I disagree he was fine after the wreck it wasn't until him and his dad had their falling out or whatever it was that happened that he changed.
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The question shouldn’t be whether the Topless should be moved to another track.
IMO the question is why does a “national” series awarding points continue to race at a track that consistently locks down? I agree with Overton, nothing worse than traveling and spending money knowing a track has maybe 30 laps before it locks down.
We always hear that the series turns down other venues because of lack of available dates. Why not stop sanctioning this and going somewhere else?
^ Because the fans pack the place and it's a money maker.
Must be a Arkansas thing.
In all honesty I think the racing surface would be better if they’d move it from the 3rd weekend in August but that’s when the topless has always been. Batesville has some shows in the spring and the fall that can put on some of the best races you’ll see.
My wife and I attended every Topless 100 from the first one until 2003 except for 2001 when a cousin of mine got married in Texas.
For various reasons that was the last time we've been to Batesville. With the exception of the 1996 race that Bill Frye won,none of the Topless 100 races were anything to write home about. Went to a MARS race or two that were pretty good,but can't say I've lost any sleep over not having gone up there in 20 years.
Batesville is the best facility in Arkansas,but not as far as racing goes.
Now judging from the pics of the crowd they probably don't miss me and my wife at all,though.
Don't know why I'm wasting my time with this post, but here goes anyway: The Topless feature this year sucked. That said, and call me biased, but Batesville as a whole does not suck. I say that having seen many excellent races there. The last 2 Topless 100s were among those. I don't know if there's video anywhere of it, but the 2007 Topless was nearly as good a race as the '06 World. 2002, '04, '05, '10, '12, '13, '14, and '15 were also entertaining races. Add to that numerous other times when the track was spot on for races of all different classes. I've been able to travel around a little bit, not as much as some of yall, but I've been to between 40 and 50 tracks, and I can say Batesville is unique and consistently puts on good racing. It deserves a spot on the national tour. That said, it also deserves better track prep than it got last weekend. There's no reason Saturday shouldn't have been the best track all weekend. I do hope that better effort is put in next time around to avoid the train race. The track always has the potential to be excellent. PS: why does 4m not space lines when I put spaces in the post? It's as frustrating as a rubbered-up racetrack.
From what I read you didn't waste your time. Good honest post. I didn't see the whole show from start to finish but, I did catch some of the races and I thought to myself the x-finity race was better than the topless. I was thinking Moyer and Babb put on some good races at the topless. Don't quote me on that.
The lack of track prep or maintenance was the worst part. The hole in turn 1 was brutal all three nights. One car I saw in the pits should have sent Mooney a bill for road grader work. It had probably 50-75 pounds of mud smashed into the front of the radiator from landing in turn 1. The car hit hard enough that the mud pushed the radiator back till the fan hit the crankshaft. The only work on the track I saw all weekend was he watered the rubber. Saturday after they watered the track when the first group of cars rolled out to hot lap they were kicking up dust. Inexcusable for any race especially a supposed crown jewel race. If we are complaining then let me add that personal vehicles should not be in a pit area. Took up way to much room and had people parking trailers in all kinds of directions.
Agreed. From what I've heard, the turn 1 pit is caused by a small spring that came up there. It's been there at least 10 years now. I'm sure to fix it would require digging it up and repacking it, but no telling how deep it goes. Watering the outside lane like Mooney did before the mod feature has worked before, but he needed to do it again before the LM feature and put down about twice the water. It would be nice if they had people parking vehicles by the pit entrance like they do on the grandstand hill. Everyone just kinda parked everywhere Saturday and it makes a mess. At least there weren't as many people parking their brand new 3/4 ton Ram on the backstretch wall like they do sometimes!
Good track prep involves cutting the track up a few inches when needed, watering and rerolling the track. You can't mist a black slick track and do any good as within a few laps the moisuture is mainly gone and the dust is flying. Also then tracks tend to take on even more rubber and can become one lane.
When a race track does not have enough moisture in it to throw up a good cushion the racing can suffer as cars can't use the top of the track without sometimes hitting the wall or going over the bank. Causing the track to become a bottom feeder at certain tracks.
Agree that the track should've been worked and watered better overnight Friday and Saturday during the day. I understand the basic idea of track prep, and I still think that the track could've been salvaged by a couple more passes with the water truck up top right before the feature. Batesville has never been a track that builds a cushion up like FALS or Eldora, except for turn 1 at '21 and '22 Topless. That was the first time I can remember cars sparking off the wall between 1 and 2 and not crashing.
So many track prep experts and promoting geniuses on 4M and so many race tracks closed down needing reopened.