O/T I Just Went Dirt Track Racing

My uncle and cousins just opened a new dirt track in our hometown yesterday. I helped take up money at the gate and then was in charge of scoring the cars. It was fun but was a lot of work. My cousin has an open wheel modified with a 434 small block and today he called me and asked me if I wanted to come over and make a few laps. I have never been on a dirt track and I was completely in left field. The first thing I had to figure out was how to mash the clutch pedal to make it take off and then how to shift it to high gear without using a clutch. I did ok with that part of it.

I took it easy the first couple of laps just to get the feel of the car and tried to mark out my points of where I would let off and try to go through the turns. I could never make the same lap twice. It would push in one turn and the back end would be completely around in the other turn. I ran about 20 laps and spun out 3 times and hit the wall once so overall I sucked at it. I came back in and took some lecturing on what to do and went back out the second time which was much better than the first. My cousin tightened up the car some and when I ran low I could do good but when I got high in the loose stuff the back end would instantly come around. I made two really good laps (for me) during the whole thing. My cousins best time was 14.10 and my best was 14.30 but he could make it do it every time and I could only make a good lap every now and then. I respect his driving a lot more after I tried it. In my opinion the car had way too much motor for the track because it was really slick and was spinning pretty bad. The reason I ran close to him a couple of laps is because he was turning the motor 9000 and I was only turning it around 7000 so it was spinning a lot more with him.

The car really beat me up and I am starting to get sore as I type. The first time I went out I didn't put my neck brace on because I didn't think I would need it. Boy was I wrong. I gladly put the neck brace on the second time I went out. I am going to give it another try in a couple of weeks and see if I can do any better. I can't imagine being out there with 24 other cars and trying to go through the turns completely sideways.

Overall it was fun but a different kind of fun than drag racing. I am not ready to sell my car and go dirt track racing. After drag racing for 20 years I still can feel my heart beating in my throat every time I pull in the water box. I never got that feeling with this car and I thought I would. Like I said before, it was really fun but just a different kind of fun.

I've always wanted to make a few laps on a dirt track with a decent car. I helped a buddy back in high school, and never got the chance to take the wheel, I do regret that. Get us some vids next time Joe.

Thats Cool as heck Joe, I've always heard it's harder than it looks. I'd like to try it some time.

That is cool, I like to watch the Modifieds and Late Models, and even the sprints, but I can't get into the Stock and Super Stock's... I too would like to try my hand at the wheel of one of the faster dirt cars...










Doug...

I always enjoyed driving back when I was younger and enjoyed wrenching on my cousin's open wheel and SLMs, but cant take the beating and banging in the car or the fights afterwards anymore. Never did understand why open wheel boys would put a bigass engine in one when they were severly limited with the tires. We found that this is one of those "less is more" deals, except the cost and that is definitly in the "more" column. Lots of hard work, money and time goes into one when compared to a drag car.

What type rear suspension is under it, swing arm, 3 link, four link, Z link or what? Doesnt look to have much roll steer to it. Glad you had a good time with it.

I suppose you have already found out that the roundy rounders are different compared to the drag racing crowd, not that there is anything wrong with either, but they are different.

Never understood the entire "go to a dirt track to watch a fight" thing.

Other then that it looks fun.

It is a totally different crowd than drag people. Most drag people want their rigs to look good, car to look good, and are very conservative with the money they spend. Most of the dirt track guys could care less what their car looks like let alone their tow rig. All of them are not like that but a lot of them are. I think this car is a 4-bar car. I think he could do a lot better with it if he had about 200 less horsepower but none of them will agree to it. They think the bigger the motor the faster it will go. But if you think about it, try to hook a 700 plus horsepower drag motor on 8" tires on the strip and they are trying to do it on dirt. I think a motor with 400-500 horsepower would do the trick. If I built one it would be a 347 with the new Ford Motorsport Z heads and a hydraulic roller cam.

Joe about 10 years ago me and a buddy went to the dirt track, we were thinking about building a track car. The crowd is way more than different, we watched a guy he was the track favorite, and another guy race. The other guy could run away and his truck ran like a slot car on the track. Two laps before the race was over they officials disqualified him for not letting the track favority crash him.... They said he was unsportsman like conduct... the crowd was mad as hell. We left that night and I told him NEVER will I ever do that, cuz as soon as they disqualified me I would top speed T bone that SOB and then let him try to win then...

Dirt Burning is not for everyone, especially me..



Randy