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

Watching the WoO at Attica, Ohio. Do they not have water in Ohio? Or is it the dirt? Racetrack looks pretty dry & dusty. Got to believe this kind of track eats up tires.

It's the dirt.  Attica even has a new surface for 2023.  This happens all over the state.  Chet Christner has done a piece about the subject of differences of dirt on Flo.  I haven't watched it, but he did a quick summary during his drive-in preview when USAC went to Atomic Speedway in 2022.  Basically the dirt structure in Ohio turns to dust no matter how much you water it.  I've seen it happen at Atomic (probably K-C Raceway at the time) before during an All Star/NCRA race back in the day.  Rain delayed the program mid way through.  They ran the track in and started back up with the B-Main.  Dust particles were flying by the end of that short race, even after the rain.

But most people will just use the dust as an excuse to bag on Ohio tracks.

That being said, I wish they could figure out a way to solve the problem without having to spend the money to import dirt/clay from other parts of the country.  IIRC, calcium chloride has been illegal for some time so that's not an option.  That view (or lack of) into turn 4 for the High Limit race at Wayne County was absolutely unacceptable for TV viewing and probably wasn't much better for the fans.

Signature here.

I helped at a racetrack for years. We put tide laundry detergent in the water and it reduced the dust significantly. 

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

but it ended out to be a good entertaining race

It's actually about the water table in the ground. If you have to go deep to get into clay that has some moisture to it you better forget about using it.  Attica is not the only track in ohio with dust issues.  It really doesn't matter how much water you put down, the dirt needs to retain the moisture. If it doesn't,  you get dust, the clay just breaks down.  

I'm watching the replay of last night's WoO race at Attica, by Texas standards that rates as Small dust....

We did that at Winnipeg Speedway for years..Learned that from Karl Kinser..

Everything is bigger in Tejas, right?

I- 55 used something similar to soap for years to keep the dust down. I raced there weekly and didn't care for it. It made the dirt weird.

Wow! Thanks for all the info. The facts about the dirt make sence!

Someone above talked about laundry detergent . I would be curious how much it would take, and how it was applied?

The video on the different dirt is good, I have watched it. The HOF at Knoxville has a shelf with dozens of bottles of track dirt from all over the county.  Pretty neat.

In April (15th I think) the All Stars were at Attica (Marks), and the dust was worse than this one. But that's via my TV, although I talked to people who were there (I'm about 20 minutes away) and they said it was really bad. Wind direction is important for the fans there. If blowing from the track you get pummeled with the dust, even with the horse track in front of you.

Been some great racing there though.

And while I'm here while watching Sharon, how bit is that track?  I was there back years ago and I thought it was bigger than what this looks like.  Maybe just bad memory.

Your memory is fine, at least in this case.   The original configuration of Sharon was a Knoxville-sized half mile.  When the Blaneys bought the place it was reconfigured to the smaller track (3/8 I believe).  There are still some parts of the old track visible outside of turns 3 and 4.

Signature here.

Wow! Thank you so much. I don't remember when I was there, but I think late 80s early 90s. As you said, I remember it to be what I consider old horse tracks.

As I am watching this I was trying to see what looked different, and you can see some of the old stuff even on TV. Now I have to get there and see it again.

The real Sharon Speedway was one of my favorite tracks . Was there a bunch of times - witnessed Doug Wolfgang get his first win in the Weikert 29 there - in his first night in the car, witnessed Rich Vogler race there -in a 410 with a wing, a young Joe Gaerte in his dads car, ......and more Indiana and Central PA guys.
Been to the new track 0 times and have no desire to go. Darn shame.

Sharon was awesome last night. Great race. 

My suggestion: give it a chance. Last night was as good of a sprint car race as you'll see anywhere. All night long it was really good. Heat races were even good.