Night of Destruction in Georgia!

So here I go again! In case anyone is interested, tomorrow is Lanier Speedway's Night of Destruction, with all kinds of neat reindeer games. There's an enduro race (think full-contact), a flagpole race (sort of like a figure 8, you make a loop around a flagpole one time each lap), skid race (skids replace the rear tires on a FWD car), demolition derby, rollover contest...... should be fun :) I picked up an old Prelude to use, but hopefully not destroy...... In case anyone wants to show up and see some metal get bent-twisted-mangled, I'd be happy to have any help. Looks like I'm doing this one solo.

 Mike

How the hell do they get insurance for this thing?!

Wow. Might need to go to this!!

If I weren't on the road, id be trying to talk my wife into goin.

Sounds fun. The thread title made me think of the "night of the borken glass" for some reason. A demo derby is waaaay better than that.

The demo derby is probably going to be the most tame event of the night :)

I'm using my car in the enduro race and the skid race, but the promoter has a car for me to use in the camper/boat trailer race and flagpole race. And maybe the demo derby or rollover contest.

 Mike

Woody wrote: How the hell do they get insurance for this thing?!

I don't think they would even make an effort to get insurance. Probably make the participants sign a waiver to the tune of:

These automotive activities are so zany they are for crowd entertainment only, while they may be hazardous to the participants health. Your signature below indicates you realize this, and will not sue the facility or anyone associated with these activities. You take your safety and life in your own hands with these kinds of shenanigans, and if you don't know that, you should leave. By the way, you will most likely crash tonight. If you do property damage, you owe us a case of beer. Have fun, and don't forget to yell: "Hey Y'all, watch THIS!"

Pretty much!

 Mike

^^^^^^ LOL'Z

most post [pics and video of the event is you can.....

That.Was.Awesome.

I might just have to build me a Junkyard Dog car.

Man, I wish they'd scheduled this Mitty weekend! There's a hill in the paddock at Road Atlanta where you can see about half of the track at Lanier. We used to set up our chairs & coolers & watch for free.

Dave, bring it on! They're going to do another one of these in a few months. I didn't have a trailer to get the Prelude to the track, so I was driving the big-@$$ dodge van. Slow as X-mas, but I think I won the boat race by attrition :) Got my bell rung pretty good at the flagpole tho! Time for a new helmet now.

 Mike

PS. The Junkyard Dog rules call for 4-cyl only, not 4-cyl and V-6 like the announcer said. But, for the wreck events, find a somewhat bigger FWD car. You definately want to try the skid race and flagpole race.

 Mike

IIRC they said the Junk Yard Dog class was to be a weekly event. A real race vs. the Crash-a-rama stuff. Given my knowledge of 4G - 5G civic, that is my inclination. This one is tempting - http://atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/cto/1693353392.html

I wasn't sure what you were driving. That's awesome that you were in the van. You dominated that boat in turn 1-2. It was awesome. I didn't see you take the big hit, but did notice at some point that the van had the side caved in roughly 2 feet. The skidcar stuff looked SO fun. I was surprised that Lanier let you guys abuse the asphalt like that, but whatever. I'm not sure the boat race or flagpole race is for me. While taking a hit is a pretty fair risk justy stepping out onto the track, those seem like asking for it, and I'd rather not ask for it. I'm sure my chiropractor would like me to though...

Damn Mike, sorry I missed it. I was out of town.

I went!! Saw all the races, saw someone got T-boned in that massive Chevy van, the boat racing and skid racing was EPIC!!! Who was in that other dodge van at went head on into the pit entrance wall? Looked like a hard lick...

@ Duke - That Chevy van was actually me in the Dodge van.... and it was a pretty good lick. Like I said, my helmet is now junk. The Caravan that went into the wall was being driven by the guy that brought the #32 car that finished 2nd in the dash race.... aka the Junkyard Dog race. He was fine, which suprised the HELL out of me.

@ Poop - I'll give you guys plenty of notice next time. They're talking about putting another one on in about three months, and then it should be on the schedule 1-2 times a year providing it remains profitable (and nobody gets killed). Judging by other tracks that do this, it will be profitable. Shockingly, I don't think anyone has ever died.

@ Dave - Believe it or not, the asphalt is not damaged. The skids that are built do not dig into the surface, they wear down as they go, which is why you see the sparks. People were mostly using schoolbus bumpers, and I think I saw some guardrail in the mix as well as plate steel. Looking at the track afterwards, there were nothing but superficial scratches. Same seems to be the case from the boats. My van (which was owned by the promoter of the event, as well as most of the other cars) hardly was scratched in the boat race, and the only real damage it took in the flagpole race was from the megaginormous hit at the flagpole inflicted by one of the promoters of the event. He figured it was fair game to trash his own cars (I agree with that). I think that was the only major hit of the flagpole race, and the only bad hit in the boat race was the #43 Buick that rolled into the wall. I know the guy driving that car. He's utterly fearless and probably meant to do it. I guess what I'm saying is that if you get a car bigger then the Civic you linked to, GO FOR IT! For the Junkyard Dog class, I wouldn't go with that Civic. Best bets using cheap cars are 2-3gen Prelude Si (which is what I have, got it for $350 off CL, '91 DOHC), old Integra's, Probes, DOHC Cavalier/sunfire, Civic EX.... well, you get the idea. You could always spend some $$$ on a ringer, but someone will probably get PO'd and wreck you. So unless you pick up that SE-R or Civic Si dirt cheap, better leave it at home. The winning car in the dash was a '92 Accord with an automatic that was bought off the Athens GA craigslist for $600----- race ready! It had been run at Toccoa Speedway and had a few wins there. That guy also won the derby in a Hyundai.

 Mike

 Mike

what kind of cage do you need for this or do you just need a roll bar?

Not even. No bars are "required", but at least one bar from door post to door post running behind the drivers seatback is recommended. Personally, I'd recommend that plus an actual rollbar, with a diagonal brace on each side running front and rear. Six points total. If you can fab it up yourself it would be dirt cheap. If you can't, I can recommend someone in SC and another in GA that would probably do it for around $200.

 Mike

Saw it sick E36 M3! With the Duke!

Then get a car/minivan/bigolddodge!!!!

 Mike

Is skidcar like FWD tray sliding?

93celicaGT2 wrote: Is skidcar like FWD tray sliding?

Yes, but with more sparks / awesome.

Great stuff! I love watching this stuff on 'Lucas on the Edge' on Speedtv. Little midwestern tracks doing the same type of things: school bus racing, trailer racing on figure 8s, rollover contests, etc.