FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Converting the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum Exposition Center from four walls and a bare floor into an indoor racing facility with a seventh-mile concrete oval is no easy task.
Once a year, the ACWMC staff teams up with the crew from the Rumble in Fort Wayne to methodically accomplish the transition. This year, that transformation will take place Wednesday, December 17 in anticipation of the two-days of racing, December 19-20.
It begins with the placement of 5000 temporary seats, followed immediately by the onset of track construction.
Highway jersey barriers, weighing over 3,000 pounds each, are linked together to shape the outside safety fencing.
While the barriers are being aligned, fence posts are snugly inserted; from which three bands of cables are attached.
The final steps include attaching and securing chain link fencing. For competitor safety, temporary ‘safe walls’, consisting of conveyor belting laced plywood over tires, are ratcheted to the jersey barriers at the exit of each turn.
Additionally, fire-retardant sprayed straw bales are bagged and placed at critical impact points at each end of the oval.
A safety light system is erected, the flag stand is placed and sponsor banners hung. The final step, conducted on race day, is the track surface preparation. Soda pop syrup is sprayed on to the concrete flooring and slowly ‘run in’ by vehicles for uniformity and consistency.
At that point, the ACWMC becomes a race track, with all of the same amenities and conditions of outdoor racing, but inside a climate-controlled building in mid-winter.
On the racing menu for the Jason Dietsch Trailer Sales sponsored Rumble in Fort Wayne each day, with complete racing programs of preliminary heats and main events, will be Midgets, winged and non-winged 600cc Midgets plus multiple classes of Go-Karts, Wedge Karts and Quarter Midgets.
Watch the Rumble in Fort Wayne on SPEED SPORT 2.
