The bite at Epping ??

[Don Fardie]

The bite was good at the beginning in qualifying but slowly went away in eliminations. I'm speaking from a stick car perspective. The autos seemed to be hooking pretty good from what I saw. They did regrind the starting line Friday night but with heat on Saturday it got slick again. From what I read about E Town it was a whole lot better this weekend

[Eric Merryfield]

Originally Posted by Don Fardie

The bite was good at the beginning in qualifying but slowly went away in eliminations. I'm speaking from a stick car perspective. The autos seemed to be hooking pretty good from what I saw. They did regrind the starting line Friday night but with heat on Saturday it got slick again. From what I read about E Town it was a whole lot better this weekend

From the Auto side of things:

I was at both events, with the dakota in SS in both, with my dragpak in stock at epping....

No issues with the dakota at either place, but it is hook gifted for a 9 inch tire truck. I didn't see any SS get sideways at the line at Epping like I did at E-town.

Dragpak was fine for qualifying and then hooked and hit a bald spot and spun in E-1....thus ruining my top end dance with Mr. Pires. I wasn't too happy, but those are the breaks. shorter wheelbase, lower HP cars seem to thrive on it though....Track was real well prepped, they did the most that they could with the conditions.

The Gremlin wouldn't have had any issues with either track!

Eric

[Bob Don]

You had to watch for the development of bald spots and stage accordingly. I blew off the tires in my car on the second q run on Friday. I saw several other cars spin. In 2nd round on Saturday, I watched Charlie Sousa and Dave Casey both get into bald spots and blow their tires off.

Overall though, the crew did their best with repeated dragging and spraying.

[7423]

From your responses, it seems that it was hit and miss for the faster half of the alphabet or at least better than RP was. So what was the difference? Why was Epping a better surface?

[Randall Klein]

Cooler helps

[Greg Hill]

You have to have someone on the starting line that first knows how to fix the bald spots, gold dust , spray and drag and second someone who will tell the people in the tower that the track is not safe. Bill, Redman, Floyd is that guy. Brad who also works the starting line in d3 will do the first part and is starting to do the second. Oh you also need to use VHT or PJ1 for your spray. This is not rocket science.

[MoonlightGraham]

Originally Posted by Greg Hill

Oh you also need to use VHT or PJ1 for your spray.

PJ1 owns VHT, they are the same thing. When the drums are shipped they are labeled PJ1 but it's the same old stuff that has always been used.

[Don Kennedy]

Originally Posted by Bob Don

You had to watch for the development of bald spots and stage accordingly. I blew off the tires in my car on the second q run on Friday. I saw several other cars spin. In 2nd round on Saturday, I watched Charlie Sousa and Dave Casey both get into bald spots and blow their tires off.

Overall though, the crew did their best with repeated dragging and spraying.

Just wondering if a racer getting ready to run would advise the starter that the track was not safe because of the bald spots and would request politily to prep the starting or you will not run ?? You are at the head of the staging lanes and don't move ??? Just wondering ??? remember NHRA says that the racers are responble for the safety of the track I think LOL Correct me if I am wrong???