I’m at that age where weather dictates my racing…

The last two years I’ve found myself “done” with racing from Memorial Weekend to at least September unless I made a trek north…. I just can’t get myself to go hang out in a sea of asphalt for 1-2 days in the blazing sun. Last weekend in Vegas I saw they had 105 degrees. This coming weekend at Famoso forecasted 108. Vegas used to run at night which at least made it a little more bearable….other than the heat blazing up from the scorched earth

Don’t blame you. Gets hot around here I am on the lake on my boat.

Night racing only for me this time of year...if I go at all. Even at night, the humidity is still terrible.

Weather dictates racing for me as well. The last two times I have wanted to go bracket racing, it rains!

We have been fighting rain or a high percentage of rain a lot this year. Last weekend was beautiful and they had a two day craft show, swap sale. Lol.

I 100 percent agree, I'm a professional test and tuner/ et chaser. The older I get the more it has to be ideal as I'm doing it just for fun anyhow. We get in our sxs and go into all the old mining and ghost towns when it gets hot. Way more fun for us than burning up on the pavement all day in a fire suit.

I know some of you are retired, meaning your older than me, but yeah the HEAT can get to you.....I installed a thermometer in the car a couple years ago....When its +90* out, the car can be 112*F in there....I am looking for ideas to make it more livable....I have a regular RV fan that runs off the starter battery, but when I use it a lot, I have to remember to charge the car between rounds.

I saw one guy powered his fan off dewalt batteries.....I like that Idea a lot. Looking for a base I can modify to do that.

I have seen the cool shirts, but never looked into them....

You should be able to get a connector that hooks to a dewalt battery from amazon, then you can wire it to your fan. Might blow you out of your seat at 24 volts lol

I also became unmotivated to race in the Months between May and Nov., here in Florida. The heat and humidity can be brutal. I few years ago I added a Vintage AC system to my street/strip car so I could drive it all year. I have a solenoid valve on the condenser drain line that shuts off when I shut off the AC so I can run it just about up to the water box, shut it off, make a pass then turn it back on when on the return road without putting water on the track. It makes the car so much more enjoyable at the track. I know it's more hassle then most racers want to do, but it was well worth it to me.

Pack up and move Nort to that sliver of SD paradise you bought...

Well the "good news" is we really don't have any place to race within hundreds of miles for the next few months anyway. One of those things guys back east don't have to deal with and I think one many don't quite understand. Within three hours of my Ohio house I had a dozen options when it was not raining. Within 12 hours, which is what we have to do here the options are almost limitless.

When we open the trailer door the water temp gauge is often 135+. The worst race I ever ran here was in August for a pinks all out deal. When we got here it was 113 opened the trailer and the cars water temp gauge was just under 150. It was freaking brutal...


I do not understand why the LVMS current track manager is so adverse to racing at night. I know most everyone has plead with him to go back to night racing. Instead its juniors early in the day and big cars starting around noon, so you can race in the heat of the day. No wonder why they can get a whole race done in 3-4 hour, four classes, because no one shows up. If it were not for al the California and Utah racers there would not be a program left. They come because they have no where else to go. Of course if this keeps up we will likely loose our bracket program, as he loves to threaten. I remember under Blair racing at night in the summer, yep still 100+ and track temps still over 150 but at least a guy was not getting assaulted by the sun. Miss those big 4th of July shows with drifters, monster trucks, high flying supercross guys, fireworks, and bracket racing gong all night long at the same facility. Things have definitely gone down hill since Blair left and the current guy took over. Participation has gone down hill ever since. He is going to have a self fulfilling prophecy if it keeps up "sabotaging" the local program.

Sorry off my soapbox....

This is pretty much where I'm at, although my car gets driven on the street too. I'm 61 and just retired, my wife has been wanting to go on a (ship) cruise for some time. Having grown up on a farm and working construction for years the last thing I want to do is lay around in the sun on a big boat.

I'm 76 and retired. The weather certainly plays into my racing, or the lack of it this year, but more so is the increased cost of fuel and entry fees. Maybe you guys can afford to race more than I. Just stating my concerns.

I'm just a blue collar working stiff. Single and no one else to help pay the bills. My mortgage comes first, so racing takes a back seat to everything else. No doubt, the rising cost of fuel is going to limit how often I can get out. I just can't afford to go on long trips anymore.

Man, I thought 85 the last few weeks was hot.
Doug

at 62 i only race in the spring or fall,not chasing points no more.rather be on my trike in the hot months,or a cars and coffee in the mornings.i do cruises and car shows too.i dont know anyone racing no more

Haha, you guys help my memories come back strong and I think of Vaca Valley and Fremont and the hot summer months back in the ealry 70s. Funny, folks seem to think the SF Bay area was all mellow and tepid but think again...it got downright blazing down there in the summer months. THEN I think about Redding, Ca and that hot Azz place! No wonder they call it 'shake and bake', but at least it was dry! Since moving to Tennessee, I have a better understanding of what humidity is and I live in an area that's not as humid as lots of other southern places. And to think, at one time I lived 20 minutes from my front door to Sears Point...oh well!

I’ll be like 25 min from Sturgis Dragway…. I’ve never been less than 2hrs away from a drag strip in my life. Even out here my “go to” track is Famoso and that’s a 5hr pull roughly 27 gal one way . I don’t race much at Vegas for the reasons Al mentioned.

I’m in between Sacramento and Redding. When the temps reach the 90’s, you can find me on my houseboat.

Wow, I think there's 8 different tracks within 2 hours of my house!

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