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Derpin' DJ
2/3/2019 11:06am
2/3/2019 11:06am
Edited Date/Time
2/9/2019 4:34pm
Seen a few things about Lime being used to dry the track last night, and a few riders getting burns/irritation from it. Is this a normal thing to do, and did they just go overboard with it last night?
With conditions like yesterday, lime would have been virtually useless.
The Shop
https://youtu.be/yg1FYLx7AU4
Kudos to the track guys it always blows me away how good they are at their job.
Find the deepest point and pump it out, I was doing that at 5 years old!
Where would they get the money to pay the fines for pumping water out of a CA stadium??
and if they knew when the rain was coming move the practices up an hour earlier fix the track and then tarp it till the first heat
Pit Row
Track runs thru a limerock quarry, makes ya tuff
Adding sand to dirt sitting on top of a hard surface (plywood or concrete) would cause it to be softer and rut down to the hard base faster. It might help keep the dirt from being as heavy and gummy, but the amount that would have to be used would be prohibitive and could make the dirt harder to build with if they reuse it and it doesn't rain.
If a drying agent was used, it would have been before, after the build and before they pulled the plastic and the downpour happened.
You do see it on the track fairly often, but I'd be really surprised if after all the rain we got that anyone would have noticed. There was so much water that even by the mains there were ponds by the scoring tower that were nearly knee-deep.
I can say from being in close proximity, it does irritate your eyes and lungs.
Having been to all of the recent Seattle races, in 2017 they had a darker sandy/gravel mix that handled the rain pretty well. Then in 2018 the dirt looked more like the 2014 and earlier dirt, and it had much more rain to contend with as well. It ended up being a real bog and honestly a waste of money to watch live (IMO). I really hope with Seattle being 2 weeks earlier this year (March 23) that Feld and Dirtwurx take into account the even higher probability of a very wet day and come up with a better solution for the dirt.
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