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

So Kauffman was the lucky guy who got to start on the pole and stay in the rubber to win. Sure it was his last win but there's nothing magical about that. I don't care how much you like Hagerstown, their track prep for the Speedweek shows during that time period was shit and anyone who knows anything about dirt tracks would agree. Whether they knew how to do it or not, doesn't matter because they didn't do it. All they did was water a rock hard sun dried surface and that isn't track prep. I can tell you one thing for sure, Donald Kreitz doesn't like racing on a rubbered up surface any more than anyone else. He was right about his 15 second comment but what he was eluding to was a track that's slick and wide with multi grooves, not a ring of rubber around the bottom where all you can do is follow the guy in front of you, match his pace and hope that he screws up and misses the rubber on entry or slides out of it on exit and lets you by. Talk to Donald sometime, I have and he'll tell you himself that there's a big difference between rubbered up and slick and wide....he likes them slick and wide. Regardless, this is pointless anyway because they finally got their heads out of their asses the last few years and gave the sprinters a good surface. I look forward to going back during this year's speedweek because when its right, Hagerstown is a great place to watch sprint cars.

Speaking of bad track prep, I have mixed feelings about WoO announcing that  they're racing at El Paso County Speedway in Calhan, Colorado. Only place I've ever seen worse racing than what I saw at Hagerstown. They usually run 305s & support classes, my one visit there was absolute follow the leader, one lane. Anyone who went up high lost ground right away. Best race was actually the slowest class (Hornets?), first time I've seen a woman win a race... she passed the guy on last turn, banging doors all the way down final straight, & went nuts on the podium.. pretty cool.

I'm glad WoO is coming back to Colorado after so many (?) years, but really hope WoO shows the Calhan folks how to prep a track... its very arid here

Last time WoO was in Colorado was 2005.... different track, I'm pretty sure

Here is how they prepared the track at Hagerstown last year.

In late afternoon the track was still as dry as a desert. The clay was all cracked and totally dried up. They brought run in trucks on the track and ran them around for quite awhile on the dried up surface and broke it up into smaller pieces. Then a bit later they brought the water truck out and wet it all down. Then they brought the trucks back out and ran it in. I don't really call this dirt track prep , but it worked. I was amazed at how it held up.

Yeah that definitely isn't conventional track prep but I'm with you, all that matters is the result and that night the surface was just about perfect and we saw a hell of a race. One of the better races of the season in fact. Dietrich and Hodnett trading the lead back and forth was pretty intense. I hope they put a fence up around the inside of the track. Freddie ending up on pit road was scary. Glad no one was hurt.

Hope this wasn't TOO negative. Calhan is a nice facility (i think they even have seatbacks) & I hope its successful... I'll go. Interesting drive, if you keep your eyes open you can usually see herds of antelope

But WoO REALLY needs to help them with track prep