texasprd

it doesn't even have to be sunny - just no rain.

I couldn't watch the video from work, so I don't know if this was mentioned in it. The background story of how Ford made the engines reliable is pretty interesting. I read somewhere about how employees found it eerie to walk by a dyno room with a Le Mans test in progress and it sounded like the engine was out on the track.

Is Saturday's racing still scheduled to start at 6:30?

Not a Cup car, but a Cup driver.... Hamlin DQed

Per racingnews.com and NASCAR, the police dropped charges and a/o 9:00 PM ET 8/28/19, NASCAR reinstated him.

I used to go to ThunderHill when Mary Ann was running it - I remember she would be there at the gate after the last race to wish the fans a good and safe night. A very nice thing to do! I haven't been to Cotton Bowl many times as I'd like. It's a long drive from Adkins - so staying alert on the drive home is a concern, and with I-37 being 1/3 the distance/time that's where I usually go (and I don't get to go there as often as I'd like). But I have been a couple of times for special shows, and enjoyed it - and I hope to go again. Clearly, Mary Ann brings the same passion and care to Cotton Bowl that she did to THR! I hope Cotton Bowl will thrive and reward her efforts to keep racing alive in that area!

"SHOW STARTS @ 7pm sharp" - tractor is still on the track, no wheel pack or hot laps yet... I don't think this show is starting anywhere near 7PM. Nearby fans say the track is saying 8PM. What is the correct starting time?

From what I see, it would only be at certain tracks - those that have enough shutdown area. The calculations to compare 1320-ft e.t./speed vs 1000-ft e.t./speed for national record purposes, and controversy that would likely result, would be very interesting - if they even chose to stay with a "single national record" each for e.t. and speed. To avoid controversy, I suspect there would have to be separate national records for 1000-ft and 1320-ft.

I hear SUS usually has a pretty good car count. I'm planning to come from San Antonio to see them - looking forward to seeing some good racing.

I read most of the law suit document. It mentions that even VP's pump gas failed state testing at a Massachusetts gas station. VP makes small-engine fuel - it claims the highest octane of any of the small-engine fuels that I've seen. I wonder if even that meets it's advertised rating. Back in the days when I used to bracket race my street car at Alamo Dragway, I would get a few gallons of VP ahead of time and mix it with pump gas for a little insurance. Sad to see a once-good company hurt by someone who buys a majority stake and (allegedly) does something like this.

That's one of the directions I was going with my post. Then, there's the question of how high is high enough? From the video PAPosse linked to, it looks like he went through a gap between the advertising boards and the catch fence. I guess the need is to have the catch fence begin on the side of the seating area, and have a pretty big buffer - but, obviously, there's a limit to how much of a buffer is possible. Evidently, Swindell wasn't there. So, Tim - you're blaming the fan(s) who sat in an area he/they probably thought would be safe? After all, they were behind the fence and I'm sure they didn't expect a car to come crashing between the advertising boards and catch fence. At least one racer (Kevin Swindell) apparently thought there was something unsafe, but it was probably from his perspective as a driver and not with regard to the fans. And that's very much a subjective thing. You might kill someone while you're driving somewhere (perhaps a person might step into the road in front of you without looking and you might run that person over and kill him/her) - so I guess you don't drive anywhere, Tim?

I saw an incident at New Smyrna Beach in '95 where a car got turned, and the nose went over and along the top of the front-straight wall and took out three or four poles of the catch-fence. The people in the first couple of rows in the bleachers probably got considerably more excitement than they wanted/expected on that restart. So this is something that has concerned me a bit, too. I seem to recall some fences that go straight up - there is no angle out over the track near the top. So that's one suggestion - always have the catch fence angle out over the track to catch flying parts sooner. Also, thicker (bigger diameter, thicker wall) catch fence poles, with heavy cable lines every 5-6 feet up the fence. Some tracks have cabling connecting the poles and acting as a containment (like the highway department has in medians to prevent cross-overs) between poles, but I think some do not. And a little distance between the wall and catch fence. An impact-absorbing barrier could be helpful - doesn't have to be SAFER barrier (maybe steel plate, cables, and old tires?), but something to absorb a little energy before the car tries to launch over the wall. I don't know what you can do about sprints/midgets getting airborne and potentially going over a wall. I've seen some very spectacular pictures of sprint cars well up in the air, and I suspect those started when one car wheel-launched over another. Perhaps some started when a car got turned toward the wall and already had some wheels off the ground when it hit, so the impact sent it end-over end and airborne? In that case, maybe an impact barrier might help. NASCAR and/or the Indy cars have encountered most of this over the years (think about Bobby Allison's ride when he took down the catch fence at Talledega). Unfortunately, they mostly require renovations/modifications that are expensive for a local short-track.

Please post them here - thanks!

I like Mike Joy - but I'll be glad to see Waltrip gone. Can he take his brother with him? MW's "pit walks" are as annoying as DW's "boogity boogity".

Tom, thanks for all you do in posting these pics and keeping memories alive! Brings back memories of when I first started going to Pan American because my brother crewed for Harold Oatman.

This is going back to 1969 or 1970 when I first started going to Pan American - I recall that he raced Super Stocks, which was Pan Am's top class. I think he had a Mustang, but my fuzzy kid's memory from that time may be incorrect (I was rooting for Harold Oatman, so everyone else was secondary) There is a post about Clarence Lovell (spelling?) in the History forum that mentions Don Fowler.

Is that a "beehive" hairdo?