NSSN Correspondent

When you set out to learn about dirt-track preparation, you quickly realize that creating a first-class racing surface is a lot like cooking classic pit barbecue. Both involve relatively simple ingredients, but demand long hours of hard work and infinite patience. Both are as much an art as a science, and no one who has mastered either art is anxious to tell all their secrets.
At least the barbecue chef doesn’t have to try to outguess the weather.
All dirt-track preparation begins with the same basic elements — water and clay. Additives from liquid detergent to shredded plastic to sawdust and, shall we say, organic by-products of the livestock barn have had their devotees, but it still comes down to water and clay. 
Water is water wherever you go, but clay can be very different from place to place and even season to season. Not just in color, where the red clay of Georgia and the black gumbo of Iowa are as different as the jerseys of the Georgia Bulldogs and the Iowa Hawkeyes, but in its ability to hold water and pack into a smooth and tacky surface.
Visible changes come to a paved racing surface over a period of years, maybe decades. By contrast, a clay surface is almost a living thing, not only changing appearance and grip, but literally moving from place to place during an evening’s racing program. The clay should be thick enough so that when it piles up in a cushion on the outside it doesn’t expose hard ground (or occasionally, asphalt) on the inside. Stones working to the surface are an obvious hazard, and so is sand, since it doesn’t hold water and it makes the track abrasive.

Ideally, the surface is tacky and stays that way throughout the program, giving the side bite and forward bite that create spectacular, multi-groove racing. Ideally, it’s also smooth, without ruts that cut tires and break shock mounts of those who run through them, and create single-file racing among those who want to keep their car in one piece. Finally, it needs to stay relatively dust free for the safety of the competitors, the comfort of the spectators and the good will of the neighbors.

Ideally, the surface is tacky and stays that way throughout the program, giving the side bite and forward bite that create spectacular, multi-groove racing. Ideally, it’s also smooth, without ruts that cut tires and break shock mounts of those who run through them, and create single-file racing among those who want to keep their car in one piece. Finally, it needs to stay relatively dust free for the safety of the competitors, the comfort of the spectators and the good will of the neighbors.
Some track operators make reworking the surface during the evening part of their regular routine. That’s the policy at Delaware Int’l Speedway, for example, and during the IMCA Super Nationals at Boone (Iowa) Speedway, where the minute-by-minute schedule lists “farming” as part of the program. At Boone, they re-groom the track in eight minutes. 
In most cases, however, rolling out the grader and the water truck is only employed if the conditions are extreme. Track work takes time, which is harder to find with more classes on the card and the public demanding a tighter show.
“How tacky you’ve got your race track, that makes a big difference,” said Mike Miles, who prepares his Bloomington (Ind.) Speedway quarter-mile for Friday night non-winged sprint-car action. “If they’re really getting a hold of it, they’re either throwing clay over the bank or it’s sticking to the bottom of their race cars.”
Since Bloomington has no walls in the turns, the clay that gets flung over the banks can be graded right back into the surface. Nevertheless, an application of new clay is part of the procedure before the track is put to bed for the winter, which helps to restore the shape that has been altered by a summer of competition.
“If everybody’s running the same line in the corner, they’re all trying to eat it out in the same place,” Miles explained. “When you start out in the spring and put your eye right at the top of the track and focus on the bottom of the track, you’ll see its pretty level across there. If you come back toward the end of the year, you won’t believe how much a dish the track has gotten.” 
Another self-taught professor of track preparation is Al Wilcox, co-promoter of the three-eighths-mile Penn-Can Speedway in Susquehanna, Pa. For a dozen years, he’s learned by doing, combining the lessons learned on the grader and the water truck in his current role with his experience in three decades of racing modifieds and late models across the Northeast.
“Pond water and a lot of work. That’s my secret formula,” he declared.
“I’ve come across a system, or a routine, that just works for me,” Wilcox continued. “More than anything else, the weather dictates what you can do to the track. You can have the best intentions in the world, but Mother Nature is going to tell you what you can do and when you can do it.”  
Fred Putney, who prepares the surface of Pennsylvania’s Lincoln Speedway for weekly winged 410-sprint-car racing, probably the toughest punishment a dirt track is called on to absorb, agrees the weather man holds the trump card.
“Weather dictates everything you do. I usually play the weather because I know what I can get away with,” Putney said.
Lincoln’s traditional early opening leaves him faced with another challenge — daytime racing. On an overcast day, the track behaves much like it does at night, but when the sun, even the weak sun of March, combines with a strong wind, the surface changes.
“It’s incredibly different. You use twice as much water for a day show and it’s gone in no time,” Putney admitted.
Wilcox detailed his weekly task list at Penn-Can, which presents a five-division card led by the big-block modifieds on Friday night. His speed shop business keeps him occupied on Saturday, meaning Sunday is no day of rest.
“Our routine is to go out every Sunday and completely tear the track up. On a good day when everything is normal, it takes me five or six hours. We pack it in Sunday, pack it in tight, not knowing what the weather is going to be,” he explained, adding that water is applied Wednesday night to soften the clay for the next step.
“I’ll go down Thursday during the day and turn the track up just a little bit, half an inch to an inch, just to break up the crust. Thursday night we put the water right to it. I’m there all day Friday. We start watering about nine o’clock in the morning. Depending on the weather, we’ll put down 50,000 to 60,000 gallons of water. My water truck holds just under 4,000 gallons and we’ve already put down about seven loads on Thursday just to get the track wet. Ten loads on Friday isn’t unusual,” he continued.
Fortunately, the Penn-Can facility includes a spring-fed pond on the property.
The challenge of a dirt-track surface doesn’t end when the pit gate opens. In addition to the tricks Mother Nature may play before the green flag, there’s the chance of rain during the show. After a shower, a quick decision has to be made whether the surface has been “lost” or can be run back in. That’s an especially tough call when a curfew is in effect.
Even the clock on the wall can affect a dirt track. Bloomington Speedway, for example, dropped weekly time trials when Indiana adopted daylight saving time, meaning another hour of sunlight baking the track after preparation is completed.    
“There’s no manual on this, you learn from experience,” related Wilcox. “It’s like a race car. You set it up and for six weeks it’s a rocket, then all of a sudden it goes away. Prepping a track is like that, you’ll think you’ve done the same thing, but on a given night you might have a track that’s dry and dusty or stays too wet. Anybody that’s been around racing knows it’s a lot of work and a lot of time. It’s not an exact science by any means.”
In fact, it’s a moving target. Evolving engine, tire and aerodynamic technology, changing environmental regulations and even climate change make preparing a racing surface an ever more complex challenge. But it’s worth it. Like cooking good barbecue, preparing a good dirt track leads to a reputation that pays off with customers.