1/4 mile dirt track

We've got THIS dirt track near us.

We knew it was there but haven't gone for years. That is until a few weeks ago.

It's really quite entertaining. Yes, they only turn one way, but they are drifting for a good portion of that time and there's definite strategy. Sometimes a high line and slingshoting out is faster and sometimes low & tight works best. High seems to have less margin for error.

They do what seems to be a million races a night so that keeps your interest. I like the sprint races as it keeps your attention.

They have an initial series of races , a short intermission with contests & games and then THE MAIN EVENT! Somehow how you do in the first set determines your position in the Main Event, but I haven't figured out exactly how. The pole car in the Modifieds Main Event came in 6th in the first race.

It seems that races are from 5-15 laps long.

Tonight they had the Dwarf cars and they were seriously cool. They run 1100 cc engines. I thought they were limited to 600cc but I was wrong. One car had a gear change issue and ran in the next lower gear and blew an engine.

One was a +1 which meant it was slightly bigger, carried 2 people and ran a 1300cc engine. So female or smaller men could ride along. I finagled my wife a ride in the main event and then she chickened out on me. The gal that did do the ride along came in 2nd.

We've only been twice, but it's been entertaining. They give you a short story line on the drivers some along with some background. For instance a new driver was called Flips. He was called that because as he he kept flipping the car. He said he'd had been pretty slow until he began flipping the car. He flipped for the 3rd time last week and tonight he didn't flip, but won the race.

We had a 5 car pile up and and 2 drivers in 2 races ended up speeding across the infield. One of them almost took out a light pole. He hit it broadside and we just watched it wobble back and forth for quite a while. The other cut the corner big time - and the let him.

We had lots of cautions and if you're the fool who caused the caution then you go to last place for the restart.

This apparently is a good track to be from since there were 5 people racing there who were either ahead in the national points or #2.

It's kinda weird to see the cars roll so much in a corner. I'm used to flat cornering.

F1 it'll never be, but it is fun.

I raced the 550 hp F100 in a dirt/mud drag race two months ago. They about crapped their pants when I hit the electronic header cutouts. Haha. I love dirt. It's my roots. Couldn't pass up seeing the good ole boys once again.

Thanks for reminding me I really want to get back to our local dirt track. Something is always coming up keeping me from going lately

There's no more fun than racing at the local 1/4 mile dirt track.

We have a very fast 3/8" mile dirt track 10 minutes away, but I drive 1 1/2 hrs to see the 1/4 mile track when I want to go to the races. I've done a lot of racing at both and much prefer the much more competitive nature at the smaller track.

The first set of races are called heats. The last set are called the feature.

I was talking it up at a recent rallycross held at a dirt oval.

Yes, on paper it looks dumb, what, you go around in a circle for five-ten minutes? But when the cars are out there and they're RACING and jockeying for position every second, sliding, banging fenders, exhausts bellowing, brakes shedding sparks, dirt flying in your face in the constant wind if you're too close to the fence... It's a cool experience.

And I'm someone who normally hates watching motorsports because doing is more fun.

Unfortunately, the dirt tracks around here are focused on the expensive modifieds although the do have some lower classes. it was more fun when you picked up an old coupe from the junk yard, Stock engines, street tires and raced.

One of the oldest and fastest (and in my somewhat biased opinion, best) dirt 1/4 miles in the country is in my own back yard.

BLOOMINGTON SPEEDWAY

Track record is 9.67 seconds; do the math and you'll find that is ~ 93 MPH. Pretty fast going in a straight line, let alone sideways in a circle!

Zomby Woof wrote: The first set of races are called heats. The last set are called the feature.

I knew that - once you said it. My childhood knowledge came rushing back.

Looking at the stock cars it came to me where the Chump Car/Le Mons formula came from.

And yes, "they're RACING and jockeying for position every second, sliding, banging fenders, exhausts bellowing, brakes shedding sparks, dirt flying in your face in the constant wind if you're too close to the fence". There were a couple of times I was grateful for the fence between us and them.

The whole experience reminds me of the Saturday night skating rink type of atmosphere except with cars. They really did a good job of talking the drivers up enough that you felt you knew about them and made it easy to root for someone.

Egad, I love those places. Here's ours:

http://www.dixiespeedway.com/

Dirt racing is the best thing to watch in person by far.

We've got a dirt track and a paved oval here in Fairbanks. I'm avoiding going because I still live in an apartment and don't have room for a race car.

I've always wanted to race a dirt oval, seems like that is just silly piles of fun.

At our track the foreign or sporty car crowd is almost entirely made up of H.S. students ensuring new blood to the sport.

Live dirt racing is awesome.

Especially when you're indoors, drinking with a bunch of rednecks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BRmZ-aentA

I think I've been to about 10 of the 27 runnings, including the first 3-4 years it started (I was way young) to I think the last 4-5 in a row.

It's ALWAYS a great time.

I run a 79 Trans Am at the local 3/8 mile dirt track. The racing is good, lots of wrecks and drifting. My car has a 350, and a 3spd transmission, i do not own the car i was lucky enough to find a car owner who would take a chance on me. heres a pic of the car.

[URL=http://s890.photobucket.com/user/Celica165/media/image_zpseb8e2d9b.jpg.html][/URL]

My background is Kart racing and autoX. I took 2nd in my first main event, it was a night i'll always remember. if you have a local dirt track, its defintley worth watching a race, or buying/building a race car....

carguy123 wrote:

Zomby Woof wrote: The first set of races are called heats. The last set are called the feature.

I knew that - once you said it. My childhood knowledge came rushing back. Looking at the stock cars it came to me where the Chump Car/Le Mons formula came from. And yes, "they're RACING and jockeying for position every second, sliding, banging fenders, exhausts bellowing, brakes shedding sparks, dirt flying in your face in the constant wind if you're too close to the fence". There were a couple of times I was grateful for the fence between us and them. The whole experience reminds me of the Saturday night skating rink type of atmosphere except with cars. They really did a good job of talking the drivers up enough that you felt you knew about them and made it easy to root for someone.

i don't think they are doing it any more, but Chumpcar was sanctioning a few roundy round dirt track races a couple of years ago...i don't think it really took off, so now they are sticking to road races, ice racing, and, umm, big rig racing?

Sadly, anything motorsports is getting pushed further and further from where I live (Oakland CA). As a young pup there were two drag strips, a couple oval tracks and a couple dozen places to ride a dirtbike within a few miles. Now the travel time starts at an hour and builds from there. I'd LOVE to do this sort of racing. Oval or not, wheel-to-wheel racing is where it's at.