IndianaOpenWheel.com Sprint Car & Midget Racing Forum





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cbaumeyer48 (Offline)
  #11 5/12/15 7:15 AM
How about offering a couple of nites to try wings on some of the Kenyon, focus, and ecotech cars??
jjones752 (Offline)
  #12 5/12/15 8:44 AM
If I can convince the crew chief/c.f.o. it's a good thing I do plan on coming out to support Thunder Valley on a Montpelier off-weekend (just not this one), but after seeing pictures and videos of last week's action I do have a couple of concerns:
I really don't like to see large heavy equipment tires ringing the inside of the track, especially one that seems to be pretty tight in terms of available runoff area; Montpelier seems to have gotten the message after Devin Fairchild's endo in his TQ last year and have replaced the big rubber with half-buried passenger car tires. Not the perfect solution but it seems like contact with them wouldn't be as likely to end in disaster.
In some photos of the track there appears to be a jagged tree stump up on the embankment above turn one, in a place that isn't protected by a catch fence; it's hard to tell how far from the track surface it so maybe someone who's been there can tell me if it's in an area that a car could end up if they happened to catch a right rear and go for a ride out of the park. If it is, I'd feel a lot better about anybody racing there, not just me, if someone went out with a chainsaw this week and cut that sucker flush to the ground...

Jim Jones
Midwest Thunder Speed2 Midget #97
Likes: Dirttrackfan61
bobbyg45 (Offline)
  #13 5/12/15 8:52 AM
Tree stump? There isnt any trees close to the track i think the pic is tricking you. And as for the tires yes this is being addressed
Likes: DAD
DAD (Offline)
  #14 5/12/15 9:11 AM
Originally Posted by bobbyg45:
Tree stump? There isnt any trees close to the track i think the pic is tricking you. And as for the tires yes this is being addressed
Jim

You are probably talking about my leaning tree. Located up on top of an embankment about 10 to 15 feet higher than the track. Yep I can't think of anybody in Midget racing that hold fuzzy feelings about earth-mover tires unless they are on earth-mover's prepping the track.

In Little Salem's distant path there was an owner by the name of Steve Smith that was also grader operator>>>near as I can figure Steve took that talent to his grave, because I have not seen any young up and coming operators plying their trade lately on a race track
. Steve could build a berm on the inside of the track about 12 to 18 inches tall, it was a determent as well as an asset to the racers, depending on their abilities. It didn't total any race cars. However Steve was a one of a kind guy. I have watched Steve go out with that antique grader and grade the top couple of inches off of the race track after a rain shower just to give us a track to race on. Wasn't anything that Steve couldn't do with that grader and a case of Beer beside him.

Honest Dad himself
jjones752 (Offline)
  #15 5/12/15 9:59 AM
Originally Posted by bobbyg45:
Tree stump? There isnt any trees close to the track i think the pic is tricking you. And as for the tires yes this is being addressed
If it's further away than it looks from here, OK, but that would not be a good thing to land on upside down...
Dad, Jimmy Naylor out in Ventura can work some magic with a grader too, from perfect berms to a 15-minute rehab of the surface before the main; it is a rare gift.

Jim Jones
Midwest Thunder Speed2 Midget #97
DAD (Offline)
  #16 5/12/15 10:04 AM
Jim

That ain't my tree, it is on up the hill and behind a fence beside the pit bleachers.. That one looks like a quick fix.

Honest Dad himself
sprint96 (Offline)
  #17 5/12/15 10:14 AM
Where can I find any videos of last Friday?
bobbyg45 (Offline)
  #18 5/12/15 10:16 AM
That thing is way on top a hill if you can get a car up there id buy you a house
Likes: DAD
DAD (Offline)
  #19 5/12/15 10:47 AM
Originally Posted by bobbyg45:
That thing is way on top a hill if you can get a car up there id buy you a house
Bobby

I watched a racer in a blue TQ one night climb a tire on the start of the race trying to go from the tail to the lead before turn two. He cartwheeled straight down the exit chute into the pits before he stopped bouncing. Had he taken a slightly different angle of attack I am sure he could have made that tree stump>>at that time it was probably a whole tree.

Never too soon to think about safety>>> beats the heck out of thinking about it too late.

Jim wonder if we could get a quote on track prep from Jimmy?

Honest Dad himself
welder (Offline)
  #20 5/12/15 11:07 AM
What is the driver minimum age rule? My son Nick Williams has outgrown a 1/4 midget at 12 yrs old and looking for our next step up.
Danny Williams Jr.
Likes: DAD
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