A Kentucky mistake...

[WickerBill]

http://www.sportsline.com/autoracing/story/6440598

Fix it? Nah, we'll just slow down the cars. The "character" of the track is more important than the drivers' safety....

Note to my neighbor Mr. Brian Barnhart: it's time to put up or shut up. Tell them to fix it or the IRL won't be there. Period!

[Lizzerd]

"I'm not going to say we're going to completely rebuild Turns 1 and 2," he said. "That's part of the racetrack, that's part of the character. That's also part of the challenge for the competitors -- to make sure they can set up and who can get around this place.

"I want to emphasize that the changes we would be making would be very minor."


The old Nurburgring had character, too. The Isle of Man TT circuit has character. How many ghosts haunt those places today?

[cart7]

What's funny is that Michael Waltrip is always saying on Inside WC that the cup drivers love it when the irl comes to a track because it always gets ground down and smoothed out.

Aparently not. :saywhat:

[JoeBob]

They already spent millions repaving the track once. Remember that back in 2001 the track was bumpy and they ground/sealed the track. The IRL also mandated a 12 degree wing angle. For last year, they spent a couple of million repaving the place.

If you owned a track, would you spend millions to repave every year for a race that is lucky to draw 40,000 fans?

[cart7]

originally posted by JoeBob
If you owned a track, would you spend millions to repave every year for a race that is lucky to draw 40,000 fans?
Nope. He'll object eventually, BB will waffle and 20 some odd irl driver's fate will be in the balance every lap. :shakehead

[Railbird]

The Busch race drew 66,000+ fans a few Saturday night's ago. As long as the stockcar boys have no complaints about the surface the IRL will just have to adapt.

Nothing right about it, just the way it is.

[Racewriter]

Originally posted by Railbird
The Busch race drew 66,000+ fans a few Saturday night's ago. As long as the stockcar boys have no complaints about the surface the IRL will just have to adapt.

Nothing right about it, just the way it is.

Yep. Meanwhile, IRL went from 62,000 in 2000 to 40,000 last year...

[DaveL]

Originally posted by Racewriter
Yep. Meanwhile, IRL went from 62,000 in 2000 to 40,000 last year...

And the Lemmings on TenderloinForum call that "attendence growth".

[rabbit]

That place has been a dump since it opened. :shakehead

[pchall]

Originally posted by DaveL
And the Lemmings on TenderloinForum call that "attendence growth".

And both those numbers Racewriter produces for 2000 and 2002 are highly suspect.

Kentucky has first class ammenities for a NASCAR facility, but the paving has always been suspect. I do find it amusing that Cassis says the heaving is due to melting and freezing "on top" of the paving. The problem is more likely to be the heavy clay soil in the region that holds a lot of water all year around. In the summer when the asphalt softens in the heat, the weight of a transit bus will cause the paving to ripple like a pond. In the winter the heaving will put a three foot deep hole in your commute over night.

[Racewriter]

Originally posted by pchall
And both those numbers Racewriter produces for 2000 and 2002 are highly suspect.



The 2000 number is accurate. The track announced a dead-nuts paid attendance figure, something like 62,421. It was announced during the race, and there was no "extortion pack" ticketing.

The 2001 number was released the same way, but it was 47,000 and change. The 2002 number was a round 40,000, so the real figure may have been less.

The IRL actually outdrew BGN in 2000, 62,000 to 50,000.

[DaveL]

Originally posted by Racewriter
The 2001 number was released the same way, but it was 47,000 and change. The 2002 number was a round 40,000, so the real figure may have been less.

The IRL actually outdrew BGN in 2000, 62,000 to 50,000.

So that 62,000 to 47,000 to ~40,000.

More evidence of the growing popularity of the IRL.

[Railbird]

One thing RW failed to mention about the first IRL race at Sparta was the Pete Rose factor. Ol' Charlie Hustle was the Grand Marshall and was used heavily in the promotion which resulted in a large number of Red's fans glued to their seats, waiting for what I'll never know.

Well one the pre-race ceremonies were over, and old Pete realized he couldn't pick a trifecta, he, and in turn his fans, left.

A friend of mine was standing on a transporter during the race. That Monday she asked me if I could see any reason why about a third of the crowd left at the first yellow.

As far as the track condition goes, nothing about it or Barnhart's glossing over of a serious problem suprises me. With Scheckter having a suspension failure at Texas, I hope they break out the heavy duty stuff for KY.

[pchall]

The local wet-behind-the-ears motorsports hack swallowed Cassis' Kentucky PR crap like a catfish takes a cheese cube:

The IRL teams might have been caught off guard Friday because Kentucky has been known for having a relatively smooth track since it opened in 2000.


link (http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/06/22/spt_wwwsptsracin1adow22.html)

He couldn't even bother to check his own paper's library for a his predecessor's stories:

http://enquirer.com/editions/2001/08/09/spt_speedway_smooths_out.htmllink to 2001 story (http://enquirer.com/editions/2001/08/09/spt_speedway_smooths_out.html)

That place suffered from the freeze and thaw cycle heaves from the beginning.

[Hink]

That writer underscores the fact that he hasn't got a clue while suggesting that Toyota's dominance is beginner's luck. Clearly he isn't having much beginner's luck as a journalist.

[Napoleon]

Also wasn't the first Sparta race the first IRL race that people from Indy could easily make a day trip out of. I thought from when that race was announced it would do well for that reason alone.