It’s back!
 

Yes folks it’s 4 Crowns week, and other than it being an annual indicator that summer and racing season are fleeting, I couldn’t be happier. I think there’s a bit of irony in the fact that we start our weekend at Hoosier Park for harness racing on Thursday night, considering harness racing is supposedly what killed the Indy Mile. More likely corrupt government, but I digress. Then full steam ahead to the hallowed ground of Eldora Speedway for the best value in automobile racing and my favorite event ever, the 4 Crown Nationals. This year with High Limit instead of the Outlaws, I’m curious to see if there’s any noticeable difference. Hoping to see some of you over there this weekend.

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We will be there just outside the entrance. Look for our flamingos.

I’m going to find you. like it or not

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The Old Coyote might be hard to find, most of him aint there no more :6:

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Just look for the ACME on the side of his rig.

Let's hope the water truck is making plenty of laps around the track prior to Friday and Saturday. As hot as it's been, it could be a dry slick weekend.

Are there a lot of flamingos? If so I’m guessing I’ll need guidance. If not you can find us in the suite 7 parking area tailgating prior to racing

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This is the weekend I saved my lunch money for.Need plenty of money for pizza steaks and cheese balls and a few Blue yummies.Should roll in Fri afternoon around 12 :30.:32:

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Went to my first in 1983. Have only missed 1984 since. A lot of people don't like the wing cars. I like them better than the years with modifieds or late models. I did like the old USAC Stock Cars. I like that the bigger crowds have brought a better purse.
I am in no way expecting a heavy track. with the shape of the track, and that many cars, it is not going to happen. I think the surface there the last few years has been better than I have ever seen it.

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North bound in 30 M :31:

Looking for pink birds

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When I arrived in Kokomo Friday morning to meet up with Scott to head over to Eldora, he informed me that some time between when we left the camp ground Saturday night after the Smackdown and Sunday morning when he came back to pack up some SOB stole our flamingos as well as his propane tank!!

What a crummy thing to do. They should be easy to spot if you see them as one of them has painted on eyelashes and lipstick.

:21::21::2b1::21::21::21::21:

Don’t know what this looks like on Flo but this looks/feels like the Kansas dustbowl

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Just as bad on Flo.

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Stands look two thirds empty after midget feature. of course it's quarter till 1 with another feature to go.

Pavement racing,exactly the reason we haven't been back.

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I haven't been in six years. Tracks half sawdust. either they're skating around on it or they're burning the tires off.

That and the last checkered flag drops at 145am. Was the same way the last time we went. No thanks.

90+ degrees, bright sun both days, drought conditions, four divisions of cars....what were we expecting? The program even started little late, 6:30pm, because they put extra water down. They tried to rework the track, but it was so hard and slick. The Silver Crown race just became follow the leader around the bottom. Don't get out of the rubber. I think Briggs Danner could have challenged Mitchell, but he was just stuck in the rubber and was not going to harm Kody. It's interesting that we usually don't see this kind of dust at the big late model races.

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I have been going to Eldora for 62 years. I have been to many races when Earl did the track prep and it was a dust bowl.

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Yeah, Many of them features were dusty as hell. In fact, waves of dust. But the track was fast as hell Had a three ft high and four ft wide cushion. Now it's a slow skating rink with a 5mph speed limit.

We stayed to the bitter end. Wanted to get our 50.00 each worth.
I would suggest going back to the format of qualifying and heats say Friday night, and b mains and features Saturday. Just two any races on Saturday unless they start earlier.
What is really irritating, is the way they treat the silver crown drivers.
Almost every year they have a junk track to race on, and they wait around all night to race at 1am in front of very few people!
Come on Levi, we know you can come up with some kind plan that works better than what the 4crown is now.

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WHat did we expect? How about a decent race track. Quit blaming the weather. I've been to tracks all over the Midwest this year, seen daytime racing as well, and did not see a track this bad until last night.

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Just returned home after a 5 hour drive.

