brett
New Member
Posts: 8 
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Post by brett on Apr 6, 2014 12:22:58 GMT -6
I just wanted to say that it was great to see such a great turn out for practice yesterday. It was great to see familiar faces, catching up and telling a few stories . Most of all, it was great to see all of the new cars that will be racing with us this year.
A huge THANKS needs to be given to Dean Hathman and Ed Grimes for all of the work that they did to get the track and especially the pit area worked in enough so that we could practice. Unfortunately, with all of the prep work that went into the pit area, we couldn't get to the pond to get any water, so for the first couple hours, we had rather dusty conditions to put it mildly. Thankfully, the fire department allowed us to go fill up the water truck at the fire station and we were able to get some water on the track and improve the practice conditions.
I think we had 4-5 blown motors yesterday, one JR rookie it the wall pretty hard early in practice, but was ok. Had one roll over in the Open class with a torn up wing and nerf bar. All in all, I'd say we had a good day. Hope to see everyone at practice again next week.
2-4pm Rookie (first time in micro) practice
4-8 pm Open practice
8-10 pm Track Rental
If you want to rent the track for the 2 hrs after practice, the cost is $150 PER car, maximum of 5 cars. I know there were some people upset about this yesterday, but we voted on it a the club meeting. This price only applies to the practice days.
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Post by burnning rubber on Apr 14, 2014 7:50:03 GMT -6
This past practice was nice and dusty to start. The pack truck was kicking up dust. Extra windy conditions only added to the track conditions going downhill fast. By 5:30 the track was rubber down and a tire eater. Nothing says practice at SSMC like $500 in tires being burned up. What was the excuse for this week? Did our early season calculations say the pond was going to run dry by mid June if we used some water this week?
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brett
New Member
Posts: 8
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Post by brett on Apr 14, 2014 14:41:59 GMT -6
Considering that it was the 2 nicest days that we have had this spring on Friday and Saturday, with the sun and rather strong breeze on Saturday didn't help keep any moisture in the track. I know that nobody wanted to burn up a bunch of tires, but I'm not sure what else to expect when you start practice at 2 in the afternoon. I'm not a track prep guy, but I have been to enough races to know that your not going to keep moisture in a track in the middle of the afternoon with the sun out and windy conditions.
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Post by burnning rubber on Apr 18, 2014 14:40:55 GMT -6
Yeah, they were the nicest days by far, and yet they won't hold a candle to Mid-July. And as stated above, the pack truck was kicking up dust. I fully expected dry slick conditions very early on. I did not expect it for the pack truck though. You can't just wet down the dust on top and expect to make a track out of that. May as well just raced in the pits right after they water them. I understand the weather conditions, but apparently the track prep guy didn't. We couldn't even get one set of decent practice in. of course, if that was any indication of the season to come, I guess we did in fact get some quality practice in. I hope I'm wrong though!
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Post by slidinsideways on Apr 18, 2014 19:05:46 GMT -6
We haven't even had the first race and the armchair QB's are already throwing people under the bus.
OK...I get it...the conditions weren't ideal for practice, but they worked and got us in. If you used the time on the track to work on shaving thousands of a second of your lap time, or to ego race the other dudes on the track...well...it wasn't perfect. We all know why we had the conditions we had. It was what it was. If you used the time to shake off the cobwebs, and to just enjoy the smell of alky in the air...then the time on the track regardless of the conditions were just fine.
If you burned up a tire on the surface we had...well...you are a dumb*ss. Be smarter next time.
Despite some crappy conditions last year, the track was fairly good. Would it be better if we had Emmit Hahn working the track...well, yes. We don't have him. We have a pretty good crew, who shows up each week, to do their best. It is not what you might see on the WoO, but none of us are running on the WoO...now are we? Is it as good as it can be? No. It is pretty good considering all the hurdles this CLUB battles.
I'm sure the guy who works his *ss off trying to prep the track each week would gladly let you have the job. It pays such big money...tongue in cheek! Even when his unperfect art of track prep doesn't pan out...he tries...he didn't intentionally give us a crap track. He still has to listen to all the people bitch for a few bucks. Hell it could be worse - we could each be assigned a week of track prep responsibility as part of our membership...that would fix it! ...a joke. I have searched the ol' www for an instruction book on dirt track prep thinking I might give it to the next guy who acts like a high paid big shot racer trying to earn the $50k paycheck for the big win each night...guess what, can't find anything on the www. I guess Al Gore forgot that section when he invented the internet! I asked Emmit at Tulsa...he said "ain't no book". Gotta know how to read the track and conditions. Different every hour".
We should all be damn thankful of the facility we have. And the cost for a race night is the best for hundreds of miles.
I hate the dry dustbowl as much as anyone. It sucks for racers. I bitch also, but only under my breath for fear someone might just tell me "OK smartass, you are now in charge of the track". It sucks for our family members who get dragged to the track every Sat night to cheer us on to sit through the dust.
I'll start the track prep fund now. I would gladly pay an extra $10 per night to hire the king of all dirt track prep if that will give us perfection every Sat night! $10 per car x 80 cars = $800 per night...that is a fairly good wage and is a small price to pay for perfection. "If" money would buy the right guy which I bet it can't. I forgot though, some of you crybabies will bitch about the $10 increase in fee..."too much money, gonna have to quit" as you lean against your $40,000 truck pulling your $10,000 trailer hauling your $15,000 race car, smoking your $6 per pack cigs, texting on your $100 per month smart phone. If $10 is going to be a deal breaker for anyone at SSMC, you NEED TO SELL EVERYTING NOW because you are in a shitty bind and are going to have to resort to slinging meth just to pay the light bills...forget about building a retirement fund. I'm on a role...I get so sick of listening to the racers at SSMC bitch about nickel and dimes...you are idiots who sound like a retarded hillbilly. Sell everything...you cannot afford to even watch racing from the stands.
OK...now I'm pumped to race Sat night!
Let me know when you have the other racers at SSMC willing to pay their track fund prep. Count me in. Oh ya, once you find the right guy also who will do it. For those who can't afford the $10, I'll give it to you each week and I'll let you know what you can do around the trailer to work it off. I could use a handful of pro talent cleaning up crap for those bargain wages.
Later.
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Post by burnning rubber on Apr 19, 2014 8:51:51 GMT -6
Wow, welcome to SSMC rookies! LOL. Oh, you've never raced before and you burnt up a tire on that rubber down POS track? Well you're an idiot! Just ask slidinsideways, he'll tell you. Oh, you have an open trailer and a beat up old used truck and are on a tight budget? Well you're an idiot and you can't afford to race so just sell everything! Only rich people should get to have fun. Just ask Slidinsideways, he'll tell you. I'm pretty sure we already pay the track man. Put your $10 in the air at the drivers meeting tonight and I'll put mine up too. $10/night is cheaper than tires and torn up equipment. Since I don't smoke, I'll use that $6/pack money I still have laying around. Or I'm game for the we all take our turn approach. They'll complain when I do it, but it will be b/c of how sloppy it was when they had to go out and roll it in and they had to spend $10 more at the car wash to get it all off of there. LOL
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