XR Super Series - race at Texas looks to be moving due to bad soil test.

Barry Braun
3h
TEXAS: The 2022 racing season at the Texas Motor Speedway Dirt Track has been canceled, all events. The Texas Dirt Nationals will be moved.

The soil test of the track returned with unacceptable results for racing. We will spend the summer resurfacing the track in preparation for a return in 2023. A formal press announcement will come soon.

First time for an excuse like that. I think a lug nut on the water truck was starting to come loose personally.

Oh lord. What the hell? OSHA or something?

Soil test??? …….that one not passing the sniff test.

No it definitely doesn’t pass the smell test

XR also changed the Stuart race from 4 days to 2 days.

Is it really that hard to believe? We have all been to a race where it was a dumpster fire night/weekend and thought to ourselves “this surface is junk (or wore out)”

I've never heard a soil test used on a dirt track to see if it's going to work. Eldora, the crown jewel of tracks didn't even do that and Ray Charles could see the new dirt wasn't attached to the old dirt.

Well I think the hand writing is on the wall on this one. They kept throwing money at this deal waiting for it to stick. Venue after venue had little fan support. With the way things are presently I feel the money behind XR is having second thoughts.

They've had issues with drainage (tunnel area especially turn two low) and dirt for years, its not inconceivable. They ran a monday night weekly series last year,its not like they aren't trying. Probably dumped too much calcium carb or other quick fixes on it over the years.

Surely not Blue Ridge.......they wouldnt know Columbias finest from calcium carbonate!

Being that I have done nearly 5,000 soil and tissue samples, I would really like to know what substance caused it to fail!

Interesting moving this race to Kokomo, which is basically an open wheel based crowd. Kokomo has cut their schedule back so much it's basically a special events track now. How many fans do you need to make a Monday night $20,000 to win and Tuesday night $40,000 to win profitable, both at the track and purchasing the streaming?

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Originally Posted by Dirt Clod

Interesting moving this race to Kokomo, which is basically an open wheel based crowd. Kokomo has cut their schedule back so much it's basically a special events track now. How many fans do you need to make a Monday night $20,000 to win and Tuesday night $40,000 to win profitable, both at the track and purchasing the streaming?

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The XR business model is based off of streaming and back gate. The total purse for the two nights combined is $250,000 which means to break even for September they would need 6,258 subscribers. Everything you hear around the sport is that XR subscriber numbers are much larger than that. Anyone who comes through the front gate is really just a bonus, as far as the tracks that host XR events I'm not sure what percentage they get.

I seriously doubt it was a 'failed' chemical test, more like physical properties testing, like how much water it will hold, % of this n that vs known good dirt.

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Originally Posted by GrocMax

I seriously doubt it was a 'failed' chemical test, more like physical properties testing, like how much water it will hold, % of this n that vs known good dirt.

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That is correct. Clay is a generic word for red dirt often used on a dirt track. The percent of minerals and other properties vary which makes certain clay better for racing. Good clay for racing and bad clay for racing is still called clay.

Sort of like if I sent 5 people out to buy a plain white, long sleeve dress shirt, size XL,Van Heusen brand all 5 would be almost identical. If I sent 5 people out to buy a shirt probably would have 5 completely different looks but still would be called shirts.

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Originally Posted by dirtSLMracing

That is correct. Clay is a generic word for red dirt often used on a dirt track. The percent of minerals and other properties vary which makes certain clay better for racing. Good clay for racing and bad clay for racing is still called clay.

Sort of like if I sent 5 people out to buy a plain white, long sleeve dress shirt, size XL,Van Heusen brand all 5 would be almost identical. If I sent 5 people out to buy a shirt probably would have 5 completely different looks but still would be called shirts.

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And we race on all 5 shirts all summer long.

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Originally Posted by MasterSbilt_Racer

And we race on all 5 shirts all summer long.

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I was a track official at a dirt track for 8 years up until a couple years ago. Track brought in new clay when someone was moving land locally for a new business and wanted to get rid of some clay.

First couple nights it was raced on it would come up in sheets.. looked sort of like 4x8 plywood peeling up. Called a guy that knows about the makeup of soil/clay.. maybe sent him a sample I can't remember that part. His answer was to get that stuff off the track, it will never bond the way needed to race on.

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Originally Posted by ZERO25

Surely not Blue Ridge.......they wouldnt know Columbias finest from calcium carbonate!

Being that I have done nearly 5,000 soil and tissue samples, I would really like to know what substance caused it to fail!

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Not enough azzindaseats was the reason the soil test failed I believe.

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Originally Posted by Barbecueboy

Not enough azzindaseats was the reason the soil test failed I believe.

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I think so too.

XR race, crowd don't matter, right?