dirty
EOG Master
By Jeff Schultz | Sunday, March 19, 2006, 11:44 PM
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
?I mean, what?s all the fuss about?? comedian and actor Rob Schneider said Sunday during a rain delay of the Golden Corral 500. ?They have pit crews if something goes wrong.?
Forty-three of the best race car drivers in the world congregated Sunday at AMS. Then it started drizzling and it was like watching Dorothy spill water on the Wicked Witch.
The best drivers in the world can?t drive around an oval during a drizzle? Maybe we should all stay off I-285.
Imagine if this was the mentality before NASCAR was born.
?I?m sorry, Fred. I just can?t make it to the next county with this week?s supply of moonshine. It?s drizzling. Plus, I just got my hair tinted.?
Maybe we should just turn this into Disney. Make all the cars go the same speed and put a pretend steering wheel on it. (Ssssh. Don?t tell them. They look so cute.)
?It would be great if they could run in the rain,? AMS president Ed Clark said. ?It would make my day go a lot smoother. But it?s been the formula for this many years, so it?s probably not going to change now.?
Look, I?m not suggesting they race Chevys on an inch of water. But for most of Sunday?s delay, it was a painfully slow drizzle, and the fleet of drying trucks ? which might have logged close to 500 miles without skidding even once ? had the AMS oval relatively dry.
This wasn?t a driving rainstorm. This was the kind of drizzle that prompts you to flip on your wipers every five minutes. This was the I-better-go-turn-on-the-sprinklers-because-these-drops-won?t-save-my-crops kind of drizzle.
Race tires are slick. Cars are heavy. Cars are fast. A little moisture. Bad combination. I get it. Duh. Try this: Cut grooves in the tires. Slap some wipers on the windshields. (With all of the money and automotive engineering brainiacs on the circuit, I?m guessing it could be done.) And then, if possible, just ? drive ? a ? little ? slower.
?Building a good tread tire ? it just hasn?t been done,? NASCAR vice president Jim Hunter said. ?I?m not saying it can?t be done. But driving slower ? that defeats the purpose of racing.?
OK. So if 43 cars topped out at 120 mph instead of 200 mph, it?s not racing?
?I?m not saying they couldn?t do that,? Hunter said. ?I?m saying we don?t want to put them in that position ? and there?s more than one race in a season and we might not have any drivers left. When they buckle on the helmets, common sense seems to dissipate, like I wish this weather would. They?re gonna go fast no matter what. And the fans wouldn?t put up with it.?
Excuse me? Fans wouldn?t want to see a car mistakenly go too fast, slide across the oval and take out six other cars? Isn?t Fox all about edgy programming?
Hunter: ?It would quickly turn into a demolition derby. Come to think of it, they probably would like it.?
Don?t people get paid for these ideas?
?The viewership for that probably would be an all-time high,? Clark said. ?It would be exciting. You got me thinking now.?
NASCAR and Goodyear have experimented with rain tires at road courses. They have been used in testing, but never in a race. But after years of storage, the tires started to break down and crack. Now, they?re not even considered an option on a road course, let alone an oval.
Clark, who said, ?we were close to sending the cars out there,? rolled his eyes when asked why drivers can?t just slow down.
?I remember once Bill France suggested that at Talladega when they were having tire trouble,? he said. ?Drivers gave him the same look I just gave you. Slowing down sounds real good until some guy goes by you.?
So, then you go a little faster. It?s still racing with the same racing tightrope: What?s too fast?
But we wouldn?t want anybody to get wet, would we?
Permalink | Comments (11) | Post your comment | Categories: Jeff Schultz
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
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- Upstart ACC newcomer not intimidated by it all
?I mean, what?s all the fuss about?? comedian and actor Rob Schneider said Sunday during a rain delay of the Golden Corral 500. ?They have pit crews if something goes wrong.?
Forty-three of the best race car drivers in the world congregated Sunday at AMS. Then it started drizzling and it was like watching Dorothy spill water on the Wicked Witch.
The best drivers in the world can?t drive around an oval during a drizzle? Maybe we should all stay off I-285.
Imagine if this was the mentality before NASCAR was born.
?I?m sorry, Fred. I just can?t make it to the next county with this week?s supply of moonshine. It?s drizzling. Plus, I just got my hair tinted.?
Maybe we should just turn this into Disney. Make all the cars go the same speed and put a pretend steering wheel on it. (Ssssh. Don?t tell them. They look so cute.)
?It would be great if they could run in the rain,? AMS president Ed Clark said. ?It would make my day go a lot smoother. But it?s been the formula for this many years, so it?s probably not going to change now.?
Look, I?m not suggesting they race Chevys on an inch of water. But for most of Sunday?s delay, it was a painfully slow drizzle, and the fleet of drying trucks ? which might have logged close to 500 miles without skidding even once ? had the AMS oval relatively dry.
This wasn?t a driving rainstorm. This was the kind of drizzle that prompts you to flip on your wipers every five minutes. This was the I-better-go-turn-on-the-sprinklers-because-these-drops-won?t-save-my-crops kind of drizzle.
Race tires are slick. Cars are heavy. Cars are fast. A little moisture. Bad combination. I get it. Duh. Try this: Cut grooves in the tires. Slap some wipers on the windshields. (With all of the money and automotive engineering brainiacs on the circuit, I?m guessing it could be done.) And then, if possible, just ? drive ? a ? little ? slower.
?Building a good tread tire ? it just hasn?t been done,? NASCAR vice president Jim Hunter said. ?I?m not saying it can?t be done. But driving slower ? that defeats the purpose of racing.?
OK. So if 43 cars topped out at 120 mph instead of 200 mph, it?s not racing?
?I?m not saying they couldn?t do that,? Hunter said. ?I?m saying we don?t want to put them in that position ? and there?s more than one race in a season and we might not have any drivers left. When they buckle on the helmets, common sense seems to dissipate, like I wish this weather would. They?re gonna go fast no matter what. And the fans wouldn?t put up with it.?
Excuse me? Fans wouldn?t want to see a car mistakenly go too fast, slide across the oval and take out six other cars? Isn?t Fox all about edgy programming?
Hunter: ?It would quickly turn into a demolition derby. Come to think of it, they probably would like it.?
Don?t people get paid for these ideas?
?The viewership for that probably would be an all-time high,? Clark said. ?It would be exciting. You got me thinking now.?
NASCAR and Goodyear have experimented with rain tires at road courses. They have been used in testing, but never in a race. But after years of storage, the tires started to break down and crack. Now, they?re not even considered an option on a road course, let alone an oval.
Clark, who said, ?we were close to sending the cars out there,? rolled his eyes when asked why drivers can?t just slow down.
?I remember once Bill France suggested that at Talladega when they were having tire trouble,? he said. ?Drivers gave him the same look I just gave you. Slowing down sounds real good until some guy goes by you.?
So, then you go a little faster. It?s still racing with the same racing tightrope: What?s too fast?
But we wouldn?t want anybody to get wet, would we?
Permalink | Comments (11) | Post your comment | Categories: Jeff Schultz
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