How hot can it be? (3 Viewers)

[GumbyWVU]

Luckily, Norwalk was last week and not this week, as locally (and across a large part of the Ohio Valley, Mississippi River Valley, and most of the East) we're sitting at 98 as I write this (7/2, 16:20).

Has a temperature (or track temp as a result) ever gotten too hot, such that an event was either post-poned or delayed until evening, or the next day?

I remember once, back in the late 90s at Kanawha Valley Dragway (now known as Southside Dragway) where it got too cold later in the evening, and with its proximity to the Kanawha River, racing was halted due to moisture/dew starting to show on the track. Haven't seen it too hot though, but times however it sure felt like it. Don't know how you racers can stand it in those fire suits!

Curious to hear other's experiences.

 

[mick]

maybe you have noticed in some of clay's videos, he is wearing a cooling shirt.

 

[T.Smith]

I been to a few races where the temps were in mid to high 90's. None of them were moved off the original schedule.

Track officials at Huntsville AL and St. Louis both hosed the track down with water to cool the track temps for round 1 of top fuel.

 

[DanTheFan]

I was at Norwalk when it was 104. Almost died.

 

[Jack]

I remember more than a few 100 degree plus days at E Town in July. The cooler was always well stocked back in those days.

 

[65 Goatboy]

I been to a few races where the temps were in mid to high 90's. None of them were moved off the original schedule.

Track officials at Huntsville AL and St. Louis both hosed the track down with water to cool the track temps for round 1 of top fuel.

St. Louis used to be early to mid summer, being the closet track we endured many a hot weekend. I guess living in the midwest you learn to tolerate the humidity but never really get used to it. Our afternoon heat index's are in the mid nineties and dew points in the 70's this week.

 

[Butch]

I'm going out on a limb, I'm thinking ambient air temperature has little effect on the track temperature. Direct sunlight has more to do with the temperature.

Tony what's your opinion?

 

[stitcherbob]

How hot can it be?

• "It was so hot today, I saw a funeral procession pull into the Dairy Queen drive through..."
• "It was so hot today, I saw a fire hydrant flagging down a dog."
• "It was so hot, I saw homeless people snorting ice cubes."
• "It’s so hot that I saw a robin using a potholder to pull a worm out of the ground."
• "It’s so hot I saw a chicken lay an omelet! "
• "It's so hot, I poured McDonald's coffee in my lap to cool off""
• "It’s so hot, everyone is wearing “sweat” pants!"
• "It’s so hot the cows are giving evaporated milk!"
• "It's so hot...Jehovah's Witnesses started telemarketing"

In memoriam of Johnny Carson....

 

[Randy]

2021 Divisional Race at Phoenix had schedule changes due to excessive heat. I believe the ambient temperature during the day was 109 degrees with track temperatures around 140. My fading memory seems to recall they actually ran a water truck down the track to try to cool the track down.

 

[I was NITRO BREATH]

I remember more than a few 100 degree plus days at E Town in July. The cooler was always well stocked back in those days.

I too remember some beastly hot Englishtown races. They had a few misters going for the fans to cool off. We must have been hardier back then because the crowds were large and everyone stayed to the end

 

[stitcherbob]

I too remember some beastly hot Englishtown races. They had a few misters going for the fans to cool off. We must have been hardier back then because the crowds were large and everyone stayed to the end

I always made sure to get a seat under the lone tree over the pit side bleachers, growing out of the asphalt next to the food building, where all the NYkr's would gather to bet $$$ on Pro Stock racing. (click on video below to join in....have your money ready)
One time I met Steve Collison, editor of SS&DI magazine, up there taking it all in during Comp

 

[twostep]

104 ambient one year at the start of Q1 at the Texas Motorplex. If I recall the track temp was in the upper 140s. Nearly every Pro Stock car could have qualified in the top half of the Top Fuel field. You couldn't sit in the stands for long; I found refuge under them in the shade and waited for the evening session which they delayed until after sunset. It was nearly as hot but at least no sun on the track and the session went fairly well.

