Race Report: Irwindale

Well….in regards to Sunday’s Vegas race, well none of my drivers had a good day. RE: Lap 12, I think this is a situation where the lest said the better. He screwed up, he owned up, no reason to dwell on it. We’re about to head into a series of races on tracks that Dale has down and the Chase is a long way off, so I am not overly concerned.

Though will someone please explain to Jason Leffler how to pit?

Now, Saturday night was the season opening for Irwindale Speedway, our local ½ mile track. This was my first time going to local races. Fortunately, my Sensei-in-Speed-Robbie-Gordon-fan-friend and I went together. Irwindale is located in the outskirts of the greater L.A. area in what is essentially mining country. So the glorious pale orange sun set over the track between two massive drilling rigs/conveyor belts.

Irwindale also has a dragstrip which is made heavy use of, especially by the cops. Every city/town has it’s own laws regarding street racing. The town where I live they can crush your car at the judge’s discretion. What my friends told me is in Irwindale if someone is caught street racing, they can either A. Pay the fine or B. Go to the dragstrip and race a cop.

“Against a cruiser?”

“No, the cops have their own rides…”

Oh My.

If they lose, then they have to pay the very stiff fine. The program is to encourage folks to use the drag strip and get into the legal side of it. (Which I am all for legalizing street racing. One of my friends has a home video of a Mustang losing control during a heat and going into the crowd. This needs to be regulated for safety reasons.) I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s had some success.

We pulled into the lot and parked next to featherlite haulers and pick-ups & car trailers. The track is small (so small that they didn’t have enough pit stalls and some of the guys were out working on their cars outside the fence towards the end of the concession stands) and it only seats about 6,000, so instead of all the polished hoopla and sponsor booths, there is a real comfortable, personal touch to it. Not only in that all the various cars brought out on the track for everyone to come down and talk with the drivers (many of whom had candy and balloons and stuff for the kids in thick crowd of people wandering around the cars and grouping in knots around the drivers), but the interactions between the MC and the crowd was refreshingly personal. When they were making the pre-race welcomes, they announced that there were a bunch of guys there who had recently come back from Iraq, they made them stand up and everyone gave them a huge round of applause, biggest one of the night. :) Then they had the Sergeant come up and wave the green flag for the first race. :D

They had so many teams show up for the opening night that they couldn't get all the qaulifying in. So the first race of the evening was a ten lap heat to decide which two guys got the last spots in the Super Late Model race. Then a 35 lap race for the Grand American Modifieds (alcohol burning cars with no body, these are bare bones cars: Wheels, Chassis, roll cages and an engine), 40 laps of Super Stocks (the old Cameros and such that guys turn into stock cars in their garage), 50 laps of the Late Models (Old Featherlites, I believe), 75 laps of the Super Lates (old stock cars, if I understood correctly, old Busch series cars…I’m still a bit fuzzy on the difference), 40 Laps of Dodge Super Trucks (V-10s!) and then 35 laps of the Mini-Stocks (transformed Pintos mostly, through with a Vegas or Celica thrown in there).

The evening moved fast (no pun intended), no more then 15 minutes with the top three lining up in front of the stands for photos and quick interviews (proving that some drivers have already attended the Michael Waltrip School Of Sponsor Representation) before the next series of cars were out on the track for the next race. Up until this Super Lates race, the cars had gotten fairly spread out over the track and to an untrained eye such as my own it was more of who had the best car rather than who was the better driver, though my friend began schooling me on the finer art of watching drivers who found the right line, who had better car control, shifting, etc., but when they got to the Super Lates and the Trucks, oh, man did it get good! There was some real racin’ goin on. Drivers really competing with each other through the turns, pushing the limits of the cars, the track, each other and themselves. Just a lot of side by side and some three-wides into the turns, even a four wide a one point. Technically, none of these races had pit stops, but we watched one young driver make a very creative use of the cautions to go behind the wall to get some new tires. Give that Crew Chief a cigar.

There was even one really hairy looking wreck as one car spun out and rammed into the leading edge of the interior concrete divider, but once they pried him out of the car he walked away, Thank the Gods.

During the truck race we watched the lead pack of four thread their way around two stragglers so smooth as if they had choreographed it. And then the truck in 2nd place kept pushing the back of the lead truck until he spun him out coming out of the turns, relegating them both to the back, which made the guy I was rooting for (number 8…ty-one, he had hastily added a one to the side of his truck with duct tape. I’m from a family of engineers, we’ll root for anyone with duct tape.) come in second. The call was disputed, but I don’t know what the results were. (Interesting fact that the trucks in this series have the cooling system in the back, so set in at an angle in the bed is a air filter.)

I like truck races. :D

The Mini Stocks were cool, but my friend wasn’t interested so we left. As we walked out we passed a pick-up that not only was towing the racecar, but it also was carrying two engine blocks as well as all the big tools in the truck bed. Day-um, if that wasn’t a rolling Ford ad.

Sadly, the very fun evening was marred when we got back to my friend's car and discovered someone had spiked both of the tires on the driver side. She wasn’t parked illegally, hadn’t hit anyone or cut anyone off, nor was her 5 year old 4-Runner something that would arouse ire. The only thing we could figure is that she had Robbie Gordon and Tony Stewart stickers on the back that someone took exception to.

What the hell?

Whenever I see Hendricks stickers my greatest reaction, if I react, is a roll of the eyes and a snort of distain. I do not feel the urge to cause someone a few hundred dollars worth of damage in order to express my displeasure at their personal choice of driver. That would be just being a petty jackass.

So to all the petty jackasses in the world, be very aware that karma is a cold hearted bitch. And oh, by the way, in the same spirit of maturity you display: You suck dead donkey dicks.

I’d like to assume this is an anomaly and still encourage people to go to their local racetracks, enjoy some great racing and support up and coming drivers, but this put a damper on my enthusiasm. I’d like to assume this is an isolated incident and that most racing fans are nice people that are great to sit in a crowd with. I do know I will be going again. :)