me cars and drivers duke it out. I know this year has been interesting for the windless team is in there 2nd season with the cars. Last year Derek ran his first season in a 360 wingless and his brother bought a car at the end of the season and had one race in it. Derek got 3 or 4 wins last year at some of the big nights. His brother Nate has been really improving this year and just scored his first top 3 finish this year in the car and has been improving every week they run which is cool to see. They both come from karting which helps a lot. The other driver in the mod class Jack Williams has been really having poor year in the first 5 weeks he could not finish the feature race do to some issue and its a new cars to him this year. He has been getting the car dialed in and its been the driver making mistakes that even I can see and I don't really have the skill in driving to notice that much for this. We have also had a female driver in the bandit class that won last year with 5 feature wins and the championship. This year she won the first 5 races in a row and just two weeks ago came in 2nd to a different driver. Her dad sue to race at out track and really knows how to do car setup and has helped her a lot and she use to race kart also which really goes to show she can really drive.
In reply to bearmtnmartin: Personally I think it goes beyond just going in a circle/oval, I think that culture around that style of racing, and the cringe of a road racer/rally/ect explaining to someone who doesn't know anything about racing, that you are not Ricky Bobby. Any type of racing can be fun, that's why humans race everything. Semi's, coolers, lawn mowers, ect....
Hal wrote: I did a little "Jalopy Class" circle track racing a long time ago (1960's) when every other small town in SW PA had a track. Almost every gas station, repair shop in my hometown (Irwin, PA) either owned or sponsored a car. You could usually find some place to run every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night.
Troof, really miss those days.
I remember as a young kid the garage up the street testing '55-'57 Chevy semi-lates down my street. I was hooked.
Lotta tracks back then. First real race I ever seen was Motordrome at Ruffsdale, long gone now. Motordrome later moved to Smithton, it's asphalt now. Morgantown is long gone also. As I got older it branched out.
Jennerstown was dirt, now asphalt, I later drove that track. Lernerville is still very healthy. Clearfield, Marion Center, Penn Motor, Schmuckers, Challenger, Heidelberg. Roaring Knob is a 30 minute drive, nice dirt track. I'm sure I missed a few.
Really miss the old days when late models weren't store bought chassis and all pre-fab bolt together E36 M3. Seen some crazy, creative E36 M3 back then, absolutely loved it.
Fairbanks, Alaska has two circle tracks, one dirt and one paved, if that tells you anything.
If I didn't have to work the nights that the dirt track races, I'd like to think I'd have myself a dollar stock by now.
fasted58 wrote: Lotta tracks back then. First real race I ever seen was Motordrome at Ruffsdale, long gone now. Motordrome later moved to Smithton, it's asphalt now. Morgantown is long gone also. As I got older it branched out. Jennerstown was dirt, now asphalt, I later drove that track. Lernerville is still very healthy. Clearfield, Marion Center, Penn Motor, Schmuckers, Challenger, Heidelberg. Roaring Knob is a 30 minute drive, nice dirt track. I'm sure I missed a few.
Our home track was off Mosside Blvd(RT 48) right near where it crossed RT 30. Last time I was in that area it looked like it had been turned into a waste collection station.
Have a lot of memories of Windber Speedway. Nothing like a 3/8 mile dirt track built around the outside of the local high school football field!
I'm at the track with my Neon right now. Turn one is freshly paved and greasy. I think I liked the bumps better.
I guess I will just try to have fun anyway.
Just got back from the World of Outlaws race at Williams Grove Speedway and I must say that is some damned good entertainment. This is the 2nd time I've gone now and I can totally understand the popularity of circle track. I think the formatting of the races, being broken down into a series of shorter heats (hence the term sprint car i guess), makes it much better as a spectator sport. Those guys are balls to the wall pretty much 100% of the time and there's no waiting through hours of racing to get to the finish. Little time to make up for mistakes as well.
As for the culture, it's definitely a different type of crowd than you typically find at an auto x, for instance. I think this is what put me off of it for so long, but the older I get the less E36 M3s I give about what I do being perceived as redneck. We've all got common interest in motorsports.
Third, fourth, third. Damn kids are getting fast. It's hard to get to the front this year. Better than two weeks ago, when I bounced it off the wall in hot laps.
Speaking of the world of outlaws, this sat night my track is hosting the 4 wide racing of the firsbreathing monsters called sprint cars alsong with the locals defending the home turf of the IRA also being in town also. going to be a good show but very long night though.
Just a general question, I understand why pavement does not run in the rain (no rain tires), but why do dirt tracks cancel events when it rains?
because they would Sling MUD a 1/4 mile Away.
And in the process, probably end up doing quite a bit of damage to the track.
