Flag Pole Racing

[dano36]

Last Saturday night I stumbled across the show "Living on the Edge" on the SPEED channel and they were showing a race track in Minnesota that was running a "Flag Pole" race. With the limited view of the track on TV the best I could determine was that the front stretch was like any ordinary oval with the exception of at the start finish line there was a large asphalt circle with a large tractor tire in the center, and in the center of that was a flag pole. The race lined up like a regular race and would go down through turns one and two but about half way down the back stretch, another left turn then almost an immediate right which took them back to the mid point between three and four. They then proceeded through four until they got to the asphalt ring and then they had to go around that tire in the center and then come back out onto the front straight heading back to one. They started about 20 cars and that was one exciting race. About the time the leading cars would make that circle around the flag pole, the end runners would be approaching the flag pole circle so the brakes were smoking to avoid collisions and of course there were several collisions much like those during figure 8 racing. It was a good race and surprisingly none of the cars were damaged so badly that they had to park. Some did break but the biggest problem were cars spinning when going around the flag pole. A novelty race for sure but the promotor said its a regular weekly show there. He said his fan counts were way down as were car counts, so he came up with this special event where the cars are more low budget and of course more exciting to fans. He said he now has a packed house every week. I did not get the exact location of where it was at but it was in Minnesota.

[termite#99]

I saw that too Dano. Did you stay tuned for all the other crazy races? That was a good show.

[dano36]

I saw that too Dano. Did you stay tuned for all the other crazy races? That was a good show.

 

No I didn't Cary. Us old guys get tired earlier than you youngsters..... That flag pole racing was an enduro race with guaranteed fender bending.

I keep an eye on the Speed Channel to try to catch these unique shows they always have. Yesterday afternoon they had the Dirt LM race that was at Eldoro (OH) that Stewart won about a month ago. I was

cool to see them present the one million dollar check to the Victory Junction Gang program. Say what you will about Kyle Petty as a driver, but as a person he is a champion all the way. And Tony Stewart was right there with him.