Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

This may be the first time I've witnessed this but I saw someone get a black flag for going too slow at Knoxville this weekend.  And when I reference slow, I mean dangerously slow.  

In the past I thought the 82 in the 305 class was going too slow and that they might get rear ended however this one takes the cake. The 82 will actually get on the gas during the straigts.  

The 39 car was put'n around on the bottom and sometimes in the middle of the track during the green flag. When they lined up for the heats and features I thought hmmmm maybe something is wrong with car. Nope, this went on the entire night. Thankfully after getting lapped after 2 lap of going green it stayed on the bottom groove. While lining up for the feature, the driver had trouble even before the green flag dropped. 
 

If I drove faster to WATCh the races than you did on the track you're probably driving too slow and dangerous to be on the track. 

Keep It Real

I'm glad somebody brought this up. I'm all for people getting into the sport but the 82 has yet to increase his speed after racing here weekly for well over a year. At least he stays on the bottom of the track. That wasn't the case Saturday with the 39 car switching lanes mid corner right in front of LBJ and others.

The most frustrating part is after a few scares, the safety crew now has to hesitate more before running onto the track during an accident because of past experiences with the 82 not coming to a stop. (My guess is he isn't going fast enough for the car to be sideways and him to see the caution/red lights)

I'm not saying driving these things is easy but at least go fast enough that the ass end a little squirley.

-Austin Rankin

If I was starting out in a sprint car, I'd get as far away from Knoxville, Iowa, as possible.

"I'd pay $15 to watch a sprint car sit still."

Larry Ball Jr. was about to lap the #39 for the 3rd time when he pulled in.  The 82 and 19K were far outrunning him.  Not sure if it was the car or he was having problems getting on the gas.  I think it was just his 2nd or 3rd time ever at the track as a driver.

LBJ had a 3/4 lap lead on him before he took the green at the flagstand (and got lapped TWICE in the first 3 laps).

The #82 is getting faster every week (he's still slow, but he holds his line and makes improvement (minimal, but improvement), and guys know where he's going to be when they run up on him (on the bottom in the corners and on the straights).  The #39 was on the bottom, middle and once on the top all in the same corner of the same lap, which is what really made him the menace to the other drivers.  If he'd just been running around the bottom, he would have been a menace instead of a "moving chicane" - he came out of turn 4 and tried to go up the track and was passed high and low (3 laps after he was black flagged).

On a side note, the driver from Hawaii (White #96 in the 305 class) did a very good job IMO for his first time there (was fast, but the slick track was obviously not something he was used to).

I'm glad someone brought this up.

The situation with the 39 car on Sat. night was pretty dangerous to everyone "competing" with him in my opinion.  I'm not saying I could do any better, but maybe there are better tracks to start out at than a big, fast 1/2 mile like Knoxville.

Did the guy hold his line...?

Opinions may vary...

Stan,

No he did not for the majority of the time he  was on the track . And when I say slow, I don't know how I can stress how.... slow. I'm pretty sure the  trucks pack the track at a faster pace than the 39, and I"m not trying to poke fun of this person. 

Keep It Real

I think it is time to institute a rule for slow cars,like nascar if u are not fast enough u are out of race,after qualifing the race director should talk face to face with a very slow car and inform the driver that if said driver cant keep up you will be parked 'feature only".everyone deserves the chance to race but if u are too slow and u are getting in the way,it is safer for slow driver and the rest of the field to pull in and try another day.

I agree with most.  You have to be able to maintain reasonable speed on any track.  A place like Knoxville isn't the place to learn how to drive a car in my opinion.  It's simply too fast and too dangerous for all involved.  From the sounds of it the track needs to step in and not wait until something bad happens.  They could be doing him as much favor as anyone.

 If you have to tell a driver that gets lapped on a half mile track in three laps that he is dangerously slow I'm not sure they will understand the words being said. It does get exciting though.

I'm guesssing the driver of the 39 must have been older then 16 as he didn't have to go through the driving test like Sawyer and the Higday kid did. But in my opinion after the heat it was clear that he could hold his line or keep up on the yellows, he should have been been black flagged then. Those guys have too much invested in their cars to have to worry about someone like the 39 that was all over the track running about 55 mph.  I don't like bashing drivers but this guy was scary.

this the reason I am not a huge proponet of all the "lesser" classes of sprints. It used to be that (to me anyway) that sprint cars were the fastest, baddest,cars on the track and thy were only driven by those drivers that had balls of steel. Now we have 305, 358, 360, even some v6`s, throw in 600& 1000/1200 wing and non wing minisprints and the lesser classes are kinda diluted. I understand all to well that sprints are mostly a blue collar sport and most if not all guys cant afford $50K 410`s hence the reason for the lesser classes.

Maybe look  at a version of F1's 107% rule? You need to be within a certain percentage of the leader's lap time to avoid being black flagged after a certain amount of laps. If the leader is turning 16.5 laps you need to be at least at 130% of that time or roughly 21.45 seconds once every 3 laps or some such equation. I don't know the answer but that car did seem to pose a risk from  my vantage point.

Why??????Knoxville has the best safety crew around.  If you are on fire, the crew will be there in 15 seconds.  I know, I have clocked them before.  It is a nice wide track.  Some of these other tracks would scare you if you knew that  the ambulance does not take you to hospital.  They take you to a property line and wait for ambulance from town to come.  Some tracks do not have fire fighters with proper cloths on to fight a fire.

Swindell was in the 39 car Saturday night? What happened to the Big Game ride?  Bwaahaaaha.

The "lesser" class of sprint car your talking about at knoxville are 20k+ engines and they run faster than the world of outlaw late models. The 305 cars at knoxville are the fastest 305's in the country.  And yes there are some slow guys but unless you have a car out there its pretty sad to talk poorly about somebody doing the best they can.

It is sad

the 82 and the 19k are both improving and getting faster every week! the 82 is pretty fast down the straights and holds a very tight line in the corners. a few more nights both of these cars will be pretty close to being on pace. these cars are not easy to drive especially just starting out.  wheres your race car at ?

Maybe we need to slow the 5 car down??

Dirt is for racing. Asphalt is for getting there.