Iowa track unsafe?

[Sig]

Oh, and the reason car track days cost more is because there are less vehicles on the track at any given time. The price to rent the track is static.

[tstruyk]

they're just saying there shouldn't be ridiculously unnecessary risks ... ie. walls perilously close to high speed corners, with no air fence, not even haybales or tire walls, competitors knowingly racing with belly pans full of water...

you left that one out...



couldnt resist... carry on.

[Super Dave]

someone always has to answer for lost profits.

Well, yes, exactly.

Every day of unrented opportunity is inventory that isn't being sold.  The development of car and motorcycle track days and schools have fueled a lot of the track building;  tracks can sell "inventory" to additional programs.  Those programs help develop bigger markets, potentially, that further fuel the need to buy the track's inventory.

[Scotty Ryan]

I got the call late Tuesday night - It was Steve(the owner of SpeedWerks)... He asked me if I would be able to make it out to Iowa for the second to last round of Moto-ST... I told him I would be out in Des Mines Wednesday night for the promoter practice on Thursday.... I drove out straight from work on Wednesday and stayed at my buddies house - (the racing Dentist - Dr.Jeffery Purk)....
When we got to the track on Thursday afternoon - I was surprised at how nice the facility looked from the outsde.... Landscaping and stones - really nice.... We made out way into the pits and the first thing I noticed was how small the Moto-St pits were - I suppose we didn't need anymore room then they gave us - cause we all fit just fine... On the other hand - the car guys all had semi's and took up allot of room - so they got about four times more space then us and got actual garages.. I met with my Moto-ST mechanic Dave and we got all signed up and got the bike ready to go... My teammate Brian Kcraget wasn't going to be able to make it out till late Friday night and I was going to have to do all of the set-up work on the bike until he got his chance to ride Saturday morning... I took a quick look at the banking and got my gear on...
The first lap is always led by a pace car- so that no one exceeds their own ability on the out lap... It also gives us a chance to see which direction the track goes.. Man we sure needed the guided tour - coming of the banking down what I call the back straight - into the infield wasn't really marked well and unless you knew that you were supposed to turn left at Turn 2 - you cold just keep going straight and cut to the final turn in the infield... The first couple laps at speed I atempet to approach the banking the same way I would at Daytona - tucked and wide open... Man was I wrong - It was more like get the bike as close to the apron as possible - knee on the apron and roll out of the throttle until about mid turn - then wide open again....The banking is a much tighter radius then Daytona - so it really abuses the front tire - you also get the sensation that the front tire is pushing up toward the wall.... The infield accounts for about .3 of the 1.3 mile course - so it is short,quick and busy... A decreasing radius left - follower by by another tight constant lean left (when done correctly you apex late and wide for the first left and that sets you up to combine the two corners into one turn).... Then you throw the bike to the right and side and the front tire pushes about two foot (due to the design of the track only having two right hand turns and the right side of the tires having no heat) a short shoot into a double apex(horseshoe) right hander - followed by a bit longer short shoot into the final infield turn(another tight left) that takes you onto the front straight - which is banked because it is part of the oval......I got to the point on Friday and Saturday that I could hold the bike wide open in 5th entering the banking and only breath the throttle long enough to get the bike turned down toward the apron while I had my knee down - at that point I would twist the throttle the little bit that was left and tuck in while bringing me knee back to the tank.... I would drive the bike towards the outside wall and down the ever slight down grade toward turn 1 left hander - while catching 6th gear and then grabbing 4 backshifts for Turn2.. My best time the first day - 51.6 seconds.... Wow - this was going to make for a long 3 hour race...
Friday practice was in the dat of the afternoon and in the hour and ten minutes I did roughly 68 laps - best time on Friday - 50.601... The Pair of Nines Kasasaki of Jimmy Filece and Jay Springsteen was less then .2 faster with a 50.416.... Man can those two guys ride!!!! That evening Bian and the team owner Steve Long showed up - and watched some of the Rolex car races..... Saturday was going to be an early start and the plan was to let Brian run the whole practice by himself so he could get as much track time as possible - but the rules state that the rider that is going to start the race must start the practice behind the pace car... So I suited up and started explaining the track to Brian... I went out and did the two laps behind the pace car and then pulled in and handed the bike of to Brian.....He rode the remaining time of the 45 minute session - his best time a 50.8... Brian picks up tracks quickly - and that's what we needed to stay competitive with the Kawasaki... We decided on raising the front of the bike up 4mm to take some of the weight of the front tire on the banking - and we mounted up a new set of tires for the race...We decided on a SUPER EXTRA hard rear so that it would last the whole race ( I would have opted to stay with