After attending USAC sprint week this year, Knoxville Nationals, Oval Nationals at Perris, Kings Royal at Eldora, Trophy Cup at Tulare, Lakeside Speedway for the Ron Shuman classic. I can easily say Ventura is as good or better than any other track I have been too.
From the grandstands you can see the Pacific Ocean, Palm Trees, and the golden Brown Hills in the background. Yo can go surfing or just watch before the races as it is right next to the track. One of the nicest features is the built in air conditioning at no extra charge. The weather is normally between 70-60 all year round. Bring a warm jacket at night as it is very cool even during the summer. Also the train passing by is a nice feature. The facilities are also very first class. Nice seats with backs, not a bad seat in the house. Track Prep is normally awesome for the main. Heat races are ferrous every night for EVERY POSITION because they pea pick and where you finish in the heat determines your starting position. (At some tracks, cars not running near a transfer just cruise in the race, and sometimes even the 2nd place cruises, NEVER HAPPENS at a VRA show). 50 plus sprinters not uncommon. Many former and current CRA drivers drivers compete in the series with Troy Rutherford, Josh Ford running every week, plus Cory Kruseman on occasion. 7 heats is norm for sprint cars.
Minus-if you don't like to see alot of racing, you might not like it. A variety of good racing every night between 5-9 classes. Racing starts around 5 and normally the Sprint Main finishes by 10.
On a side note
Best racing format (and probably best main event) is a winged 360 Trophy Cup at Tulare. All cars inverted in the last mainevent, and last year Tim Kaeding started last and won against some of the best drivers, please don't say Wingers can't pass, you just haven't seen a good track and format. If you go this year, you might convert to Wingers, just kidding. Plus they already have 72 cars entered (it cut off at 72) for this years race. To tell you how great the racing is, the first year I went I had planned on going Thursday and Friday, and than go back to my beloved Ventura for USAC-CRA main event (they don't happen very often at this track). The racing was so good at Tulare, I stayed for the final night and I was well reward with a win by Rany Hannigan from mid pack and Brad Sweet and Sammy Swindell coming from the back rows to determine the overall winner with Sweet winning it on the last lap.
My favorite event is the Perris Oval Nationals. There is no more intense racing in heat races than the Thursday and Friday shows with 8 car inverts and a top notch main event. And perris facility is awesome. Saturday's B main is one of the best races all year, only 12 guys are guaranteed a starting position in the main event from Thurs and Fri, so there are 12 transfers up for grabs, but how they finish in the b main determines their main event starting position. I remember one year, both of Tony Stewart cars did not even qualify for the 5 heat races and had to use provisionals all week. Now there is a rule, you can not accumulate points for Saturday using provisionals
. Kinda like ISW
Lakeside is also one of my favorite racetracks although I was only there once.
Lawrencburg is just awesome facility and I like the high speeds.
And probably one of if not the best races I ever saw, was this years ISW show at Brownstown. Normally I am not a fan of dry slick tracks, but that was a hell of race. 3 wide for the lead, on and off the track, and 6 guys going for the lead.
Honestly the best sprint car track is the one I'm at. But its hard to beat Ventura for the Surrondings, Quality and Quantity of sprint cars, track surface for the main (kinda like Tri-state Haubstadt) and nobody works harder than the promoter who preps the track and announces.
PS- Best fans, easily the ISW fans, they are hardcore. Come to the track early even with 95degree weather with humidity and they pack almost every seat!
Best BIG BOYS TRACK- Manzanita- The Western Nationals took some balls when Hockett, Coons, K. Swindell thru some incredible slide jobs at high speed. Plus the 1/3 mile inside track for 360's.. And the track had some of the best BBQ ribs I ever had anywhere.
Reality- there are alot of awessome tracks every where in the nation and on any given night, the fans there think that is the best track. Variety is the spice of life for me and I alway get excited going to a new track. But at the same time, going to Ventura always leaves me with a smile after the sprint main 99% of the time, and I DON'T know any other track that does it for me.