I made a vow never to attend another event with predicted temps that extreme. Just not worth it. Perhaps we need Elon Musk to build us a climate controlled indoor facility like they had in an old NHRA Drag Racing game.

 

[65 Goatboy]

104 ambient one year at the start of Q1 at the Texas Motorplex. If I recall the track temp was in the upper 140s. Nearly every Pro Stock car could have qualified in the top half of the Top Fuel field. You couldn't sit in the stands for long; I found refuge under them in the shade and waited for the evening session which they delayed until after sunset. It was nearly as hot but at least no sun on the track and the session went fairly well.

I made a vow never to attend another event with predicted temps that extreme. Just not worth it. Perhaps we need Elon Musk to build us a climate controlled indoor facility like they had in an old NHRA Drag Racing game.

25+ cars trying to qualify in every class and standing room only.

 

[GumbyWVU]

I was at Norwalk when it was 104. Almost died.

wow when was that? I know in 2021 before that storm hit, it was extremely humid and fairly hot as well.

 

[GumbyWVU]

How hot can it be?

• "It was so hot today, I saw a funeral procession pull into the Dairy Queen drive through..."
• "It was so hot today, I saw a fire hydrant flagging down a dog."
• "It was so hot, I saw homeless people snorting ice cubes."
• "It’s so hot that I saw a robin using a potholder to pull a worm out of the ground."
• "It’s so hot I saw a chicken lay an omelet! "
• "It's so hot, I poured McDonald's coffee in my lap to cool off""
• "It’s so hot, everyone is wearing “sweat” pants!"
• "It’s so hot the cows are giving evaporated milk!"
• "It's so hot...Jehovah's Witnesses started telemarketing"

In memoriam of Johnny Carson....

Well played my friend!

 

[ZWeinstein]

2021 Divisional Race at Phoenix had schedule changes due to excessive heat. I believe the ambient temperature during the day was 109 degrees with track temperatures around 140. My fading memory seems to recall they actually ran a water truck down the track to try to cool the track down.

Your memory is correct, they took a break from 1-6pm everyday and during that break they sprayed the track down and re-prepped for the night half. Looking back at my notes for the article I wrote, the highest track temp I was told by a Comp team was 157 with others saying low to mid 150s. That was certainly the hottest drag race I ever attended/shot with this year's nationals being hot as hell too.

But the hottest race I ever went to was at was a Labor Day weekend dirt track race down in Yuma. When I got to the track and setup in the infield it was 121 degrees. They had multiple water trucks spraying the down the track to try and put some moisture but ran one group of hot laps and it still looked like a dust storm. They had to push everything back till about 9pm.

 

[XPilot]

I worked a big bracket race where we were rotating starting line personnel every thirty minutes and me being an in-college idiot didn't rotate twice in a row due to some of the older guys having heat issues. It then became me with the issue. Stopped sweating and had to go inside for a while where the air conditioned tower felt like a freezer while I pounded Gatorade. Lesson learned...

 

[I was NITRO BREATH]

I always made sure to get a seat under the lone tree over the pit side bleachers, growing out of the asphalt next to the food building, where all the NYkr's would gather to bet $$$ on Pro Stock racing. (click on video below to join in....have your money ready)
One time I met Steve Collison, editor of SS&DI magazine, up there taking it all in during Comp


View attachment 17706

I remember wondering who was lucky enough to sit under the only shady spot on the entire property.

 

[none]

Don't remember the year but one event in Sonoma it was about 104 and fans were fainting left, right and center.

Track was in the low 150s if I remeber correctly.

Alan

 

[mike]

I been to a few races where the temps were in mid to high 90's. None of them were moved off the original schedule.

Track officials at Huntsville AL and St. Louis both hosed the track down with water to cool the track temps for round 1 of top fuel.

Tony one the years we won e-town the inside our trailer was 117-no air-1988We won against Troxel I believe it was 106 outside