Made it over to BFG for the indoor season opener last weekend to check out the new layout and get my cars ready for indoor clay this winter. The more some stuff changes, the more it stays the same.
There was a lot of talk over the summer about making changes to the track and even some discussion about changing the location of the track due to some difficulties with the landlord. I spoke to John and he indicated that he still has some details to work out with his current landlord, but it looks like, for all intents and purposes that BFG will remain in it's current location this fall.
John asked for, and received a lot of feedback on what could be done to improve the track and there was a perception that the previous layout with a 190-200 ft runline was too long and narrow for good racing. I always disagreed with that. I thought the track made for pretty good racing when there was moisture in the clay and the track was maintained properly.
The other comment that was nearly universal was that the tubes had to go. I agreed with this one. There's no reason to have them out there in oval racing. Tubes just lead to broken parts and additional marshalling.
The new layout is approximately 60x40 with something like a 125 foot runline in the groove. For many of us here in the midwest, that probably seems like a tiny track and in some ways, it is. It's a lot smaller than the previous layouts, the straights are 30 feet or so shorter on each side (last track was something like 90x40), while the width remains the same.
John hasn't gotten any new clay in yet, so the surface is very similar to what it was last year, flat and rock hard, but it works well with the Custom Works HB tires that most of us run when moisture is kept in the track. If John does the track over, he has indicated that he will put a tarp under the clay to help keep the concrete from extracting the moisture from the track. I think we all agree that it could use some more depth as well.
On the racing side, we all showed up way over motored and way over-geared for the new track so it took a little while to start figuring some of that out, but because the surface was pretty much the same as it was last year, we didn't have to spend a bunch of time testing tires and such.
I thought that for being the first night on a new track the racing was very close and competitive. There's no doubt that we'll all pick up some speed as the season progresses, but it wasn't bad. You could have thrown a blanket over the Late Models and Sprints outside of driver error, which is a good sign.
The short layout led to a couple of things that we're not used to. Super tight racing means that you're probably going to have to pick your spots to pass in. The groove hasn't opened up much so if someone doesn't move over for you, you might have to follow them around for awhile and pick your spots. You also come around on lapped traffic pretty quickly. We're already about 10 laps quicker than we were on the longer layout which means a wreck almost certainly puts you a lap down. I think this made the track seem racier to me. It's not going to be easy to get a record setting TQ, but that's the fun of racing isn't it?
I don't remember seeing anyone with broken parts last night. One really positive aspect of shortening the track is that we're not carrying nearly the same amount of speed as we were before, so crashes aren't causing the same level of dammage as they used to.
If I were recommending class modifications, I think John should seriously consider moving trucks and Late Models to 17.5 to improve the racing for everyone. Sprints should probably just stay open, but I'll bet you that a 17.5 holds the track record before too long.
I realize that this would cause a bunch of people to say "aw man, I don't have a 17.5", so it's probably something that would have to be phased in over time, but I really do believe it's the way to go. It keeps the folks with more motor than skill from pile driving you at the end of the straight when you've already eased off to get into the corner because they've got too much motor in their car to control. I'm usually a fan of getting the fastest motor I can under the hood, but here's one time where I think I could live with dialing it back a little. Slower seems faster on the smaller track anyway.
The other recommendation would be for a little bit of banking. Banking does a lot of stuff. It keeps out to lunch cars on the track, it creates the possibility of a second groove, and it looks like a full scale dirt oval.
So, to make a long story longer, I like the new layout.
John says there's more clay and more changes on the way so stay tuned.....
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