my free "track day"

[roscoe G coltrane]

One of my favorite rides during my days off is to our local short track, which is a 1/2 mile high banked oval, paved. its nesteled in the caraway mountains so the ride out there is half the fun. I work 12 hr. night shifts,
so my days off are sun, mon, tues, and every other wed.If I know there's a short track race coming up on the NASCAR schedule(like martinsville this weekend) you can bet there will be at least 2 or 3 nextel cup and truck teams out there doing testing. All the race shops are only 50-60 miles away, so its real convenient for them to come up here. So far this week I've seen Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Ken Shrader, Bill Elliot, and some other "unmarked" cars in primer that belonged to Ganassi Racing, Everham Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing. I even saw Indy 500 winner Dario Franciti arrive by helicopter with Chip Ganassi to check out the truck Dario will make his NASCAR debut in at Martinville this weekend. I don't keep up with NASCAR like I used to. Ever since Dale sr. died, its just not the same for me anymore. Plus I'm 53 and I can remeber paying $20 to watch a race at Charlotte and sit anywhere you want if you get there early enough.
Now you have to pay 120 for crap seats. No thank you.Thats why I like riding out here to Caraway, its FREE!!! Sure its not a real race, but its worth it to me to just to hear a 800plus HP small block screaming at 8500 RPM. Now thats music to my ears!! Plus the whole place is empty except for the teams in the infield working on the cars. The sound really travels off all that concrete. Plus I get to climb up in the flag stand and watch them zoom under me at 120 mph, pretty cool.
So one day last week I decide to ride out there to see if there's anything going on. Its about 9:30 am. monday. I get there and the gate is open, "well thats a good sign" I thought. I ride thru and go around to the back straightaway where the gate to the infield is located and the gate is open, but no race haulers are there yet. hmmmm, I look around and there's not a soul to be found anywhere. aw what the hell, I've always wanted to do this...so off I go onto the track. 1st, 2nd then 3rd hanging off the seat in the turns, then pinning it in 3rd down the straightaway. I couldn't tell you how fast I was going cause I was too busy dodging all the ruts and gouges left from wrecks. But damn that was the most fun I've had in a while. after about 20 laps I figured I better quit before somebody sees me and runs me off. So I exit the track and while I'm going down the acess road here comes a big rig hauler from Ginn motorsports (Mark Martin?)
I guess thats who they had the track open for. Like I said it sure was fun, but now I'm going to need a new rear tire. I "grilled" the chicken strips off of it. now it looks like a road race tire. Time for an Avon or Metzeler!!

[Steven Conlan]

Camp at Gate

The title had me going - the start of the story, I started to wonder. But you did not disapoint. I would love to ride any bike on a closed track. At 53 I still pull off the road any time I see go cart rental / track. If I lived that close I would find myself camping at the gate of the track - just in case nobody was using it - and after all, it was going to waste. I can only dream of "dragging a knee" after enough laps to know the track. Sounds like you might have had "enough" laps - so how about it - did you drag a knee?

[t3rmin]

Nice story; I'd love to do that!

[roscoe G coltrane]

no, I didn't drag a knee. its not a flat track. its a high banked oval. but I came pretty close. as close as I dared to with no knee pucks anyway!!
I just came back from there today and saw John Andretti # 49 and the #22 truck from Bill Davis Racing. Don't know who is driving it, but they were getting around there pretty good. And it sounded sweet with those
180 degree headers. like an indy car.

[the_journeyman]

They recently demolished an old go-kart track locally. I was itching to get on it with a pocketbike or a mini-tard. There was a big track with an ascent/descent and tons of turns and an slightly banked mini-NASCAR style track.

Sounds like you had a blast!

JM

[roscoe G coltrane]

Ps

Back when I had my first bike, a 85 Honda VT500, I went by this 1/8 mile dragstrip thats not too far from the house. It was on a sunday around 2pm, but the races didn't start till 5. the gates were open and there was nobody around except a couple winnebagoes parked in the pits. So I cruised on thru the gates around the pit entrance and onto the staging area. I had recently installed a barnett clutch and springs, so I decided to put em to the test. I slid up on the tank revved it to 4K and dropped the hammer. I clicked off the gears shifting at 9K, (redline is 9.5) when I went thru the traps I glanced at the speedo and it was just past 80mph. Not too bad for a 500cc bike with a 230 lb rider. so that was actually my first encounter with a closed course. My next goal, when I get a new rear tire,
is to try and crash Rockingham Speedway. Its been idle for several years now ever since its been taken off the NASCAR schedule. Thats a little over a mile high banked oval, and there's a 1/4 mile dragstrip right across the street. Now I know I could probably go to the strip on a test and tune night and run legally for $15, but what fun is that?:shock: