dirt track racers are fast

At a test and tune session at a local half mile dirt track the big block modifies were under 20 sec.

The fastest was 19.071 sec, ( 94.384 mph) , a sprint car turned 18.353 sec. ( 97.114 mph ).

I love watching dirt ovals. Reminds me how much I suck at driving. 

At 1/4 mile dirt tracks like grand forks North Dakota and Bloomington Indiana winged 410 sprints are lapping in the 9 seconds range. At grand forks the record is 9.269 seconds.

People see them on TV and think I can drive a car sideways, I could do that. Then they see them in person and it becomes immediately apparent how fast dirt cars are.

Fun Stuff!!!

In reply to iceracer :

I was driving sprint cars just as the Small block Chevy replaced the Offenhauser  

Open cars with no wings and a rollbar about helmet high, maybe.   A lot of sprint car drivers and former drivers had only one arm. And they died on a regular basis. Those that didn’t die were often poisoned by the methanol alcohol they splashed into those big tanks behind the driver.  Slowly dying of cancer a decade later.  

Yes those wings and cages take away some of the vintage look of those wonderful cars. But I’ll gladly trade that  to keep some of those great guys around

Friend of mine runs mini sprints powered by a 1200cc Suzuki engine.  They are only allowed on smaller tracks, at the big dirt track, they get up to 130 mph on the straight, scares people.  Fun stuff!

Yes. Look up onboard videos of the Chili Bowl. I've been to 8-9 of them live. 

Indoor 1/5 mile track where avg lap speed is in the upper-80s I believe. 

On a fast night at William's Grove, the winged 410s are usually running in the mid-low 16 second range on a 1/2 mile track. Dirt track has become one of my favorite motorsports to spectate - it's local, it's cheap, the competition is always very close, and the format makes for very exciting racing. Plus, who doesn't love the sound of a cammed up high compression V8 race motor? It's glorious. 

To Frenchy's point, while I'm sure the sport has gotten infinitely safer compared to 'back in the day', open wheel dirt track racing still seems to be one of the more dangerous areas of motorsport, and fatalities are unfortunately not uncommon. In fact, I think it was the last race I was at that there was a big memorial for a local driver who had died the week prior. I think a lot of the danger has to do with these car's propensity to cartwheel and endo and the g forces associated with that. Not sure how you fix that without some pretty fundamental changes to the cars.

Yep, look at what happened to Kevin Swindell a few years ago.

In reply to 914Driver :

I believe they some times run at a local 1/4 mile track.

frenchyd said:

In reply to iceracer :

I was driving sprint cars just as the Small block Chevy replaced the Offenhauser  

Open cars with no wings and a rollbar about helmet high, maybe.   A lot of sprint car drivers and former drivers had only one arm. And they died on a regular basis. Those that didn’t die were often poisoned by the methanol alcohol they splashed into those big tanks behind the driver.  Slowly dying of cancer a decade later.  

Yes those wings and cages take away some of the vintage look of those wonderful cars. But I’ll gladly trade that  to keep some of those great guys around

 

Here in Edmonton we have a driver that has raced sprint cars and modifiers before that for years and he races with one arm and has been successful. He still has 2 working arms but the one wrist doesn’t work anymore due to a motorcycle road racing crash in shannonville in the early 90s. He still rides motorcycles on the street though.

A friend builds and races his own 600cc Micro Sprint. He normally runs without a wing. One time the series he ran in raced against Midgets on a 1/3 mile Oval and he finished 2nd but the winner in a midget didn't pull away either. Tim's is a hell of a driver!

My supervisor races dirt track in a Late Model car.  He claims it makes about 850 hp (no reason to doubt it either).  And yeah they are really fast.

I just with the whole scene wasn’t jammed full of utter rednecks.  I’m not a huge fan of crowds or rednecks so I rarely go to a race.