Change
As anyone who knows me can attest, I’m not much for change. I like the same style clothes I wore years ago. If my wife hadn’t hidden them, I’d still be wearing my Members Only jackets.
I
prefer the music of my youth, and for the most part the same goes for the
racing I like.
But
I’ll admit that at times, change is the best thing for the sport.
Last
week, driver after driver spoke out against the plans for the reconfiguration
of Atlanta Motor Speedway, which is in the process of changing the banking in
the turns from 24 degrees to 28 and narrowing the straightaways to 40 feet.
Ironically,
those same drivers are the ones who for the past several years have successfully
lobbied track officials not to repave the track. If that work had been done
when track officials first decided the 1997 pavement needed a new coat, those
complainers would be racing on the same old layout next year.
Other
NASCAR track operators, in an effort to address lagging interest in their
product, have made some dramatic moves. They put dirt on Bristol Motor
Speedway, which once had waiting lists for tickets to both of its Cup races but
saw attendance decline precipitously in recent seasons. (On the other hand,
some might say those empty seats are due in large part to earlier modifications
to the track.)
And
the NASCAR leaders have developed a love of road courses. Where there once were
just two per year on the Cup schedule there are now seven. At season’s end, the
circuit is trading out its traditional “stock car” for a NextGen vehicle that
looks more like the cars on the sports car circuit, where the audience is far
smaller than that for a traditional NASCAR race.
Change
is happening in other forms of racing too.
The
newly formed SRX (Superstar Racing Experience), formed by Tony Stewart, Ray
Evernham, George Pyne and Sandy Montag) has run five of its scheduled races
this summer to great reviews, TV viewership over one million per race and
packed houses at the short tracks where the races were run.
The
series features a mix of retired or nearly retired NASCAR and Indy Car drivers
along with some up-and-coming youngsters in an odd-looking stock car. It’s been
able to showcase venerable short tracks and the relatively lesser-known drivers
who race on them, making the series a plus for the short-track industry.
Even
my home track, Senoia Raceway, has undergone significant change.
The
previous promoters covered the track in a gumbo-like clay from the kaolin mines
in middle Georgia.
Although
I grew up watching races on red clay, I’ll admit the new surface puts on a much
better show. It’s similar to tracks I’ve visited in the Midwest, where the
racing surfaces are a black, mucky clay.
This
year, when Sonny Pollard took over management of the track founded by his
parents, one of his biggest challenges was learning how to manage the track
surface, a job Doug Stevens did in the previous management team.
Pollard,
who has delivered good racing surfaces each week despite his lack of experience
with the unique clay, said that even after a few months, he’s still in a
learning phase.
“It’s
a lot more work than red clay,” he said, adding that he spends an average of 40
hours per week just on track prep. “That clay is hard to read. It can be three
or four different ways. I still haven’t totally figured it out.”
But he said the effort is worth it.
“It’s
more race-y than red clay,” he said. “With red clay you’ll get one or maybe two
grooves, but with this stuff you can get three or four, and there’s way less
dust.”
Less
dust reminds me of something veteran racer Glenn Morris pointed out to me. It
used to be that you could ride around town on Sunday morning and tell who went
to the races and who didn’t by the dust on cars on the streets. Not so much
anymore.
Change,
it seems, is inevitable. I wish the NASCAR folks good luck with their gambles.
I appreciate what my buddy Tony Stewart and his cohorts are doing with the SRX,
and I’m proud of the Pollards and their team for the work they’re doing with
Senoia.
Now
if somebody would help me find my Members Only jackets I’d be a happy
fellow.
See
y’all at the races.
Truth
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