Quote:
Originally Posted by terrehautian
wow...was the water on the infield meant ot be there or did it flood so they put a boat in it? |
Man, do those pics bring back some memories! The water from the infield is from flooding. Cecil 98 can weigh in on this one also. Before the pump system was put in the infield, anytime the Ohio river came up say to 42-45 feet (flood stage in Cincinnati being 52 feet), the track and infield and the surrounding ares would be very "mushy", but as soon as the river would start going down it was like a giant hydraulic system, the water would come thru the ground like old faithful! Mel and Tim Johnson talked to Rudy and myself quite often about those times. Can't quite remember the exact year (92 possibly) but the burg only got about 6 races in that year, due to major flooding. Mel had alot of pics of that, with water totally covering the entire track about 6 feet up on the old front stretch fence. He has some pics of Tommy Bipes with a ski-doo doing some fast laps, seeing he wasn't in a car! Even with the pump system, when the river is up now it will still "screw" with you a bit. There is also an underground stream under turn one. I remember the first time I watered all nite on a Friday on the old 1/4 mile, Mel told me " When you come up on turn one, cut one of the sprayers off, kick it outta grandma gear to second and fly thru there, then as soon as you get thru one go back to grandma and pour it to it!. Later that day he explained the underground stream to me and sure enough, Turn 1 was the wettest place on the track.
Oh well, got carried away there, once again great pics!