the Medium compound we were practicing on and dirt track the bike towards the end of the race since I tend to set my fastest laps when the tires start to go away and the bike slides easier).... But we decided to go with the hard - not a problem with me - i'm willing to ride anything - but unfortunately I hadn't ridden on one of the hards yet and had no idea how it was going to act.... We took off and went out to get some lunch - and tried to kill 3 hours before the autograph session.....I have never seen a lone so long for autographs... All of the teams sat inside this massive square of tables - and the fans could go down the line and get everyones autograph or pick and choose.... We were sat right next to our main competition - Kawi... It was a good time and Gary Nixon was the star of the show for sure... Ater over an hour of talking with fans and signing autoghaprhs - they had to cut off the line so that we could get back to our pits to change and get ready... It was a good thing though - cause we ran out of posters to sign....
There were tons of fans - and I was surprised to see that not only were the stands pretty well filled - but the amount of fans that were on top of their motorhomes and lining the fence were amazing..... We did rider introductions on a big stage right in front of the grandstands and got ready for our parade laps...We did one sighting lap and then went back to our staring areas - that was followed by two warm up laps behind the pace car - and then the start of the race.....I was lined up right behind Jimmy Filece and managed to pass him on lap 3 or so - the two of us went back and forth for about the first 60 laps or so.... Then two things happened - Our bike started dropping out of gear and we ran into lapped traffic - so little ol' Jimmy started pulling a gap on me... Unfortunatly my buddy Scott Harwood tucked the front in turn 1 and that brought out the pace car..... Our gas light was on for a couple laps prior - so I decided it was time to come in for a rider change....I pulled in and as the guys were fueling the bike (all of 4 seconds) I told Brian that the rear tire had never really come in and that it was difficult to get on the gas.... Brian took off and I took a seat - The track had live timing and scoring along with a loce video feed - so I looked at my time and it said that my best time was a 50.24.... WOW - I went faster in the race on a tire that had less grip and didn't allow me to get on the gas as soon or as hard as I would have liked... I think it had a lot to do with basically leaving the bike WFO around the entire banking... Once again Filece had gone .02 faster then me... I'm gonna say it's cause I am 45-50 pounds heavier then him :)
Because we were under a pace car caution - Kawi managed to somehow get shuffled right behind Brian and with it only being his second time on the track - Jay Springsteen got around him in short order.... But Brian never gave up and he managed to keep that green bike with within eyesight - he started out at 52's then 51's then got a couple 50's - all while working through traffic... Brian put in a good 80 laps - and our plan was that when I got on the bike - since I was rested and ready to slide the bike around a bit - I was going to try to put down some times that would catch us back up to Kawi - plus they had to pit yet..... We never got to that point - I had all my gear on and as I watched for Brian to come by on his last lap - I saw Shawn Higbee and a BMW come by and go into the banking pretty close to each other... No more then 5 seconds behind those guys was Brian - and just as he passed the start finish line the waving yellow came out... I didn't think much of it - as most of us wouldn't - espically if your all geared up and ready to go.... But when I saw the red flag come out and I started asking the officals if we could fuel the bike and make a rider change.... When Brian didn't come back into the hot pit - I knew something was wrong - and as I turned I saw a massive cloud of black smoke on the far side of the banking.... Steve and I hopped on the pit bike and flew over toward the accident... It sounds like what happened was the BMW that was down low on the banking bumped into Higbee and he hit the outside wall - the bike hit the ground and it went up in flames - Shawn spent the night in surgery fixing broken bones - but it sounds like he'll pull through.... Brian somehow hit some piece of the bike or something and was ejected over the front of the bike... He hit his head on the ground pretty hard .... They life flighted him to the hospital and as I was frantically trying to get out of the track to get to the hospital - I was wanted up at the award ceremony... Because the race was called final - we ended up 2nd - and as soon as got the bike from post race tech we headed find Brian.....
That was about 11:30pm Saturday night - I just got the call from Steve this morning saying that Brian had woke up this morning and that other then a couple bruises - he's his normal self again....Which made me feel allot better - One of the first things he said was "I wasn't going fast enough - Felice was starting to pull from me"... He doesn't remember the crash itself - but sometimes it's better that way.... I told Steve to tell Brian that we only have about three months until Daytona - and that we can't let Kawi just walk away with the championship.... I gotta check - but at this point I think the team stands a real shot at taking the overall....Hopefully everything comes together and we'll be standing at the top of the podium after the Daytona 8 hour....
Here's to Brian Kcraget and Shawn Higbee - You guys will pull through just fine......

