For the past 2 years I have fought to get down the track at Milan. Same car 4 years, in the past I've even won there. The Detroit Dragway Reunion was an all time LOW. Tested Friday night working on the shocks. No hero 60 foot, but got down to a string of 1.29. Race day Saturday time trials 1.292 right lane, 1.278 left lane. Waiting from 12:30 last TT I watch the other classes. ABSOLUTELY NO PREP. No spray, drag, nothing. First round I can see it's getting bald. I run the right lane 1.418. Same time of the day a 1.29. 9.399@145.5. Set to run 9.23@145. Lucky I get the win. Go back loosen the rebound at both ends and set the dial off by .05 to a 9.28. The result 1.37/9.36. Now the car has been to Columbus, Bowling Green, and Norwalk recently. Gets down all of them. This was an advertised "Big Meet" I know my car is sensitive to track conditions. But let me Quote a former track champ pitted next to me (big tire tire Nova). "I'm running the car on a 2 barrel with a 100lbs in the trunk. It still won't get down the track so I'll spray at the finish and take my chances at the stripe". Ok my rant is over.
Doug

I heard from a good Friend that it cost 1000 dollars to spray a track with traction compound. Low car counts with the 50% chance of rain forecasts are really eating into what little chance there is of making a small profit at some of these tracks. The traction at Keystone has been terrific as always and several races have been called after 2 time trials and the rain moved in. We receive rain-out passes and the track only pays out for employee hours, track prep costs, and every other costs related to running a track. Tracks are taking a real beating.

Milan has been especially poor IMO...The only time I have witnessed prep was at the heads up events, or after an oil down at the No ET events...and at that, it doesn't make it very far past the line.

To makes things better, they usually make me run in the street tire lane with my Hoosier DR's...2 lines isn't exactly tread...

Maybe they should just advertise as a No Prep track...it's popular nowadays...

I think a lot of tracks are trying to get away with as little to no prep at all I agree I was at national trails the same weekend as Doug my car finally got traction.where the time before I was at trails I couldn't get any. Thanks Jeff without that event they wouldn't have done as much as they did. Here I was thinking something was came loose on my car

Watched two heads up races there last year, took quite awhile even when they did prep/touch up the track.
Our local "small" track does a good job of prepping the track for special events, but i'm not sure what prep is for bracket races.

We fought all weekend in ky. 96 degree temps and 150+ track temps. Prep is expensive, but sometimes there isn't much you can do to make it better. I've heard Milan is pretty good usually, we're heading up there with my buddies 275 car next month.

A perfect example of how hard track prep can be in this CRAZY weather pattern can be found on Dragraceresults. The NHRA race in Englishtown may not even be worth watching later today with the times I have been seeing so far. 126 plus degree track temps.

I tried Milan Last year on a non-heads up day to test. Every time I touched the loud pedal and the tires got Shorter. One pass and put it on the trailer

I was there too, the only prep I saw all day was them putting gold dust on the bald spots at the staring line and then misting over it with a garden sprayer. When I went up for my first TT I could see concrete on the starting line in the right lane. When I launched I got wheelhop, my truck has never done that before. Second TT I tried the left lane it spun at the hit on that side too. It's not like I've got tons of power, it's a high 13-low 14 second truck with 325/50 MT Et streets on it. It didn't spin for my first rd loss but that was because I somehow shifted to second gear when I launched, effectively wasting my .017 over his .350 RT.

Love 'no prep Sundays'.

Doug, I feel your pain. After the last couple times going there for test and tune and for a couple races, i really don't care if i ever go there again or not. One that really irked me was going for test and tune on a friday and staying the night for the Mopar race. Battery charger died and we ran to town to buy a new one. Got back and they shut the lights off at 8:30 after advertising running til 10:00. Seemed like plenty of guys there to run but was told that they were done because of low car count. Was told if i didn't like it i could leave. Great way to do business.

Randy

Hopefully track prep gets better at all the tracks

I ran against Doug in that race where he spun and told him I was avoiding the right lane after I spun and went from a normal 1.53 60' to a 1.84 in my time trial, I felt like John Force pedaling it. Now mind you in my first round of sportsman I spun in the left lane putting a 1.69 60' on the board. So both lanes had some issues

I have known bill the owner for a long time and when I said something to him at one time about the lack of traction there he told me that it was one of the best hooking tracks in the country and people need to learn how to prep the chassis for it.!!!!???

LOL... I'm sorry but there IS no amount of chassis prep you can do with a high powered car when there is no prep! You either have to retard the hell out of the engine(15 degrees)in first and second gear, or unplug two cylinders.

I haven't had much luck there in the past 5yrs i'v been going to TT. seems the first pass is always the best and then the track goes away after that. I sit in the car sweating my azz off while they let all the street tire guys make run after run. I will say that Milan is a very flat track. If you google earth it you will see the elevation is the same on each end. try that with Mid Michigan or lapeer. MM is up hill and Lapeer is down hill. interesting

Lucky to be on the other side of the state and near US131. Best racing surface I have ever been on, and prep is always solid.

you have the best track in the state.

I'm ready to start making the 2 1/2 hr trip to 131.
Doug

I prefer to drive to Norwalk...I've been to 131 about
10 times.. it is the smoothest track I have even been
on... but on one Friday TT it was the ONLY track I couldnt
get traction on.. it was fine on Sat and Sun.. but that Friday
I put the car back in the trailer before I crashed it.. but
I prefer to call Norwalk my home track... TT nights at Milan
are a joke.. my brother almost took the tree down with his
altered.. and drug a cone all the way down the track.. they
werent to happy... but we loaded up after that try.. that
was his third try.. I dont know what a drum of VHT cost but
tracks think its GOLD.. hell even Lapeer has better traction
than Milan on TT nights.. if I had any issues at Lapeer they
would bend over backwards to correct it... granted they only
spray out about 80'-100'.. the bad part of Lapeer is the shut
down area.. its rough and bounchy