Towed out to Bloomsburg speedway and unfortunately as the Xcel Modified feature was lining up a terrific crash occurred in the motorcycles division, and it pushed the event past the curfew.
The day was speckled with goods and bads. Mother nature had a big say in the first laps of qualifying. Hot daytime temps led to a dry dusty track and sun glare was a big factor coming off turn two leaving teams to point the car in the right direction and like Days of Thunder ‘hope you were going to come out of the smoke on the other side’.
For all intents and purposes, the track appears symmetrical, but tire placement and laps will tell you it doesn’t race like that. Big sweeping turns and a sharp entry to the front make it feel as if the track has two different sweeps. Big and fast it has a lot of room for movement. Most teams worked up a sweat after warmups tweaking gears and setups.
Our division did have a good look on the track. Doug commented that the fair staff in the booth said we put on some of the more competitive racing they have seen. Despite the severe lack of vision, the qualifying was done without any major incidents and there was passing and a couple of side-by-side races before the (considerable amount of) dust settled. Want to give a nod to the 20K team who was running a strong heat race right out front when the motor expired all the way down the front straight. You know they say that a motor runs best right before it goes, and that car was flying. It was a strong run and hope they can get back on track and recover quickly from that big setback. Going from excitement of leading to disappointment in a blink of an eye is something we all have to deal with in racing, but watching the family (sitting in front of us) made us all feel for them when things went south.
Back to the feature curfew. Like a school room exercise where you pass the story and it changes, we heard multiple versions. Summary is that there was an unusual motorcycle crash, multiple bikes, possibly a catch fence involved, and one driver suffered some broken bones and was unconscious at first. The safety crew was on the track for a considerable period at the end of the night and the driver was transported. Our race team camped for the night and walked the track in the morning. The accident scene played out like a crime scene with indentations in the tracks, marks on the wall and you could almost reconstruct the carnage.
Takes guts to get in one of our cars with a 5-point harness and roll cage, but these motorcycle racers have some serious crazy to do what they do. It was fun to watch them on the track and a profound respect for the talent it takes to go like that.
A speedy recovery to the driver. As much as it sucked to not race, best wishes to him.
The night ended in a kind of haze as to what happened. Most had no idea there was a curfew. The final takeaway was a sense of let down that the feature was cancelled and the feeling that ‘the track has potential’. Most feel it would have been a barn burner of a race.
Despite and outcome of money spent and nothing to show we still want to thank all the people who worked hard to negotiate and put this deal together. There was a sense of that on the sleeve of the person doing the drivers meeting at the Xcel trailer and we appreciate that even though there were some reservations about our class, they took the chance. Thanks for that.
It resulted in our first laps on this new surface and hopefully an appetite for returning to see what it could be. With wetter track prep, cooler nighttime temps and maybe seeing if the tires could be moved in a bit, comments were that this would be some racing venue for us.
The place has copious amounts of room on the grounds and if you have a three year old – A TANK!!!
Talk of future races includes a possible fair date THIS YEAR.
The fair runs from Sept 23rd to Oct 1st. It was mentioned that it would be a mid-week race. Right now, that is only an idea. If it becomes more, it will be communicated. There was also speculation that it would be a monthly deal for our division possibly in the future on perhaps on Saturday nights.
So you don’t have to go look it up, Xcel schedule says Grandview Sept. 24th (non-tour, exhibition race) and Lincoln on Oct. 1st.
Doug mentioned Tuesday during the fair, but again all speculative at the moment, just a pencil and no pen for this one.
On a personal note, thanks to our crew chief for letting us share in his trial run of the ‘new to him’ motor home. Oh that air conditioner was nice!
We took a 3 year old to Knoebles right down the road both Saturday and Sunday. He got a taste of his first ever amusement park rides. The helicopter ride was his favorite followed by the ferris wheel, then the log flume.
Ran into the entire Pauch family enjoying the same experience. We know them, as they live in our neck of the woods. It was great to see them enjoying some family time in the shade trees of kiddie land. A little race track talk and we were both on our separate ways to explore. Racing, family and friends, nice way to spend a weekend.