[gonecrazy]

I think about them, I just don't push it as hard in that area.  That still doesn't mean I'm not going to crash there...  You either want to race or not.  All there is to it.  People raced at RA prior to them taking out the Billy Mitchell bridge.  That was just as dangerous.

Fact is there are problem spots pretty much at every track that could be addressed for motorcycles.  It just isn't happening.

I remember sitting in the riders meeting at Gateway and someone (I think it was Super Dave) saying the airfence for the chicane was too far back.  They didn't move it and sure enough someone ended up hitting the wall.  If you can't even get them to move something so portable, I'm not too optimistic about them moving concrete.

Let's face it, at Gateway, they are not going to be able to move walls at the chicane.  T1 however should be taken down, I don't see a good reason for it.

I dont know if you have ever been to a nascar event at gateway, but the pits run all the way down to the end of that wall, and to tell you the truth Gateway could care less about what we think of the track, they only really give a shit about the cars, we are just small potatoes.

[Ducmarc]

my buddy Chris boy called me on the way back to fl and basically called it that away i think they got 4th in there class I will call him now(since they're driving all night)and let them know about Brian and Shawn they were real concerned about Brian .to me  the official version of Brian's crash kinda drags him through the mud they said in RW that he ignored the yellow and the pace car but like you, Chris says there was no time for him to see the yellow much less the pace car .sounds like someone tried to put a spin on it. Chris did say the place was full of spectators but that the car guy's did not like the track either. every series has a track that is unliked and since this track is new no one new what to expect.and once you spend the money to run a series and spend the money to drive all the way there you force your self into running. now if Shawn had not crashed the attempt to boycott would have looked unfounded.but with a high fan turn out I bet they race there again next year.we all complain about dangerous tracks but what about our mecca Daytona .it's killed a bunch of us but i'm going anyway(it's killed alot of stock car guys too) lemmings.

[Sig]

Great post Scotty727.

[Mongo]

Maybe so, but when the fiscal year rolls to a close, they will see much lower profits and they will start to rethink things. it's not so much a matter of needing the money as it is wanting the money. I'm sure Gateway makes more than enough off the NASCAR and ARCA stuff to support itself for the year. but that doesn't mean they wouldn't care about losing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. someone always has to answer for lost profits.

But they don't make that off of motorcycle dates - trackdays or races, so they rent the track out to Petty for his stuff or someone testing or whatever and they make the same profit. 

[Mongo]

JenningsGP!!!

What do I win?!?

:)

Actually there are two the more I think of it - Talladega is that way too although they have karts and some solo car events.

[r1owner]

they're just saying there shouldn't be ridiculously unnecessary risks ... ie. walls perilously close to high speed corners, with no air fence, not even haybales or tire walls, competitors knowingly racing with belly pans full of water...

you left that one out...



couldnt resist... carry on.

DOH!

[SloKidd]

Nice job Scotty....  hopefully Brian will come away with no long term effects....

[Cyklracer]

So, what's the net impact of all this?  Anyone out there who's decided they're NOT riding the CCS GP/TrackAddix Iowa Speedway date?

There's a NESBA event there the weekend prior that I'm going to checkout to see for myself what to think of the track.  I'm torn as the track is only 100 miles from home, but it's the same weekend as the MW region BHF event.  In spite of it's shortcomings, it sounds like BHF would be the much safer venue.

So here I am, broken collarbone mending from RA, and have already swung from "done racing" thoughts during the crash to considering how to justify racing at what is probably the most dangerous venue on the calendar.

DOH!