Forum: Northern California Sprint Car (go)
Moderators: StuDeedooo

you were warned......................... in the not too distant future another poster will be on here defending his track and attacking your point of view, don't take it personally. We all know whats up, and thats why i saved a 400 mile round trip. KINGS SPEEDWAY WAS A GREAT TRACK AND DESERVES BETTER! everyone can't be wrong........

Wonder if we can do a hostle take over?

Well that call was just another in a long list of BS calls made all night. Between the questionable calls and the long, long, long times to cleans up after a caution and the dust, it made for a long night. No matter what the track threw at them though, the drivers throughout all the classes put on some great racing!!!

well it couldnt be that bad if you got to see S Allard win.if you run a race during the day whats going to happen it will dry out and ohhh be dusty.common sense people....good luck this weekend Stephen and Godathan Allard.

Somehow, the racing was actually pretty good on Saturday night, taking the track conditions into consideration. I've got to hand it to the drivers for making the show pretty entertaining come main event time, and for driving their butt's off. They also had half price beer during "happy hour" which was pretty nice. That's the good news...Now a short list of the bad news. Saturday was the first time I'd been there in 1.5 years, and I see things haven't changed..except maybe for the worse. I know the announcers were trying to keep the show entertaining, BUT, its okay to have one second of time without talking during an evening of racing. Seriously, every waking second that they were not racing the announcers were talking, sometimes talking over each other, and sometimes still chattering after the race had begun. It was so bad that you could hardly talk to the people next to you because of all the chatter over the PA. What's more, half the chatter was spent making excuses for the dry track, AND, actually making that sound like a good thing. Stuff like, "back east you see dry-slick tracks like this all the time and it really does make for better racing". That'd be fine if dry slick is all it was...It was actually a rutted dustbowl that had the fans literally screaming for water. The track was better suited to a CORA off road race than sprint cars.

I was critical of the unprofessional PR posted on this board prior to the race and I chose to go anyhow because of all the great classes on the bill. Shame on me...my mistake for going. What I found when I got there was that the quality of the PR was indicative of the whole operation.

Go ahead and bash away at me if you disagree- If you somehow had a better experience this weekend than I did, more power to ya. I'm done wasting my money at King's speedway until there's a regime change.

-Mike

I went to Hanford for the "Cotton Classic". I had read some of the negative comments about the track and management of the facility here on the forum. I was hoping the rumors were overstating the problems at the track and went there with the expectation that I'd get to see some good racing. I don't consider myself to be any kind of expert, just a sprint car racing fan. Here are some of my observations.

The cones used to mark the edge of the track were ridiculous. They caused so many yellows both nights as they were constantly being hit and thrown onto the track, caught on cars, caught under cars... Also, I think the track needs to invest in a whiteboard. Many laps were wasted trying to get cars back in order with the officials pointing and gesturing to the drivers to try to get them into the correct line up.

The track prep both nights was really bad. The first night the clay was pulling off the surface of the track already during hot laps leaving big dusty holes. The big hole coming into turn one caused numerous flips. They eventually filled in the hole and left a bump there instead. The second night the track was so dry and dusty it was impossible to even see the races from the grandstands. The track was already dry and dusty before they started hot laps. I don't mind dusty races but this was the worst dust I've ever experienced. The people in the grandstands were yelling "water the track" and someone put a message up on the scoreboard "Please! Please! Please! Water the track..." The announcers finally said they were going to do something about the the dust. Then the water truck came out and watered around the edges of the track inside and out. But never the track itself. I think that's when the audience gave up. The crowd on Saturday night was the most unmotivated and unhappy group I've ever seen at a race. Everyone there seemed to be totally FRUSTRATED because they came to watch racing but often couldn't see the cars.

Friday night didn't finish until 12:40 even with postponing the modified main and shortening several of the other mains. Saturday night finished up around 11:40. The grandstands were mostly empty before the end of the last race on Friday night and about half of the crowd had left before the final event finished Saurday night.

Oh well, I know we were warned...

No wonder they don't want photographers there.

I was waiting for that one so I didn't have to be the bad guy this time :-)......Thanks John!

