NHRA Announces Changes To Oildown And In-Season Testing Policies (2 Viewers)

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Well, that is not what I want to hear ... Epping is on my calendar of events for this season.

Surely Epping is not as bad as Commerce?

They had a long way to go to bring it up to the Commerce level. Only time will tell. It will be expensive and hard to get in and out of no matter what they do.
 
It would be absurd for a track to pay big show cars if they are trying to turn a profit.

Last summer, Bakersfield hael what they called "Saturday Night Nitro" The place was full of Nostalgia funnys, Newstalgia TF, nitro Harleys, Fuel altereds etc. Not a single big show car.

Great turnout. Great racing. Lots of noise and header flames. Crowd couldn't have cared less that John Force was not there.

They did three or four of them last year. They were a success and will happen again this year.

There are plenty of nitro cars around for tracks to copy this deal.

You are compairing apples and oranges. We were at all three SNN races Blake put on last summer, they were great, reminded everyone of OCIR in the 70's.

Nobody knows if anyone cares if Force was'nt there or not, its a different type of racing.

Fast door cars, NFC's, a couple NTF'ers, one nitro bike, two jet cars,one big show top fuel car (Arley went in the 4's for the first time), and one big show funny car ( Chuck Beal) fun deal we had a great time, layed back race we were on the starting line the entire event.

The crowds were ok, Not huge, the track didn't make any big money and didn't expect to, but it was alot of fun.
 
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Well, that is not what I want to hear ... Epping is on my calendar of events for this season.

Surely Epping is not as bad as Commerce?

Cant be as bad as some of the dumps we got here!

Whats wrong with the place and how does it compare to the two tracks (Pomona & Phoenix) I have been to?
 
They had a long way to go to bring it up to the Commerce level. Only time will tell. It will be expensive and hard to get in and out of no matter what they do.

So John, whats the axe to grind with Epping? Have you even seen the updates that are done so far and will be completed by the national? The fact they will have a pitside equal to Norwalks when complete.

I've been to quite a few tracks and its not E-town, but you can't look at these older tracks like that. ALL older tracks have their own character and thats one of the things I love about going to these different races, mainly to experience the tracks.
You can put me at Charlotte or Vegas and its the Taj Mahal...but they followed the same blueprint, which is fine, but its not the same.
 
More trees, fewer illegal aliens, very humid. And they talk funny there but if you're from Oz it shouldn't be a problem.

That is true Larry! LMAO!!

If I had to compare Epping to another track I think the closest would be Seattle, except the facilities are better and the track is all concrete.
 
So John, whats the axe to grind with Epping? Have you even seen the updates that are done so far and will be completed by the national? The fact they will have a pitside equal to Norwalks when complete.

I've been to quite a few tracks and its not E-town, but you can't look at these older tracks like that. ALL older tracks have their own character and thats one of the things I love about going to these different races, mainly to experience the tracks.
You can put me at Charlotte or Vegas and its the Taj Mahal...but they followed the same blueprint, which is fine, but its not the same.

Pit side equal to Norwalk? Size? Seating? Buck a pound ice cream? Clean?

This track was called a "Major" before NHRA has run a National. It is not a "Major".
 
Pit side equal to Norwalk? Size? Seating? Buck a pound ice cream? Clean?

This track was called a "Major" before NHRA has run a National. It is not a "Major".

Its actually larger than the right side pits at Norwalk, but thats where the similarities end.
 
Epping is not and never has been a "Major" track. I doubt that it ever will be.
What would you consider a major track. Was OCIR a major track? In the 70's at the peak of the Nitro Match Racing era, Car Craft did an article on the state of the Match Race scene. They declared NED the Funny Car Capitol of the world. According to the article, no track ran more cars, more often or paid out more money then NED. Problem is the track was drawing huge crowds even for their Wednesday night shows so they didn't see a need to promote the track nationally. Along with the fact the car mags where located on the West coast or Virginia area and not many knew what was happening at Epping. If you have National Dragsters from that era it's tough to find a racing season issue without coverage of some big match race at NED.
 
They had a long way to go to bring it up to the Commerce level. Only time will tell. It will be expensive and hard to get in and out of no matter what they do.
Hard to get in and out of ? Have you been there in the last decade? They have an on ramp to a major highway as you leave the parking lot! Look it up on Google earth. NED does not have all the fancy buildings that many of the new tracks have but if you attend an event for the racing you won't be disappointed.
 
Hard to get in and out of ? Have you been there in the last decade? They have an on ramp to a major highway as you leave the parking lot! Look it up on Google earth. NED does not have all the fancy buildings that many of the new tracks have but if you attend an event for the racing you won't be disappointed.

Jim....its futile :D
 
Epping is all concrete?? :confused:
Did I understand that correctly?
 
All concrete is definitely something I can get excited about!! :D
 
All concrete is definitely something I can get excited about!! :D

All 1320'!

They had 160 degree track temps and over 100 @ 90+ humidity at the divisional back in 2011 and the alky cars FLEW down that track like they were on a rail.

Joe Lombardo was always able to make the concrete like flypaper, but the asphalt was the issue with dew or weepers (look no further than Maple Grove), so he decided to just replace the remaining 660' and the place has been incredible.
The Maple Grove reference is because the environment is roughly the same with the elevation and trees. Any numbers I had at Epping always translated equal to the Grove.
 
What would you consider a major track. Was OCIR a major track? In the 70's at the peak of the Nitro Match Racing era, Car Craft did an article on the state of the Match Race scene. They declared NED the Funny Car Capitol of the world. According to the article, no track ran more cars, more often or paid out more money then NED. Problem is the track was drawing huge crowds even for their Wednesday night shows so they didn't see a need to promote the track nationally. Along with the fact the car mags where located on the West coast or Virginia area and not many knew what was happening at Epping. If you have National Dragsters from that era it's tough to find a racing season issue without coverage of some big match race at NED.

True statement, we raced at Epping all the time in the late 70's, it was about my favorite track.

OCIR never was a match race deal, pretty much always an open show, accept for big 64 car shows, we moved to Fla in 74, and were based out of Indy, or Springfield Mass, during the race season depending on what time of summer, usualy would run US 30 and the midwest circuit until Englishtown, then were at Epping, E-town until the end of August untill school started and the season ended, staying in Springfield Mass. or Oldbridge NJ then back to Fla.
 
True statement, we raced at Epping all the time in the late 70's, it was about my favorite track.

OCIR never was a match race deal, pretty much always an open show, accept for big 64 car shows, we moved to Fla in 74, and were based out of Indy, or Springfield Mass, during the race season depending on what time of summer, usualy would run US 30 and the midwest circuit until Englishtown, then were at Epping, E-town until the end of August untill school started and the season ended, staying in Springfield Mass. or Oldbridge NJ then back to Fla.

It was one of my favorite cars when you ran Ct dragway. Always the cleanest + best looking of the F/C's.
 
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