Nascar who is kidding who

FLORIDA STOCK CAR RACING KARNAC's FLORIDA STOCK CAR RACING
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Nascar you could do better, ‘‘The king of stock car racing’’? With all their money that’s what you do for these racers.That is so ‘‘cheezeeeeeee’’. We’re going for the minimalist approach,using orange traffic cones and some stacked-up tires protecting part of the inside wall. If ?minimalist? is Silberman’s goal, he succeeded.Why not go to Wallmart and put some cones up and I will give you some left over tire’s I have.Robert Hart will love this.

Daytona International Speedway unveils its new short track–sort of

By: Steven Cole Smith on May 30, 2012

Steven Cole Smith - Brett Bodine drives a Toyota Camry around the new short track at Daytona International Speedway. The track is marked off by tires and cones.

?We’re going for the minimalist approach,? said George Silberman, NASCAR vice president of regional and touring series, at Wednesday’s unveiling of the 4/10th of a mile oval-within-an-oval at Daytona International Speedway.

Unlike other short tracks inside big NASCAR ovals such as Texas Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway–which have dedicated small ovals inside the big speedways–the Daytona short oval is just marked out on the backstretch of the superspeedway, in front of the ?Superstretch? grandstands, using orange traffic cones and some stacked-up tires protecting part of the inside wall. If ?minimalist? is Silberman’s goal, he succeeded.

The track will be used Feb. 18-19, 2013, during Speedweeks, prior to the Daytona 500. It will host three NASCAR touring series–the NASCAR Whelen modified series, the K&N Pro Series and the NASCAR Late Models. It will be called the University of Northwestern Ohio Battle of the Beach at Daytona.

The start/finish line is against the inside wall, close to Lake Lloyd in the infield. You go left at a pylon for turn one, then turn two takes you onto the actual speedway surface. You leave the surface at turn three, and turn four and the straightaway are on the paved area that Daytona officials say is a skidpad. The wall next to the starting line has a SAFER barrier, but you head toward the concrete outside wall through turn two and onto the other straight. Turns are paper-clip tight.

Former NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Brett Bodine, who presently drives the official pace car in Cup races, gave rides around the track in a Toyota Camry pace car. The Bodine family has plenty of experience in open-wheel modifieds, and Bodine said he suspects top speeds will approach 115 mph.

?We’re doing 75 right now in the pace car,? he said, looking down at the speedometer.

Bodine agrees that the ultraflat track will be a challenge, especially since there is no track like it on the circuit. Bodine said it reminds him of Riverside Park Speedway in Agawam, Mass., which was built in 1948 and closed in 1999. However, having raced at Riverside Park, I don’t recall the similarities, since Riverside was a quarter-mile with 15 degrees of banking. If NASCAR teams want to find a place to test the setup for the Daytona short track, they’d do well to just find a big parking lot.

Drivers can prequalify for the UNOH Battle of the Beach by winning a 2012 Whelen modified, K&N Pro, Late Model, Canadian Tire Series, Toyota Series of Mexico or Euro Racecar race. Among those already locked in are Chase Elliott, son of ex-NASCAR champ Bill Elliott, and Joe Gibbs Racing developmental driver Darrell Wallace. If you are hoping to see NASCAR hot shoes such as Tony Stewart in the race, it won’t happen–Battle drivers who are full-time competitors in the national NASCAR series aren’t eligible.

But it will, at least, give a lot more drivers a chance to say yes, they have raced at Daytona.

?I think it’ll be exciting,? said Bodine. ?I think they can go three-wide around here.?

Read more: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20120530/nascar/120539973#ixzz1wTZJShDq

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Agreed, sounds cheesy to begin with, hopefully the final product will be much better than explained and better than it appeared on TV. Now the comparison to Riverside must have been from the days of Humiston, Maggiacomo, Galulu, Krebs, Flemke, Bergin,Caruso,Mordino, etc when it was a flat one fifth before changing to the banked quarter mile at some point in the late sixties, early seventies. The fifth saw some fantastic racing in its day,especially under the United (Tattersall) Racing Club banner. Spent many a Saturday night at this track.Still can’t see the comparison though… Maybe he was thinking of Staffords half miler which had some bank but very,very little. Also agree with Frasson 118 about the car count. I also could not figure the amount announced from the divisions adding up to the NASCAR advanced car count. If the Whelan south and Whelan North tour in mods get together it should be a heck of a show.

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Thank the lord they did not put in a dirt track. I don,t want their influence anywhere close to where real racing takes place. Bruton Smith got the jump at Charlotte but he only had 29 sprints show up for a televised event, I hope that is the economy talking and not the way sprint racing is going in the south. As for nascar it is obvious they have no respect for the feeder system that short tracks represents. The live night races put a hurt on local racing til people found out that it usually isn,t worth taping so now they will just go head to head with an established speedweek series. I hope New Symrna kicks ass on this deal.

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I also was surprised to see only 29 sprints for the TV show from Charlotte. Take into consideration how many sprints the two teams of Stewart & Kahne had for the night and the count really looked bad. Pretty good show though. Maybe others were damaged at Hagerstown the race before causing the low turn out of sprints. Yes I agree, would like to see NSS come out on top during this Winter Series. The World Series at NSS needs help though with the fan count, and I do worry that Daytona will steal quite a few fans for their couple of nights.

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Well, this would be the perfect oppurtunity to shove it in Nascars face…pack New Smyrna!!!

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Charlotte dirt track has the worst racing surface on the planet!

last year or year before the WOO LM’s refused to run on it because it was destroying their cars.

The holes were the size of Volkswagens this last sprint car event as well.