In reply to trigun7469:
Its difficult to prep a dirt track. Rain just makes it worse for the track owners.
trigun7469 wrote: Just a general question, I understand why pavement does not run in the rain (no rain tires), but why do dirt tracks cancel events when it rains?
There's both a science and a black art to prepping a dirt track. The amount of water is critical. Too much and you get mud too little and you get a choking dust cloud. Working in between the extremes you can get a variety of surfaces that will effect how wide the groove is and how fast the track is.
The other thing with rain at a dirt track is that the track makes its money from the gate and the number of fans that are willing to sit in the rain and risk getting hit by lightning is pretty small.
The clay also gets very slippery.
APEowner wrote:trigun7469 wrote: Just a general question, I understand why pavement does not run in the rain (no rain tires), but why do dirt tracks cancel events when It rains The other thing with rain at a dirt track is that the track makes its money from the gate and the number of fans that are willing to sit in the rain and risk getting hit by lightning is pretty small.This. To keep entry fees reasonable and payout prize money you need fans. Pick on us circle track guys all you want but we have enough sense to not drag the wife out to sit in the rain on a Saturday night.
The chocking dust get really annoying also which we have had many times at my track. I sit over by the gate and you can tell when they go green on the track cause the cloud of dust that raises up in the lights.
APEowner wrote:trigun7469 wrote: Just a general question, I understand why pavement does not run in the rain (no rain tires), but why do dirt tracks cancel events when it rains?There's both a science and a black art to prepping a dirt track. The amount of water is critical. Too much and you get mud too little and you get a choking dust cloud. Working in between the extremes you can get a variety of surfaces that will effect how wide the groove is and how fast the track is. The other thing with rain at a dirt track is that the track makes its money from the gate and the number of fans that are willing to sit in the rain and risk getting hit by lightning is pretty small.
Yea, it's pretty crazy to see how much the racing lines and number of "grooves" available change throughout the course of the night, and even from one heat race to the next. I think that's another very interesting element, watching how the drivers adapt.
The feature race actually ended up getting rained out last week when I went and it really wasn't raining hard at all. They did a hell of a job trying to move things along and get as much racing in as they could, just ran out of time.
When i was a kid there was a local paved track called pinecrest speedway that had covered stands and they ran in the rain. Al the teams had rain tires. Once (on dirt) while lined up for a big feature, we all sat on the front straight while they anounced the racers names. It started pouring and in less than a few minutes half the cars had slid sideways down to the infield and had to be towed out with a tractor. Can't race in that.
Furious_E wrote:APEowner wrote:Yea, it's pretty crazy to see how much the racing lines and number of "grooves" available change throughout the course of the night, and even from one heat race to the next. I think that's another very interesting element, watching how the drivers adapt.trigun7469 wrote: Just a general question, I understand why pavement does not run in the rain (no rain tires), but why do dirt tracks cancel events when it rains?There's both a science and a black art to prepping a dirt track. The amount of water is critical. Too much and you get mud too little and you get a choking dust cloud. Working in between the extremes you can get a variety of surfaces that will effect how wide the groove is and how fast the track is. The other thing with rain at a dirt track is that the track makes its money from the gate and the number of fans that are willing to sit in the rain and risk getting hit by lightning is pretty small.
When I ran dirt I was pretty good at adapting to changing track conditions but I never got the hang of making chassis changes for the different surfaces. I knew what chassis changes to make based on what the car was doing but I sucked at looking at the track and predicting what the car was going to do before going out.
In reply to APEowner:
I feel you. Been in Dirt Racing in one from or fashion in 38 years of life on this planet and it's still tough to read a dirt track.
This past sat night we saw the same thing with My windless team I sponor, they both won thier heat races with no problems. Derek made some changes to his car and fell off the pace and finished in 11th place. they did not change anything to Nates car and just foxed something that was broke. Nate ended up leading for a couple of lapes and finsihed in 2nd place for the night.
I live in Alaska, we don't have a lot of racing but what we have is really good. I grew up in Southern California and went to all kinds of Circle Tracks, short tracks, dirt tracks, drag racing, you name it I was there. I've lived in Alaska for 14 years and I've been autocrossing, road racing, and ice racing for most of that time.
Four or five years ago, one of our two paved Circle Tracks closed down. Last year, our drag strip(!) Built a new 1/3 mile paved oval that is now a NASCAR home track. A buddy of mine bought a baby grand stock car and raced it at the track last year. I helped him with the car all last year and I knew I had to get a one.
This time the answer really was Miata because I sold my 1990 Miata to fund my own baby grand. I've been racing that this season with really good success. I've been on the podium every race and just won my first feature event last Saturday.
If GRM is interested in branching out, they need to come to Alaska. I think we have some of the most unique motorsports on the planet.
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