I didn't want to have to do this... but here it goes,,,,, I told you so, I said BEWARE, I rest my case. You were warned, Some of the lossers in this are the fans for having to pay to much to witness that joke and the owners for having to pay the promoter to race on that crap. Sorry

Jones

By looking at the crowd it didnt look like many showed up friday compared to saturday. What I dont get, is the track condition rants. On Friday, the track was GREAT. Holes, stay out of em! I recall Baylands being a bad ass little place to race. It had a rutt in one and two everytime! Do we complain about it now? I sit here and shake my head. Is this forum strickly for people to hear everyone's paticular complaints? Its a dirt track, it will have rutts and wholes, go around them. But someone said there is usually a reason there is a rutt there, it has more grip than any other part of the track. The track conditions should not be the point of concern here, more as to the scoring. That might not bring back the big names no matter how much money is offered. That was the worst two days of scoring I have ever seen. Get a transponder or keep the scoring people in the tower. I seen some walking around chatting with the locals in the stands. Didnt seem to professional.

sidewayz---baylands and san jose both graded there track if a hole became a problem and/or watered it some times several times a night if it got dry i can remember leaving both in the early morning hours because thy wanted to give the racers a race track too race on and the fans a good race too watch

Too bad, I can remember not that many years ago when that track would be heavier after running the feature on it than it was during hot laps.

I don't know know anything about track prep but I'm wondering if at least part of the problem is due to the new dirt I'm told was brought in recently. I don't know where it was obtained but it is definitely different from any other clay I've seen. Seems like they put plenty of water on it for Friday night. It never did get dry but, unfortunately, did start to 'peel up' in a few places. At least they made an effort to repair these areas even if it caused the show run late. On Saturday night I get the impression they just decided that, since the racing program got underway so early in the day (and it was super hot out), it was going to be impossible to prevent it from going dry. I do think they could have done a better job of keeping the dust down, and perhaps even wet down the racing surface occasionally though maybe they've tried that in the past to discover that it only made things worse. I do know one thing. The track conditions didn't seem to deter the drivers from standing on the gas. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

Sidewayz: "Holes, stay out of 'em". Spoken like a true NON car owner/driver.

Minimum damage: top wing $650. Wing tree $50. Wing posts $60. Wing slider $40. Vinyl $100. Powdercoat $120. CF ft cap $100.

Holes, ruts, whoops, we have been over this a dozen times on this board. They don't seperate the men from the boys but rather the owners from their wallets. Thin wallets mean thinner car counts.

No doubt aside of some of the other issues I don't see how anyone can complain about the racing in the main events either night. There was some great racing in all classes and the drivers all did one heck of a job. I know they did bring new clay in and that had to be a big problem with the track on Friday. I know that when new clay was brought in at Tulare last year it chunked up real bad during the first night of our big modified show in September.

Also in response to the first post, I know the track held a memorial for Jim Turner(the driver who lost his life at this race last year) a few weekend's back so they did show respect to the Turner family by holding a memorial, it just wasn't on the same weekend.

GT Promotions
http://www.mbracingteam.com/Gary_Thomas.html

First off..dont be bagging Gary for his opinion you non driving #$%. Learn to respect people that have seen more racing and dirt tracks than you'll ever make A Mains in. Gary is a good reporter. Ok dont go back to hanford...My team probably wont until it gets better...but the crap

you guys throw at each other on here is stupid...did Gary prep the track no..did he anounce the race no...Wal you should be calling Gary to post something good about your crappy image on this forum....

Ok im Over the crap talking..sorry if I made any babies cry...Yup hanford was horrible...track has gone down hill..either get rid of the track and open san jose Speedway. or get a new promoter...Cause that guy is in for the money and not for the racing

WaltBBB.... whew, sorry for stuttering... take your personal smack elsewhere.

When Gary gets paid for his writing, you will see it... it is a professional presentation and there is no mistaking it. Yes he posts some of it on here, but you know that is what it is.

When he writes an opinion, you can take it to the bank. The racing bank of course because real banks are up the creek these days. I and others have seen him bag when it is warranted, but he don't talk smack and he don't spin.

Take the personal crap to another (pick one) message board.

too bad kings is getting such bad reviews. i have not been since NST race. kings used to be a great place to go to race and watch races. anyone know why they don't get on board and get their program on a par with other tracks around here? do they think that just cause they are the only place around the area that runs races on semi-regular basis that folks will come? are they just trying to be a hobby class, back gate money track? it seems like the local racers and some of the well known out of towners have shown support for the place. but hell, us dumb racers will usually show up just cause a race it scheduled. is that what the kings promotors are counting on? there is too much of the same type of reviews going on here and by word of mouth about the displeasure fans have had there for it to be written off as just the opinion of a small number of people. i hate to see any track be on the sh_t list of fans or race teams. someone said the promotor is just in it for the money. well if lack of interest among track patrons takes hold, lack of money will soon follow.