I love the 4 Crown, really do. And last night was one of the biggest if not the biggest crowds I've seen there for this event. Was really looking forward to the evening. Great weather, had a great drive over as well. I've seen day and night races at Eldora and in the 50 plus years I've been going to dirt tracks last night was quite possibly the f***king worst POS I've ever experienced. Dust Bowl Oklahoma could not have been worse. I was in turn 1 and could not see the cars in 3-4, and at times in 2.

The track wasn't that bad in hot laps and qualifying. You'd think it would get better as the sun went down and it got cooler. It didn't, it got worse. The USAC Sprint B main was won by a guy driving it as if it were pavement. And Kudos to the USAC Sprint guys for not having 27 yellows or reds and actually going out on that POS for their feature.

Ballou was right in his interview. Whatever they are doing, it ain't working. At one point the poor folks in 3-4 and the main chute were sitting in a cloud of dust. SOmeone should have received pink slip for that fiasco last night.

And getting over at 145. Ridiculous. They started racing pretty much on time, and other than that idiotic track rework kept the program moving.

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What was I expecting?? I was expecting to see a 30 lap Usac National sprint car race. They ran an efficient program with no midget qualifying, and 3 cars on track timing. That’s how you do it.
I expected after that the track prep/maintenance would be stellar. I did not expect a dust storm like you get in the desert. The two toy tractors they put on the track to open it up was a joke. A pickup truck with a water barrel in the bed of it was a joke. Anyone and I mean anyone who thought the outcome would be different is plain foolish. I expected Tony Stewart to have a better operation. Instead his panties were in a bunch about Ballou saying the track sucked.

Some people were saying it’s was bad some years Earl had the place. That may be but, it was only a couple of weeks ago how Stewart was lauded for stepping up during world 100 week for fixing his track after disastrous track prep. Lucky for them he had 3 more nites. Once again the series that started his rise to prominence is the one he has kicked to the curb. No three more nites to make it up. Stewart owns the place and this was his mess. I feel sorry for Levi as I’m sure he was hoping for better as well. I was really hoping that returning to this event after 12 years away would yield good results. Oh well I guess I was the fool.
Maybe the 50/50 money his foundation garners could go to prep equipment and people who know what they are doing. Stop blaming the weather, the amount of cars, and saying the sprint cars should not have run first. I expected better from Tony Stewart.

My group seen Levi and was nice and cordial and I wanted to say something about that fiasco but my son said leave it and he was right. Levi inherited this ******** and that’s the bottom line. I guess we give him a shot in all fairness but if it’s a continuation of this I don’t care if we come back. I live 50 minutes west of this place and been coming since 65. I know I am spoiled to be so close but this is cluster f$&k.

I’ll start by saying we were NOT at Eldora either Friday or Saturday night. Just too far to travel at this point in my life. I went to Eldora a great deal in the latter 70’s and up to the mid 80’s when we lived in Dayton Ohio. Back then, the vast majority of the races at Eldora were day races, although there were a few night races. That said, I think I can count on one hand the number of times I saw Eldora as dusty as it appeared to be on Saturday night. Yes, I know tires are wider and of different design, construction and materials, but other tracks are running programs with near the amount of cars with less dust.

I really don’t know what the answer is, but it was obvious on TV that by the time the midget feature was done, the crowd was down to less than probably 25% of the start of the night. $50 to leave before the show is complete is not something I can imagine lots of people will do again.

I was there last year and watched track prep on Saturday. I kept wondering why they weren’t watering it more. It was a total joke how little track prep they actually did. So this year I made a wise choice not to go. On top of the dust, it’s too long of a program on Saturday. The wings and midgets should only run features Saturday, no heats or time trials. That would help a lot but the track surface itself is one of the worst in the country. Knowing what Saturday night was going to be like, I watched football instead and then watched the race on Sunday so I could fast forward through the winged racing and other downtime. I was able to see all the USAC racing in about 3 hours and not a spec of dust on me.

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How wide were the rear tires on the Mods, back when they ran as part of the 4 crown? Was that a more limited car count? Idr

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First off I was not there, had to watch on Flo.

