Eldora Speedway
Car-sucking wall among Eldora's challenges
By Bryan Ault
Special to DirtonDirt
Eldora's wall bit Shane Clanton in June's Dream. (joshjamesartwork.com)
ROSSBURG, Ohio (Sept. 11) – Newcomers to this weekend’s World 100 at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio might wonder why Dirt Late Model drivers choose to run so much on the high side, getting ever-so-close to the hallowed half-mile track’s concrete wall. On such a big, wide surface with so much room in the middle and lower grooves, why run on a knife’s edge lap after lap?
Josh Rice of Crittenden, Ky., who often does just that, says momentum gained off turns two and four allow drivers to save time with the car loaded on its right-rear, but getting that boost requires the risk of hitting Eldora’s ever-looming fence.
“You get sucked in here faster than probably anywhere,” said Rice, who finished second to Brandon Overton of Evans, Ga. during Thursday’s preliminary feature. “Your right front hits that stuff here as fast as you're going. It's just hard to recover from it. I mean, this is probably the hardest place to run the top just because of the speeds and everything, but you still just got to have a good car. You’ve got to be controlled up there. If you're out of control, it's really easy to crash.”
Drivers like Rice and Hudson O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., who wheel the modern machines around Eldora’s wall know they’re flirting with disaster. While the high side offers greater momentum for drivers to collect speed off the high-banked turns, getting into the wall can mean disaster.
“Most of the time, you're pointed so straight here,” O’Neal said. “It's unlike a lot of places because the corner's so long, so you run straighter against it. Whenever you hit (the cushion) with the right rear, you're not as sideways to keep the right front out of it. When you hit it with the right rear, it just sucks the right front around because you're already so much straighter.”
Rice and O'Neal describe the feeling of hitting Eldora’s wall as if they’re being “sucked” into it, like crumbs in a vacuum.
Time trials carry a risk of hitting the wall with the increased speeds on the tacky surface, but the concrete still poses a threat during the feature, where drivers are searching for speed. Turn one poses a greater challenge than turn three, which is easier because of the rounded bend of Eldora’s backstretch.
“You’ve definitely got to turn more getting into (turn) one here than you do three,” Rice said. “I feel like three, you can kind of parse your corner and make a big swoop where getting into one, you've got make yourself turn and then you almost got to turn again out of (turn) two to not hit the wall because how fast it comes in.”
Garrett Smith of Madison, Ga., tagged the turn-two wall during Thursday’s first semifeature. Even though he was sent into the wall because of a flat tire, Smith is well-aware of the dangers of running the top groove, especially at a track like Eldora where the effects of dirty air can play tricks with a driver’s handling.
“It didn't get the frame or nothing too bad, but I kind of got lucky on that,” Smith said of his Thursday wreck. “Just some cosmetic and suspension damage up front, but other than that, it was a bummer. Last year, we were in a heat race and it just all matters how the cars are positioned in front of you. Last year I did get sucked (into the wall). I got too good of a run up on somebody off the corner and the nose lifted up. It’s basically like getting picked up by a forklift and moved over.”
Sometimes, the combination of their setups and driving style lends itself to running against the wall. Drivers would love to be able to run in the middle, where stars such as Jonathan Davenport, Billy Moyer and the late Scott Bloomquist have been able to take home globe trophies during the century grind.
“I feel like I've struggled to get my car tight enough here where I can run across that middle,” Rice said. “I mean, you get your right side in that brown (part of the surface near the cushion and wall), it just holds you in there, and you can just stay on the fuel. Like I say, I've got to get my car better to where I don’t have to enter on it and I feel like most of these races are being won right now where you're controlled across that black streak. We've had success running it here, so I'm sure we'll be up there.”
When a driver hits the wall, Rice said they have two options, both of which could be calamitous.
“When you're on the verge of crashing, you've got two choices: hang the wheel left and hope it comes out or get on the brakes and try to just get yourself off it,” Rice said. “I run three-wheel brakes a lot of the time, so getting on the brakes will pull me back off of most of the time. It’s tough here, like said, you're running so fast. It's tough to get yourself to slow down. It's also tough to make yourself stay in the fuel.”
The risk of hitting the wall doesn’t always keep driver from flirting with it. Many see it as a challenge to master.
“We try to not get in that situation until the end of these races,” O’Neal said. “Like, most of the time, we can kind of maintain until the last 15 or 20 laps and then get up there and get some (speed) if you need it. There's times I've ran a lot of laps up there, but yeah, this is a very unique place in that I've always really enjoyed coming here from ever since I was a little kid, and I really enjoy racing here.”
