Ok, for anyone that didn't make it out to the first race on the new track, here's the report from my perspective (aka my version of the truth) :
The track is officially ready to race on. It's not perfectly smooth, but it's pretty good and it is really fast and I mean really fast, maybe too fast. The banking and the fresh track surface put the fastest laps of the night in the sub four second range. I'm certain that the numbers are going to get down around the mid threes as soon as we get the track dialed in.
It was great to see a nice crowd out for the first race of the year. In years past, the first race is usually pretty sparse until the weather really turns sour. There was a heat of street stocks, a full heat of mod sprints and three heats of late models.
The other thing that was sort of cool and different was the spectators. There were probably more spectators last night than I've ever seen at BFG. The new layout is very conducive to watching, so it was kind of nice. Most were offroad guys checking out some oval action. There were also a couple of folks just plain interested too. A few are talking like they might pick up a Sprint car or convert a buggy into a Late Model to get in on the action. That would be awesome for sure.
Be on the lookout for new racers. Go out of your way if you can to: A) give them some help getting set up and B) Cut them some slack on the race track. We are known for courteous driving, but I know that sometimes we get locked into getting that last tenth out of every lap. I know that I personally would be better off most of the time if I exercised a little more patience. It should be easier to get out of the way on this track, although the closing speeds and speed in general is really fast right now. It's not always easy to see someone coming and get out of the way in time.
The racing was a little rough, mostly due to people figuring out the new track and I think the inside wall had something to do with some of the carnage that happened in the earlier heats. It seemed like any time someone caught the inside wall, it would collect at least one other car coming through the turn. There were a few that ended up like Talladega where everyone pretty much got collected.
The other thing that I think happened was that everyone was trying out new stuff and no one was really sure how far they could push the traction on this new surface. I know I went over the line a few times and found myself turned around. Then again, how do you know where the line is if you never cross it? By the main, Sprint cars were playing pretty nicely and at least Mike Renniger got off a solid run.
Wish I would have stuck around for the late model mains. The B main was looking like it was pretty action packed when I was walking out :)
I'm not 100% sure, but I believe my Sprint car might have been the first one launched off of the track into the grandstands when bahr punted me (inadvertently I think) at the end of the front stretch. It was a good thing we had all of those spectators to catch it or I probably would have been building a new wing this afternoon.
Overall, I had a good time and it's clear that we all have a lot to learn about the new track conditions. I'm pouring over my notes from my flat track set up to figure out what to do to really get flying around this new banked high bite track. Without giving away too many secrets (not that I have any secrets, anyone can grab my car and check out my setup any time they want), I'm thinking that I need to do some additional testing on foam tires, possibly lighten up my shock oil and stiffen my springs in my setup. I'm pretty sure we could jack more of the weight to the left side of our vehicles as well, but that's going to take some time to find the right balance on that.
My plan is to hit the new and improved practice hours on Sundays, Thursdays, and Friday nights to try and get a handle on things. I'm willing to bet I'm going to see a few others there doing the same for the next few weeks anyway.
If you haven't gotten out to BFG, you should give it a try. Plenty of practice nights now to get your stuff ready and I was back in Kalamazoo last night by 10pm which might be a record for me getting back from any RC racing.
Until next week, later.....
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