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The Charlotte dirt track when I was there, was probably THE best surface I have ever seen. I know there have been several issues on other dates, but it was smooth, tacky, and COMPLETELY dust free.

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When I was there about 3 years ago, it was dusty. It really surprised me. They had a good crowd, enough cars, but lots of dust. billy

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Ive seen many shows there. All but one were top notch. Weather played hell on one of the “Colossal 100” shows.

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Riverside or Stafford? Not Quite…

Riverside (now a Superman roller coaster :mad:) had a pretty good amount of banking on it. So much so that the preferred groove for the Tour Mods was the high groove. It was “accidentally” progressive banking being flatter on the bottom. Although Stafford is rather flat it is still 9 degrees in one corner and 7 degrees in the other at twice the size being a true 1/2 mile. I would say if you want a comparison think of Plainville Stadium (now a Lowe’s :mad:)for the yankees and Bowman-Gray Stadium for the rebels…:aetsch013:

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As drivers and fans we do have to support are local track or another one will be shut down

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Yes, thats how Riverside ended its days as a banked quarter. Then Five Flags bought it from the Carroll family. Although the new banked quarter was fast, I still preferred the old flat 1/5 before it was converted to the quarter and Nascar moved in. The days of Greco ,in my opinion were the best, Nascar moved in and sent Harvey and his gang packing to Waterford. I was thinking of Plainville as well.Great quarter mile, rough and tough with the Alkas boys, Red & Russ Foote, Jap Membrino and Stan Gregor. Some really good open comp mid-week shows usually going Flemke’s way… I remember the drive-in movie theater a little bit off of turn four. Could never figure out how people could hear the movies on a Saturday when the cars were racing. Plainville was my first track as my dad took me there for the first time 62 years ago, wow. My uncle used to race a Sprint there for the special shows when they came to town. Not only great racing but super french fries and imo the best hot dog of any track. Joe Tinty and Moneybags Moe did a fantastic job with that place and then boom, it was gone, just like Cherry Park and Danbury.

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The Good Old Days…

My Dad was good friends with Billy Greco. That’s how I learned to love the sport. Goin’ to the Park and watchin’ the Mods. Man, it’s a shame that place is gone. Plainville was the Bowman-Gray of the North. Fistfights included. :aetsch013: Do you remember Ronnie Rocco always riding around under yellow smoking a cigarette? Dick Trickle had nothing on him, in that respect! :slight_smile:

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Ronnie Rocco, could never forget him. Many great races. Wasn’t he number 13? I believe I have a photo of him in my collection, if I could ever find it. My cousin used to help Jap Membrino with his car at Plainville. My Dad always told me, if you go into the Plainville pits, make sure you carry a tire iron with you, just in case. This is when I was 16 and he felt I needed the extra protection. lol. Man those tracks used to be packed. So many great memories.

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Yeah, number 13. I wonder if that’s why TC is #13. He’s from Plainville and the way he drives I’m sure Ronnie was his idol!

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Agree on all counts. Always felt there was a connection between the two. Afterall as you mentioned the #13 both from Plainville, both driving styles, both firey attitudes, just has to be a connection. Back to Greco at Riverside, I have a 1:64 scale “pink puddy cat” #43 of Billy’s car sitting on my desk. When Tom Gallant would announce Billy’s arrival on the track in his low baritone voice as Billy came out of the pits, the place would go wild. Probably the best announcer I have ever heard. Talk about firing up a crowd. He was followed by Mike Joy, then John Janusitus at the Park… Pretty good list of announcers. Gallant was a hard act to follow.

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Ben Dodge was/is pretty good too. Also the best promoter EVER. Treated every driver with RESPECT from Tour Mod down to the lowest entry level class. Any track down here would do a lot better with him at the helm. When he left The Park it was essentially over…:frowning:

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Had left the area and moved to the Southeast corner of the state just as Dodge was coming in. I do enjoy his announcing and knowledge during Speedweeks. After moving I chose Seekonk and Danbury with Sunday trips to Thompson, also started following NEMA throughout the Northeast. Might also add that I had many a journey to Lebanon Valley over the years and will be back there two weeks from tomorrow night. Just wish the Central Florida promoters/owners can get the racing in the Orlando area back to what it once was. Actually I would accept half of what it once was for a starter. Been going mostly to Citrus or Punta Gorda for awhile now, but I do support both OSW and NSS as much as I can. Followed TBARA until there fiasco from last year. Went to OSW 4 weeks in a row and the fields of cars seemed to be getting a smidge better each week. Racing was good and I had always left thinking things were getting better, then boom, the schedule conflict ordeal. Oh well, we’ll see what happens.

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Lebanon Valley! Don’t know what was better the racing or the food! The sausage grinder, the french fries (I think they pulled 'em outta turn one!) and the home baked beans and the World Of Outlaws and Big Block Mods! BTW I was all set and psyched to pull to OSW tonight but again the rain killed the Sportsman 50. Don’t know if I can make the resked date for the 50 but I plan on pulling over and doing double duty at OSW on a friday and NSS on the next day on a Saturday once in July and once in August (weather permitting :mad:). I hate to see racetracks close and I will do all I can to support any of these places that are struggling. We changed the gear and are headed to Bronson tomorrow!:ernaehrung004:

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Can’t wait to have some of that great Valley food. The Empire Sprints are on the schedule, so should be a good show, never saw a bad one at the Valley, Yes, I believe in supporting my local tracks but at times it becomes difficult and a change helps. Mother-in-law lives 30 minutes from PGS so when we visit her thats when I hit that track. Well it’s been great sharing the memories today, thanks for that. Best of luck to you at Bronson tomorrow night. I’m going to try and get to NSS for the mods.