Yes the dust was bad. I thought I was watching a New York dirt track. Sorry but most of the ss races are dust bowls. Track wise.... was pretty decent for a slick track. Passing until the final SC feature. To me it looked like a Late Model track. So I was surprised the racing was decent. Forget the drought, forget the sun. The current version of the track is very choppy when wet. With the speeds that they turn, do you went heavy and rough, or slick and smooth? Currently that seems to be the only 2 options.

Now I was impressed with the crowd. Then add in the great car counts, almost makes me wonder if this thing should turn into a 3 day show?

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It's what it's become. Everything there is better and nicer than it was under Earl. EXCEPT THE TRACK.

Todays generation will never see the NO LIFT CUSHION POUNDING Winged racing I seen in the 80s-early 2000s It made people hold their breath and jump up to see the bomb sliders. Not only that. guys like Haud would go up and grab that little bit of cushion off of four and two to straighten em out and send em down the straight. Just mind blowing speed.

They sometimes qualify close to them speeds. but the racing I think is probably two seconds slower per lap throughout the night.

Im sorry, when a driver (Not Ballou} says I'd of run the wall, BUT YOU CAN'T SEE THE WALL unless your the leader. Somethings bad wrong.

A lot to unpack here from my favorite event. I’m going to throw a couple quick points out as break is almost over. I’ve been trying to be a little less critical, but some things you just can’t defend. The dust storm was terrible. A track that has a marquee that says World’s Greatest Dirt Track, should be ashamed. I too have been going to Eldora for decades and I can’t remember it being worse. The sad part is they tried to give us what we wanted. The USAC Sprint feature was going to be first, instead we couldn’t see it. The track rework had to be done or we would’ve gotten 3 and a half features of the last half of the big car race. Many of you have made valid points on this thread, perhaps none more accurate than 76’s point about 2 mini tractors and pickup with a water tote. Seems a track that is bold enough to take on the aforementioned moniker, would have a more suitable fleet. That’s it for now

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I doubt we will ever agree on much, except the track conditions Saturday. And the lack of proper equipment.

Chuck makes a great point and kudos to Tony for all of the investment into the physical plant. He and his staff have done a great job in that regard. And kudos to Eldora for weathering COVID and coming back like they did, many small businesses got crushed including race tracks.

Gotta disagree to an extent about the track re-work, it should never have been done from top to bottom. Top 1/3 might have been enough, and perhaps only in the corners. With what they did it was going to continue to peel off and throw dust until it got cleaned off.

TV didn't do Saturday justice as to how bad it really was. When you can win the USAC sprint B main by never sliding your car, that's an indication of a bad track. I've never heard so much throttle feathering at Eldora as I did Saturday.

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I had a 20-year-old relative from Columbus Ohio there for his first time with GF and her dad. Left at midnight. They won't return he told me. Not how you make fans unfortunately.

Not gonna grow the fan base that way😳.

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OK, everyone agrees the track was crap...
My question is what could be done to make it better?

One thing to expect at the 4 Crowns is a late night, not this late however. It seems to me a checker at midnight would be about as late as acceptable without any weather issues. I’ve been there a lot later, believe me. I think 2006 was when we got back to our room in Portland at like 5:30 am, but no dust that night. In this case, the track added to it’s own demise as caution for tire failure had to add at least 15 minutes to the race, but it felt longer. B99, I don’t think we’re that far apart. You even mentioned Scott Wier driving around there like a minivan around Winchester. If they hadn’t reworked it, that happens again in feature 1. It was a few years ago that they did a complete rework with lots of equipment, it went even later than this past weekend but the track was good. Even though some people disagree, I say the weather was a factor. Maybe Eldora Mark knows, he’s pretty close, but we haven’t had any rain at home for weeks, I’ll bet they haven’t since the World 100. Knowing that factor, they should have been working harder to get more water in it. But that leads to an issue I’ll discuss on another thread about the track.

Exactly!