Cordova Walls Complete

[Gator]

might not be the same ole Cordova.BUt I am glad to see those walls instead of that rickety armco.......ERIK

Me too.

I always thought that the armcos were OK until I saw that Outlaw Street Car go over the wall and just about go into the crowd.

I will feel safer with the new walls...

Thank you Scott Gardner!

EDB

yes

[Big Erik]

the problem with having them too far away from the actual racing surface is if the driver/car is really in trouble and has a hung throttle or something like that thats a chance for the car to gather ALOT of speed......the concrete walls are actually safer than an armco as they usually give and act like a spring and launch the car.....JMO......ERIK

[Zappy]

You've got a good point , but in the case of a hung throttle or steering loss, the track side barrier tends to send the car into the other lane, thus more danger.

We've all seen Indy cars and Nascars sliding to a safe stop on the grass. No harm to driver - no damage to car. Why some think we HAVE GOT to keep the car on the track at all cost is beyond me.

I can't think of any other race style that has a barrier on both sides of the racing surface. To me, If you have the room, use it. But thats JMO.

[pro70z28]

The downside to having the walls back further off the track is if the car gets out of shape it gives it more room to build "lateral speed" if that's a term. In other words if you loose control 10 ' from the wall you are more likely to sideswipe it and careen off. If you have say 30' to the wall the car has more time to build speed left or right and tag the wall much harder. Also the wall would be closer to the fans so if the wall was jumped (Increased speed would probably increase the chance of that happening) there would be less of a safety zone. Or they could move the stands back further but nobody wants that. Also, I think if a drag car hit a grassy area with those fat tires going sideways it would go into a barrel roll pretty easily. They are built to go str8, as apposed to the roundy round NASCAR cars. I don't have any facts to back this up, it's just my thoughts as to why they are where they are.

[pro70z28]

Zap, the NASCAR guys have a huge grass infield (which would put the grand stands a long way from the action). They do have barriers in the infield too to keep the car from going into the pits. Just a long way off the track. It would be nice if they could come up with something softer than a concrete wall. Maybe something like NASCAR.
Hey Zap, let's come up with somethin', we could be rich N' famous.

[Zappy]

Ok pro, I can see it now........THE ALL NEW PRO Z 70 Zappy 28 Retaining Wall Wheew It'll take to the 1000' mark to letter that.

You're right Pro, in some cases (hung throttle) a car would build more speed before impact. But in most cases, I think the extra distance would allow a driver to get it stopped safetly with out any contact at all. Why not eliminate a crash when we can.

Most tracks have tons of un-used area before spectators or return rds. I just think it's a waste not to use it.

Also I think slicks would slide easier on grass than on a sticky race track, thus less roll-overs. JMO

There's probably no "Perfect" cure

Now about that wall......hmmm some type of bungie system?? no. maybe water filled plastic like on the interstates??? no
giant air bags??? no. I'll keep on it Pro.

[Big Erik]

well let's see here.........alot of the nascar tracks have paved as much of the grass as they can.......also I myself have never hit anything or went turtle.........my dad however rolled his Opel out there and the week before his buddy rolled his 65 vette on the third pass.......dad just said today if they would have had the walls like now the vette would not have rolled........he got out in the sand and it dug in and went end over end three times.......the sand out there is a wicked thing........I still think the walls are the safer bet........ERIK

[Gator]

You are right Erik !

And the insurance people agree with you too.

[Big Erik]

Thanks gator......I dunno if anyone else was out there a few years ago at the UDRA summer nationals they used to have......from half track on they sell camping spots along the track.and they have a certain distance ya gotta be from the fence......a buddy of mine and his buddies were camped at about the 900' mark or so.had a keg burried in the ground the whole thing.....Lou Novotny was racing another car (forget who) TAD cars..the other car got loose andcame into lou's lane hitting him at about the rear motorplate this was about the 1/8th mile mark.......the other car went back into the other lane and rolled on it's side......lou got shoved on top the armco and slid down it..for a good ways........thats scary enough......the injector got hung opening the throttle wide open......one tire dug in and the car JUMPED over the rail and rolled out in the camping crowd.and came apart the motor hit the side of a mini camper and moved it about 10 feet!.lou was flipping and tumbling......my buddy was standing in the back of a 4x4 truck and everyone else ran he is short and had no time to jump so he ducked.the cockpit area went over him and the truck hitting nothing...........there were a ton of people running for cover......we at the starting line thought the worst.not only for Lou but for anyone in the path.......it is a miracle that NO ONE got hurt......my buddy jumped out of the truck and ran over to lou who was still awake holdin the steering wheel his glasses were mangled around his face.....my buddy said the firs thing lou said was "WTF just happened!!"......they got him out and took him to the hospital but he was fine.......we all ran out to see if our buddies were all still with us there sits kevin at that burried keg with a beer shaking.......lous car had cleared that too.......my point here is.......if the barrier was a wall instead of that armco i doubt lou woulda gotten on top of it like he did and if he did it probably would not have gotten the injector stuck in it to hang the throttle open.then again it all coulda went the same........there have been a couple bad wrecks out there in recent years that IMO would not have been as bad if the walls had been in place.the armco pilings were in SAND.......the shutdown area it looked like a snake.......not good.......anyway JMO.....i myself feel safer with the new stuff......ERIK

[Eric David Bru]

I'll feel alot safer driving there, and I will also feel safer send my drivers down the track.

EDB