Although it’s been “a while” since I’ve driven a race car, I can still remember the anticipation and the excitement about the start of a new racing season.
Although it‘s been “a while” since I‘ve driven a race car, I can still remember the anticipation and the excitement about the start of a new racing season.
Northern California and Arizona have had a couple races and many drivers and teams have already travelled to Arizona, Georgia and Florida to race but for the majority of racers, especially those East of the Mississippi River, the season doesn‘t really get going until late March or early April.
Of course, Pennsylvania is always the exception with the fanatical fans and promoters who will literally plow the snow off the race track and parking areas to get their season underway. And they usually end up with standing-room-only crowds.
As this column was going to press, Lincoln Speedway‘s opening day was going on, and yes, there was snow on the ground.
Obviously if there is snow on the ground that means it‘s cold, but it can get really cold, especially at night, in the Arizona desert and in Florida too. But at least you don‘t have to move snow off the track in Arizona or Florida … at least not normally, but who knows nowadays!
The cold weather might keep some fans away, which is always a worry for the race promoters, but the cold weather is also a big concern for the car owners as well. With today‘s engine heaters it‘s not the issue it once was but, at a cost of around $50,000 to $60,000 for a 410 engine, the cold temperatures can cause massive damage to a racing engine.
Engines run lean because the cold air has more oxygen and if the fuel mixture isn‘t correct it can burn pistons and valves, which can sometimes do damage to the block and also possibly ruin the cylinder heads – not a cheap and easy fix.
Another concern is if an engine change has to be made and the change isn‘t completed early enough to plug the heater in or start the engine to check for leaks and let the oil warm up sufficiently, that is not good for the engine either, as the cold oil doesn‘t flow well to all the vital internal engine parts.
The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series opened its season at Volusia Raceway Park on Feb. 5, and from there they were scheduled to go up to Georgia, then Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas and on out to Arizona, Nevada and then California.
Cold temperatures cancelled, or postponed, the Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana events, and then the winter storm in Texas that saw major power outages and the havoc that came with it, meant all the races in the Lone Star State were also cancelled and/or postponed.
From Texas, it was supposed to be on to Arizona then Vegas, and then the annual California spring swing. Unfortunately, like last year, the California swing was cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions and Vegas was also restricted to the point that it didn‘t make sense to run it without being able to jump on over to California to race for several weeks.
That meant that the Arizona races had to be cancelled too, because it wasn‘t financially feasible for the teams to go all the way to out there for only one weekend of racing.
The one thing that all the COVID-related cancellations and postponements from last year did show was that the Outlaws were able to, in racing terms, get spun out and sent to the tail of the field and still come from the back and salvage a good finish!
In 2020 they had to reschedule races and locations and, at times, change those rescheduled races and dates again, sometimes at the 11th hour, to get races completed.
Well, they have already had to take what they learned last year and apply it again in 2021. They have been able to reschedule a few of the lost dates at the same tracks that were only postponed and not cancelled, but the majority of the new make-up schedule is at different tracks than originally planned.
What has to be a first for the WoO, or at least in my memory, is that part of making up those races means that, as I write this, they will go back down to Florida to race at Volusia Speedway again and they will also race at East Bay Raceway for the first time in 38 years, which I‘m glad to see, since East Bay Raceway will be permanently shutting down in 2024.
From Florida, it will be back to the Gulf Coast region for the rescheduled races that were lost earlier, then it‘s on to Texas, and then throughout the Midwest, where races were added to make up for those lost on the West Coast. Normally the Midwestern fans wouldn‘t get to see the Outlaw drivers and teams until later in the summer.
The Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series National Tour also lost four races in California due to the COVID-19 restrictions and at this time they are working on filling those dates.
I know we all have our fingers crossed that we are coming out of the worst of the pandemic and hopefully by midsummer racing, and life in general, will at least be back to some sort of normalcy!
I am ready to get back to the race track and take in all the sights and the smells (the eye watering burning of methanol alcohol) and see and talk to all the people I‘ve missed over the past year.