Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Any talk about pits at Williams Grove moving out of infield 

I probably don't have much company on this one but: I hope not.

Infield pits,  covered wood grandstands, pagodas, and white washed guardrails were/are fine by me.

How about mandating open trailers instead?  

What happened to NASCAR? They got too fancy for themselves.

But you can't see the other side of the track from bottom seats or Beer Hill.....

It's time for the "Grove" to get with the program and move the pits to outside turns 1 and 2

every other track in central PA moved theirs out of the infield. Allows more folks to enjoy the infield and get a decent view of the racing. I was at the races at the Grove back when they had the covered grand stands Etc Etc. Nostalgic but those are days gone by. Fans deserve a good view from anywhere. full view of all racing keeps butts in the seats.

Couldn't agree more.

Get real... open trailers? I know they're cool & would love to see them driving down the road, but with all the $$$ they have invested in cars & equipment, ain't gonna happen...

I love those old pictures of open trailers with single axles too. Just gives a person the true grass roots feel but yes thise days are fine. Our local street stock guys have enclosed trailers as well as every carpenter to protect their goods.

As far as having to miss a few 100 feet of racing due to trailers inside the track, I'd live with that if I had 4  410 tracks in 3 hrs of my home, but if they can move them and give better sight lines to more people ,you just get more happy fans.

It's a business.....

Even though I may not know you, I 
care what most of you think!

With what some use today for pit carts ?  I'm all for teams coming into the grove for unloading, then taking the trailers out to turns 1 and 2.  

Altough it sounds good on paper, especially for the fans, I would almost guaranatee if the track invoked that rule on a weekly basis, you would have 10 cars in the pits.....It is tough enough on teams racing on a Friday night. After working all week, racing, then going to the car wash, etc. it would add an extra hour of time on the crew to load up......

Yeah that would never work. They have been looking at moving the pits outside. There's a lot of little hang ups that make it much more difficult than someone from the outside looking in may think but I'd look for it to happen sometime in the future. 

Enclosed trailers are far from a "luxury", being able to load up your equipment thursday night to be able to race on friday straight from work is a necessity. rolling in at 3am from a race and being able to go to bed instead of unloading a car, ATV, tires, 500# tool box, fuel jugs, spares, cooler and driver equipment, etc. not a necessity but sure is nice.

As for "Pit carts" the majority of tracks require teams to be able to push their own cars to staging if not start them too. look up the pricing of a 4x4 atv that is capable of starting a 410, you can buy a new base model kawasaki mule for less and have room to attach a toolbox and some other things, which then requires less floor space in the big evil enclosed trailer. 

some racers can do math and tell time

And to think my fist trailer was a single axle that had John deerE tractor tires mounted to the halibrand rear.  I hope the shark team learns from BA because after he decides it's enough. I don't know of another team that has gotten to were he has that team in today's world. 

'mandating open trailers' + smiley = sarcasm

Old guys like old stuff. In fact , 60 today.

and I'm  standing by my NASCAR comment. Example: Huset's. The Tod Querings (and Tony Stewarts) are very few and very far between. And Tod bailed the place out for, what?,  pennies on the Chuck's dollars - but still a bunch of money.

Port is really nice. But I'm still fond of the infield pits, covered grandstand, pagoda, and white wash. The appeal to me has always been the people, the cars, the speed, and the fairgrounds atmosphere.

 Davey Brown in blue work clothes is the only uniform I need to see.

And,  I'm an infield guy so sightlines are obviously not that important to me

You're 60 today? Happy Birthday. I'll catch up with you this Saturday. I would have gotten you a birthday present but, you know, I have all these Christmas gifts to buy...

I understood that the open trailer comment was sarcasm. Maybe old guys have a better ear for that kind of stuff? It's probably a longing for the time when the local guys with open trailers could come to the track and win. In the early 70's. there were 2 brothers at our local track that owned a garbage company. They hauled both of their pre-sprint, modfieds to the track in a long trailer with tall plywood sides. Sometimes in the heat of the summer the trailer smelled like the family business.

This is just my opinion and I'm only a fan but I'm all for pitting on the inside of the track and making them unload.  I know it sucks for the teams but for me watching them work in the pits is half the fun.  This usually means the "work area" is inside the track too.  So after a wreck there's a bit of drama wondering if a car will get their car fixed before the time runs out.  Or when the cars are staging and one car isn't and everyone is scrambling around it, with everyone wondering if they'll make the start of the race (spoiler alert they always do lol).  Or a car breaks in a heat race and you can tell by what the crew does if they're done for the night or not.  With pitting outside of the track you miss all this stuff.  I don't think it's impossible to make teams unload, if they know this in advance they could have a system where they could unload in 10 minutes.  But I get the pushpack, if you have a wreck and need stuff from the trailer, you've gotta wait until the track's clear.  If you are out for whatever reason in hot laps or the heat, you've gotta wait until intermission to leave.  And it's harder for the crew guys to watch a race from the infield.  If trailers are allowed at least you have a place to get a good vantage point but if there's no trailers allowed there's a good chance you won't see 2/3 of the track.  Also with watching from the middle of the track, no matter where you're looking your back is always going to be facing half of the action.  Not sure what the answer is.

Works fine at Port and Lincon. Think it be big improvent at Grove,  Hard to see on a weekly show , but when Woo and All stars put the trailers in infield lucky to see half the track. Is what it is , doubt they change it. ps. would love to see infield open at Baps.

That is because you do not have to do it. Those of us that do, it sucks. It makes a lot more work for crew members, and makes an already long day/ night, even longer. It also increses cost. Something everybody screams about, decreasing cost, so lets add something that will increase cost. 

Someone already said it. When you have 10 teams, it would not take much time to unload, and load back up.......

no mention so far that i've seen of the safety issue with teams in the pits.  got somebody killed with this set up and they haven't made any real changes aside from not letting the push trucks park right by the track...which should have been the policy before anyway.

the grove is the worst track to watch a race by a decent margin.  port royal has an open infield where you can see the whole track...but i also realized this year how cool it is to be on the front stretch for time trial shows.  you pretty much have a pit pass since all the teams hang out with the cars before they make laps.  i usually get bored during time trials everywhere else.  safety wise...there's a pretty good distance from the teams to the race track.

" I would have gotten you a birthday present but, you know, I have all these Christmas gifts to buy..."

No worries, Murphy,  I used to that - and likely so are you - even moreso as you're even closer to the "combined gifts"

Happy Birthday!

Ha Ha Ha. I cured my siblings of that. I just gave them their combined gift on their birthdays- wrapped in Christmas paper. Could be worse. I know a friend who's birthday is on the 25th. No one ever went o his birthday parties.