I don't race when the heat and humidity gets high from July-Sept. I despise humid weather. It was 82 yesterday and humid, I had the A/C cranked.

Never had any desire to race regularly in the heat of the summer. When I have gone during the summer time, evening/night racing seems like the way to go for everyone? For me, once you get break the threshold of sweating, temps become more tolerable to me. But as someone has said, the sun beating down on you and your equipment just sucks.

back in 2002 i raced at Eddyville, Iowa 8n July. In the afternoon the temp hit 108. You desert racers may not think thats bad, BUT THE HUMIDITY WAS 90 PERCENT!
To survive i had a bucket of water with a couple T shirts in it. After a run, strip down, fr3sh wet t shirt, barn fan on high,,,,, 😀

I guess years of racing motocross from March thru November got me used to being in the heat at the track. However, crappy weather forecasts are more likely to keep me from making the trip to the strip these days since I don't want to waste the time & $ to show up and get rained out (again).

I have lived all over the United States, from dry to humid from HOT to temperate. I have raced in all those conditions as well. When places get hot it sucks period. Sweating, well when you live here the biggest issue I see with out of towners is they don't sweat so they think they are good. They don't understand that they are on the way to heat stroke. it is so dry here that sweating isn't always that noticeable. I always tell fellow out of towners to just keep drinking water, whether you think you are thirsty or not you can thank me later.

As for the comments on it not being so bad here due to humidity..Well turn your oven on open it up and insert yourself, thats dry heat. And contrary to popular believe it does NOT cool down at night like some think in the summer. It was 99 here last night at midnight, and its spring. The sun here will flat tear you up, being at elevation only increases its affect. I grew up in southern Texas, its always hot and humid in the summer. I have raced from New England to Cali from Michigan to Alabama. When its hot it always sucks...It was plenty warm in St Louis a couple weeks ago when we were there. Temps in the mid to upper 90's with humidity to match. Hot is not fun and as we all age we get less tolerant of things we don like.

No argument... HOT is HOT... humidity just makes it more uncomfortable.

I had a heat-stroke moment many years ago after the 2nd moto at a July 4th weekend race in central VA... came straight off the track in a daze, dropped the bike, and crawled under my truck to get into the shade totally on "auto pilot" cuz that's how the body reacts when it starts to shut down from the heat. The only time I recall being that wiped out after a race, too, so it must have been pretty extreme conditions for me to hit the wall that hard.

Water is your friend, water is your friend, water is your friend...

Back when I was younger and worked in the steel mill I was accustomed to the heat. We did dust collector work while the furnaces were running and when they would blow temperature in the dust collectors often went over 200 degrees. We were dressed in our greens then put on two plastic suits with hoods to keep the contaminates out. Our rubbers gloves were wrapped with black electrical tape to again seal everything up. We wore full face respirators so we were breathing internal temperature air. Man I was in good shape back then.

I had a heat stroke when I was playing little league baseball and have never been the same. Gotten hot a couple of times biking and started to black out. So, of course, I choose to race in a black car with a black helmet.

It sounds like you got permanent brain damage, especially on how to dress at the races

Reminds me of Mats in 19…. They held it in May. We usually stay at the track in the trailer and it was horrid! We tried to sleep outside (sea of heat soaked asphalt) but the locust infestation was epic! Next day the motel 6 near the track had a room available. Probably the best $350 I ever spent . It’s always interesting when you drink 3 gallons of water throughout the day…. and never have to pee.

One of my more “interesting” races was in august at Famoso back in 20. Mind you Bakersfield is stupid hot and certainly has humidity. It was a night race which I didn’t think much of….. until it was 8pm and we made our first test hit. Went out round 2 at 3am. Head hit the pillow at the motel at 4am. Same deal the next night except went out round 3 and cracked a beer at 4am. Head hit the pillow at 5am Sunday. We slept until 11 (check out time) and hit the road home. 72 degrees at 2am felt heaven like!

I try not to race shen it's hot out. It's just not fun.

I don't race, but used to spectate often years ago. Shade is hard to find at Firebird in Boise during the summer, and being out in the sun on black asphalt for hours and hours wears you out. No matter how much water I drank I'd still come back feeling dehydrated and have a mild headache. They run a lot of the races during the middle of the day and it would be better if they pushed the start time back so more of the racing occurred when the sun was not directly overhead. Doesn't have to be a night race, but just few hours delay. Our track has some trees now, but they are mostly behind the bleachers so you can be under a tree and have limited viewing of the whole track, or sit in the bleachers with a great view and get turned red like a baked crab.

You sound like my wife!!

How could I forget sitting in a -15 suit in the lanes with no air coming in...Oh the joy...MY issue is and has been cramps for years, and if I dont stay hydrated my evenings are not fun.

I have the cool shirt set up bolted to the cage in my car. With 12' leads I can still get out of the car and work on it while still hooked up. It's good for at least 20-30 degrees cooler than outside. Works great for a cooler for ice, water, pop and beer and the cruise nights also.

Years ago I had to work inside a 20’ by 20’ by 7’ coal furnace replacing cracked firebrick.

Even after letting the furnace cool for 48 hours it was still 140 degrees in there.

We bought heavy canvas vests with pockets just bigger than re-freezable ice packs to wear while doing the brick work.
Four pockets in front, six pockets in rear.

These allowed you to work longer, but “fresh” ice packs were actually too cold on your chest skin just underneath the icepacks, so we cut “spacers” from old tire inner tubes to slip beneath the ice packs in their pockets, and then pull the spacers out as the ice pack got less painfully cold.
Ice packs on your back did not seem to bother as much.

The canvas vests were over priced from the commercial supply company, but they would be easy to make at home.

I was racing at Clay City Kentucky a few years ago. 99 temp during the day. At night the humidity was close to 100. My Lexan isn't sealed. There was so much dew that there was a steady stream of water running in thru the back window and puddling in the trunk.
Doug

I have been racing a lot at
Cecil and Lebanon valley , both have pit spots in grass …… makes a big
Difference in the heat . Also my trailer has some really good ac so I usually wake up at 3:00 am and literally freezing

Nitrous cars run good in the heat , and it’s easy to maintain bottle temp lol