A Night at the Races

Ah, yes, a night at the Sprint Car races. What more could you want for a perfect summer evening? The roar of the engines, the smell of the fumes from the burning alcohol fuel, exchanging your favorite racing stories with fellow Sprint Car fans, the dirt (and cars) flying through the air...

... Well, it sure brings back the memories to me, and I go to the Sprint Car track two or three times a month during the summer even now. But I still remember going to the track on Saturday nights in Ohio as a child - The Millstream Motor Speedway, in Findlay, Ohio. I started going there with my Dad when I was so young that I don't even remember the first time. I do remember seeing the fireworks at the track on the 4th of July, and I do remember loving every minute I was at the track.

I'm going to tell you about a typical night at a Sprint Car race, and in the process I'll try to explain many of the things that happen during such an exciting and wonderful evening. I hope this will cause you to become interested enough in Sprint Car racing to attend a race yourself, if you haven't already. If you have attended Sprint Car races, this may answer some questions that you may have about some of the events that take place during the course of the night.

Grooming the Track

The action actually starts earlier in the day, or even the day before the races will take place, when the clay surface of the track is groomed and wet down. Since the track is made of dirt, it gets torn up quite a bit during a race, so the holes and ruts from the previous event need to be smoothed out. And water must be applied to the track so that it has just the right amount of "stickiness" when the racing begins. A dirt track must contain just the right amount of moisture for good racing to take place. If it is too dry, the cars slide around too much and the air is filled with dust. If it is too wet, the cars skid around in the mud and the spectators are showered with mud and dirt clods. If it is just right, it is sticky enough so that the tires get just enough grip on the surface so they can speed down the straightaways, yet they can still slide sideways through the turns.

So by the time the cars, drivers, and spectators begin arriving, the track has already been watered a number of times, and hopefully the clay has absorbed just enough water to yield the perfect racing surface. At that time, the track conditioning begins in earnest. It starts with the push-trucks driving counter-clockwise around the track to work in the wet spots, and smooth out the rough spots and the ruts in the surface, and it continues as the hot laps begin. This procedure is often called wheel packing, and it results (hopefully) in a perfect racing surface by the time the heat laps begin.

Hot Laps

Hot laps are the high-speed practice sessions on the fresh track surface, when the drivers are let out onto the track in small groups and allowed to run the cars at near-racing speed. This presents a chance for every driver to warm up his car's engine and tires, test out the repairs and changes made to the vehicle during the previous week, get a feel for condition of the track and the extents of its usable surface, and to get the kinks worked out of his muscles before time trials begin. Hot laps are the first chance the spectators get to hear the snarl of the engines and to breathe in the heady smell of the exhaust fumes. Sprint cars do not have starters like regular cars, to reduce their weight and complexity, so they must each be push-started. Usually eight to ten cars are allowed on the track for each hot lap session, and after they have been push-started and have spaced themselves out sufficiently, they are turned loose by the twirling furled green flag of the racing official in the flag stand. After all of the cars have had a chance at hot lap sessions, they retreat to the pits to make the final adjustments to the chasis, tires, and engines. By this time the track is getting in better and better condition - the mud surface has become quite sticky. Then the time trials begin.

Time Trials

Time trials (also called qualifying laps) are timed laps used to help determine the position of each car in the main event. Each car has drawn a number (a "pill") as they entered the gate, and these numbers are used to determine the qualifying order. Often, the qualifying order controls the qualifying speed of the cars, since the track may change drastically between the first and last qualifying runs. On dry or windy nights, the first qualifiers have the advantage, since the track starts to dry out by the time the last qualifiers have come out. And on other nights, the last qualifiers have the advantage when the track becomes stickier as the night progresses.

As each car passes a light and detector set up on the start/finish line, electronic timers determine the lap speeds. Each car gets one lap to warm up, then two timed laps. The time of the fastest of these two laps is used as the qualifying time. This time, along with the finishing position in the heat races and consolation races, determines the car's position in the main event of the evening.

In an event with a very large number of cars, time trials may be used to qualify or disqualify a car. In such cases, only a predetermined number of cars is allowed to continue on to the heat races, so the slower cars are cut, based on their qualifying time.

Grooves

During the time trials the various "grooves", or fast routes around the track, begin to develop. Each type of racing has various grooves each track. On paved tracks, these are usually unchanging from one race to another - once a driver has the track figured out, if the car is set up properly, and if the driver can get in the groove and drive consistently, he can pretty much be stay in the fastest route around the track.

But on a dirt track, there are generally two or three different grooves around a track, and they can change over the course of a night as the surface of the track changes. One of the three grooves is low on the inside or bottom of the track, and is of course the shortest route around the track. Driving in this groove is called "running on the pole" or "running on the inside", and it would seem that that is also the fastest way around a track.

Another groove is the high route, around the top of the track, and driving in this groove is called "running on the cushion". This would seem to be the slowest route, since the car has to go farther on each lap. There are two reasons why this may not be the case. First, a car in the high groove has more momentum than a car running lower, since it has a larger turning radius and also it may not have to brake as much as a car making a tighter turn around the bottom of the track. Secondly, the cushion, the loose soft dirt thrown up around the outside of the track, may be more sticky and thus give more traction than the packed dirt around the inside of the track.

A third groove is often formed around the middle of the track, and it usually has some of the advantages and disadvantages of the other two. In addition to the condition of the track surface, the groove often varies for each car, depending on how the chassis, suspension, and tires are set up. A good driver can set up his car to match the track conditions, and adjust that setup as the night goes on, to gain a distinct advantage over the other drivers.

Heat Races

Heat races are short 8 to 10 lap races which are normally used, along with the consolation races, to determine which cars will run in the main event. The cars are grouped in equal sized batches of about 6 to 10 cars, based on their qualifying times.

The cars are started in inverted order, with the fastest cars at the rear and the slower cars in front. This insures that everyone gets a chance to transfer to the main event, and also guarantees lots of passing and exciting racing action. And since the fastest qualifiers start in the back, even they have to race hard in order to make it to the front of their heat race. Cars that finish in first throught fourth places in their heat races transfer directly to the main event. But cars that finish in fifth place or worse must run one or more semi-main or consolation events in order to make the main event.

Consolation Races

Since some of the fastest qualifiers may not be able to come from the back into the first four places, quite often the consolation events are as exciting as the main event. These races are known by many names, including consies, last chance race, and semi-mains. If there is a high car count, there may be more than one of these semi-main events, in which case the main event is called the A-main, and the slower cars are run in B-, C-, or even D-mains. A car may advance from the higher-lettered events by finishing in the top four positions. These cars are then started in the rear of the next higher level consolation event. If they place in the top four positions of that race, then they are started in the rear of the next higher level, and so on. It is rare that a racer advances from a C- or D-main all the way to the A-main, but it does happen.

To Be Continued ...

Return to Dan Hendricks Home Page ... Return to Sprint Car Racing Home Page

Web-Counter claims sprint car racing fans have visited this page since March 14, 1996.