What type of track?

If there was going to be another asphalt track in florida what would you want.
(ex. how long? Degrees in turn. ect.)

Hybrid of the 2 most successful asphalt tracks in the country, Irwindale and Bowman-Gray.
1/4 mi. with progressive banking.

A wide 1/2 to 5/8 mile with little to progressive banking and no walls in the turns. Have a run off area to cut down on damaged cars.

eldora , paved

If you think long lasting track;
If your going for every sat nite running ,then you are far better off with a 1/4mile or at the very biggist 1/3,1/4 is far better though from the stand point of best show week to week and less car damage,takes a bit less cars to have a full line up and the fans can see better as well.
1/2 mile cost more for every one to race and upkeep/clean up ect.
Having a passing layout to track is good,but too much bank is not.
Only a fool would build anything bigger and fail.
Man I miss old flat Hialeah 1/3, but it needed about 2* or 3* more for most:aetsch013: other racers
Dirt is a good show too,but blacktop is best for week to week upkeep cost for the track

If you think long lasting track;
If your going for every sat nite running ,then you are far better off with a 1/4mile or at the very biggist 1/3,1/4 is far better though from the stand point of best show week to week and less car damage,takes a bit less cars to have a full line up and the fans can see better as well.

Right on!!! Never forget what you intend to sell…ENTERTAINMENT. In these day and age, very hard to fill full field of cars & make interesting races week in week out on bigger tracks.

Sunshine, it was best track to watch and race! Just copy it and you would have a winner. JMO

[QUOTE=andre;51743]If you think long lasting track;
If your going for every sat nite running ,then you are far better off with a 1/4mile or at the very biggist 1/3,1/4 is far better though from the stand point of best show week to week and less car damage,takes a bit less cars to have a full line up and the fans can see better as well.

Right on!!! Never forget what you intend to sell…ENTERTAINMENT. In these day and age, very hard to fill full field of cars & make interesting races week in week out on bigger tracks.[/QUOTE]

I use to skip the 1/4 or 1/3 mile tracks to visit tracks like Fonda, Lebanon Valley, Middletown, Utica Rome, and Rolling Wheels. All are 1/2 mile or larger. Rolling Wheels is a specials only format. The others run weekly shows and all put on a great show or use to. Of course all are dirt. The racing is better with fewer cautions. There’s room to move around. The 1/4 mile tracks seem to have a hard time racing without many cautions. Granted, a hard wreck on a half mile may do more damage to a car.
A wide half mile asphalt track can provide plenty of passing with speed. It’s a personal preference and I like the larger tracks. BTW, how many Florida shorter tracks are filling the fields now? Not many.

this is what I am thinking right now may be a track kind of like sunshine speedway, a track kind of like lakeland but with a little bit shorter front and back strech were it is not so hard on smaller cars, or a wide 1/4 mile track. Tell me what you think.

St. Pete was probably the most competitive track I’d ever seen. 70’ wide on the straights, 1/4 mile around the bottom, nearly a 1/2 mile around the very top, 8 degrees banking in the corners and the high side of the backstretch. You could really get some momentum getting up off of turn two, down the backstretch and into turn three. You could pass on the outside, you could pass coming from the back of the field in a 25-lap, 30-car (Super) Late Model feature race. Three wide through the field. Street Stocks would sometimes go six-wide.
Gotta put in a figure-8 in the infield, and start back up with Street Stock-type Figure 8 racing.
Go with just four divisions of racing to start with: a REGULAR, weekly (Super) Late Model class; put the STOCK back in “Mini Stock” (you need a four-banger division to appeal to the kids that can tune these things…LOL); maybe a Modified or a Sportsman-type class; and a Strictly Stock class. Have maybe once-a-month specials with the Sprint Cars and Figure 8’s; better yet, alternate weeks with Figure 8’s and Modifieds; and put in a “Super Stock” type class.
$8.00 for adults in the grandstands; $6.00 for kids 11-17; maybe 10 and under free with a paid adult. Pit side, maybe $12-15.00.
Run HEAT RACES. Give the fans their money’s worth. Plan on maybe two big events a year for each division; maybe ONE big, three-day show ending with the finale’ on a Sunday afternoon.

Sunshine was cool, but I’d model a new Florida track after Kalamazoo Speedway, I was impressed with the facility and the racing.

Jummy that sounds like Desoto Speedway and most of the good tracks in Florida in 1985. Why did we stop?

don62

I want something that will be good for fans and good for the racers.

I want something that will be good for fans and good for the racers.
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In general, race fans delight are the racers nightmare:
I.E.: Fast car to the back, lotsa passing, full field heat races, more entries than feature starting spots, fast rythm event, no waiting for ‘‘princes’’, no useless caution for ‘‘Mr Perfect’’, Xtra long & wide racing surface, etc., etc., etc.

You want a good exemple, take Thunder Road, Vermont. This past w/e, it was the Milk Bowl. The track is 1/4 mile high bank. There was 61 Late Model to qualify with 28 spots in the feature, they sent home more than they took, that will give heat races that means something and an event to talk about. The place is clean but nothing fancy or high tech, just outstanding short track racing …and this is what race fans want.

[/I][/B]

I’d go with a 1/3 mile track as 1/4 mile is too short and 1/2 mile is too big. There seem to be more wrecks on 1/4 mile tracks and it costs more money to run a race car on a 1/2 mile track. The 1/3 mile track is the ideal compromise.

I’ve grown up on asphalt tracks so I’d go with asphalt. I’d have in the range of 16-20 degree banking in the turns. Straightaway would be wide enough for good two wide racing. No walls or fences in the turns or backstretch, just a run off area. That cuts the cost of building the track and reduces the wreckage of race cars. Only place for a wall and fencing would be in front of the grandstands on the front stretch.

As for making it like Bowman Gray Stadium that would be a definite not. That track has flat turns narrow straightaways and it is very difficult to pass. More often than not the car that starts on the pole wins the race. Boring!

As for the food concession just look into Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, NY and see what they have and how they do it. Food is great and prices are very reasonable. For that matter it wouldn’t be a bad idea to look into how Lebanon Valley Speedway runs their entire operation. Howie Commander is a multiple time award winning promoter.

As for racing divisions, I’d only have three or maybe four at the most. An entry level novice division of 4 cylinder bombers, an intermediary division of super street stocks or limited late models and a top division of late models or SK type open wheel modifieds. I’d probably run the late models and modifieds on an alternate week basis.

Fewer is better and that’s the way I feel about divisions at race tracks. The fewer the divisions the more entries you get in each divisions you run.

I’d run traveling series races, but on the night that a series was at my track I’d run my bombers or super streets on an alternate basis. I wouldn’t run both in the interest of time and getting fans home at a decent hour. I find that there are far too many tracks that commit to running all of their divisions when they have a traveling series running at their track and fans either have to stay real late or leave well before the race program has been completed especially if they have children. 10:30 PM should be the goal for the finishing time of any race program.