I love these comments:
Jim G. said: My impression (from TV): It's like drinking beer from a fire-hose (and it's over too quick).
Jim E. said: I can't help but think of it kinda like having 4 boxers in the ring at once.
And here’s a few brainstorming hypotheticals and comments/suggestions:
It seems the main appeal to four wide would be the sensory over load that could only be experienced at the track. My brain doesn’t have the raw speed to process the nuances of four nitro cars at once. For those of us that don’t have the biology of a hummingbird , at least half the race can’t be enjoyed at all, as I can only focus on two cars at once maximum.
Maybe if I took speed or some other time perception altering drug this sort of racing would be possible to enjoy? (You know your concept is flawed when your customers have to take illegal drugs to enjoy it!)
Oh what the hell. It’s only one race (or two?) and it is a novelty and it does have some nuances. Nice to have two winners each round, too. Everybody should be a winner.
Lane choice and last minute lane swaps must be interesting. Plus unsportsmanlike staging procedures could get three other teams mad at you instead of just one.
Once again, here’s some benefits to four wide, if you work out the details.
Cleanup – grooming could be done on two lanes while racing continues in the other two. To an extent. I would not want to be working in the down lanes when 330 mph race cars are racing 60 feet from me! I would park the equipment and get off the track and behind some thing safe during the race. Parked equipment in the dormant lanes would lead someday to another catastrophic unintended consequences type accident eventually? However, isn’t parked equipment roughly the same as the finish line sign posts in terms of massive stationary objects close to the track that would kill somebody if they went over the wall? (Jimmy Nix, Scott Kalitta and Dick Harrell are three examples of how unsafe this can be)
I think they invented some hinged jersey barriers for access – a few more of them on the outer most barriers would allow the sweepers and trucks to get farther away from the racing.
Less time for slow/boring car racing – Not going to befriend very many here with this comment, but the indexed or bracket or class cars could be run at twice the normal rate, so as to get this racing over quicker.
Even more safety – if you run the left and right sides as one lane each, that gives you a jersey barrier between the lanes. Safer, and a lot easier to spot a centerline violation. Or not – that would make the race track twice as wide for each car and allow a lot more distance to gain velocity for a head on impact into the barrier.. Or they could get a jersey barrier system like on the Tappen Zee Bridge in Westchester N.Y. It's a machine that moves the barriers to widen the high traffic lanes as required by the ebb and flow of rush hour traffic patterns.
I have to say I’m happy for Robert and Spencer – they had the best nitro cars out there and it’s real nice to see 332 mph again! I do wish Erica had won, though. I hope she does get a win this year.
-90%