race chasin' at Eastside Speedway in VA

FLORIDA STOCK CAR RACING KARNAC's FLORIDA STOCK CAR RACING
1

I stopped in Eastside Speedway in Waynesboro VA last night on the way home from vacation.

Where do I start with this track? With the glaring flaws that it has overcome, or just emphasise the many things it does right?

Lets look at the bad first. There is a 1/3 mile dirt oval, a drag strip and a paved kart track on the property. Good, right? Wrong in this case. The drag strip and the oval share the same set of grandstands. That means the oval track is at least 100 feet from the spectators. Combine that with grandstands that are too low, and the result is a track where the fans can only see the top half of the cars (unless they are running on the bottom of the track. It just looks wrong to have that unused racing surface in front of you. It is just like being at New Smyrna or Volusia, and having the cars race down the pit road.

Track designers: don’t do this.

Also, this place had the most dangerous pit area I’ve ever been in. You see, the track allows teams to haul their parts into the infield during their race, so most of the teams have a four wheeler that pulls a trailer with tools, tires, etc. Well, some of these 4 wheelers are big, and they pull a BIG trailer at 20 or 30 mph through the pits. Naturally, some are driven by 10 year olds. Add these to the fact that the haulers go flying out of the pits (honestly, they all drive 20+ to the exit) and you have a very dangerous place.

Now for the good: 90 cars in 6 classes, including 23 LM for a 50 lapper. They were only racing for $1000, but these guys hung it out and raced hard. There was no complaining about having to pass other cars and tearing up my equipment (boo hoo!). The racing was good in the 50 lapper, and in most of the support classes too.

The stands were 80-90% full! Remember, this is in a run-down, working class town, and the front gate admission was $15. It is also a dry county, so there were no beer sales or drinking at the track! Boy, they could make some serious money if those fans could buy beer! As it was, some of those redneck girls were loud and roudy anyway.

Moral of the story: quit blaming the price of gas and “the economy” for all of Florida’s racing problems. This little place had a very good night, so there have to be other reasons, in addition to these, why so many tracks are struggling.

2

we are so smart in Florida

Took an outsider from Florida to notice that these people can’t see the races, their pits are unsafe and that they are not racing for enought money.
Somebody that goes to that track might see the post and go back to the track and tell everyone that they need to do it like it is done in Florida. Then the VA track is doom.

3

Not here,a def place

Sound like for the place it is in,there is little to no other things to do,so it works OK. Good for them.
Just way to many things to do in fla I guess,and you know about it being the sue me state,so those things could not go on for even a weekend.
All in all,I really love small town race tracks that kind of take me back more then a few years just being there. Great ya had a good time.

Old racer stuck in the void of racers southeast Fla.
Miami Homestead don’t count for us lower $ racers.

4

I’ve seen that set-up before, with the DragStrip in between the front stretch and the Grandstands. Yes, you are very removed from the action.
That track also runs, and I’m not joking, two support classes called “Grocery Getters” and “U-Cars”.

5

did you check out Old Dominion / Manassas on the front end of your trip then?

[I]Moral of the story: quit blaming the price of gas and “the economy” for all of Florida’s racing problems.

vs

Just way to many things to do in fla I guess
[/I]

this is the kind of response you’ll get most places, trying to compare out of state tracks to what we’ve got going on.

you want to really put the point home you need to use something like Inverness or Barberville or Punta Gorda. it’s hard to claim that there are “too many other things to do” here in Fla when those tracks are doing well.

although, as an interesting counter point, Terry Roberts is claiming that attendance at OSW and NSS is holding steady or even seeing increases.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080726/ARTICLE/807260364/2058/news&title=The_high_price_of_gas_and_racing

i’ll leave the commentary on that to others … i’d hate to be one of those negative people who are always tearing the tracks down and not building them up.

speaking of Punta Gorda, we’ll probably be heading over there next Saturday.

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U cars are getting really popular up here. Stock 4 cylinder cars. take windows and interior out. Put in a 4 point cage and go racing. Big fields and now some big purses at some tracks.

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T-mac,
We missed Old Dominion Speedway because we were being tourists in DC until late in the evening.

8

because we were being tourists in DC until late in the evening.

where are your priorities, man?

nah, i get it. you could spend a weekend sightseeing in Manassas ( Battle of Bull Run 1 & 2 ) and never get to the track. DC itself + Arlington + Alexandria could easily be an entire month.

Stock 4 cylinder cars. take windows and interior out. Put in a 4 point cage and go racing. Big fields and now some big purses at some tracks.

it’s called “Enduro racing” when you put a big purse out there.

which brings to mind, the OSW enduro is postponed indefinitely. call Rusty for more info:
http://orlandospeedworld.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=1&Itemid=114