Rough race tracks

[let-r-eat]

What are some of the things you like to do to negotiate a rough racetrack. I generally try to avoid them BUT.........LOL Driving, setup, preparation. Whatever you feel is important when you know it's coming.

[TheJet-09]

Over time, some of my best results have come on rough tracks, so I guess I don't mind them as much as most. Driving wise, I feel the car is not as upset by the roughness if you actually stay in the gas through the ruts/bumps (keeps everything loaded up). I think if you're in and out of the throttle it exaggerates the effects of the roughness. I've also run a little more gear and even a little more stagger if possible. I feel the better the responsiveness of the engine/turning ability the easier it is to recover from getting out of shape.

And then expect the unexpected maintenance wise after a rough night. After one such race last year, I later realized I had a bent motor mount, which dropped the front of the engine, which caused the fan blade to rub on the bottom of the shroud (I never heard it though), which in turn broke off one of the fan blades the next night, which caused an imbalance, which vibrated the waterpump right off the motor. Geez Louise!

[Krooser]

As a promoter I'd always get the one guy come and complain about that 'big hole' in a certain place that he was hitting all night ... I'd always mention that the steering wheel is connected to the front wheels and he could always turn the wheels to miss it.

It seems this season we've had enough rough tracks to last a couple years... last night at Shawano it was rough and dusty... I think the track prep guy guy snookered by Friday's big rain... he ran the surface in a bit too much. Alate show grader helped for the LM A main...

[LM14]

Softer springs, stiffer shocks, bit more gear.

[let-r-eat]

I know that it's nearly impossible for tracks to prevent holes and ruts under certain conditions. Even the smooth ones get bumpy from time to time. Watching drivers go over the same big hole lap after lap is amusing from time to time....lol

WE are racing on dirt after all....lol..............thank HEAVENS!

[Basecircle]

Always 3 types of guys on those rough track nights. 1. Drives through the bumps and still stays fast2. Changes his line and finds where he and the car can best get around without upsetting the car3. There's always that guy that hits the same rut , lap after lap, spins 3 times and takes out 5 cars and before he's out of his car he's on social media bashing the track/crew for ruining his night. With our rainy weather, we've been seeing an awful lot of #3 unfortunately. In my experience, adjusting for a rough track is more of a driver adjustment than chassis. The chassis gets the attention AFTER the race. Amazing the things that you find loose or bent after a race on a rough track.

[Matt49]

The old adage used to be to take angle out of all bars to calm the car down when the track is rough. I'm not sure if anybody uses this school of thought or not. Rough usually means hooked up and fast so dropping j-bar angle is certainly reasonable. Rather than changing other bar angles I would look toward more stagger.
When the tracks around here get rough, I put a 5/1 oil shock in front of the LR and that calms the rear end down quite a bit.