Thunder Raceway

This Fourth of July weekend I made my first trip to Thunder Raceway in Show Low, Arizona for the two-night “Summer Spectacular” which also served as what the track described as the “1^st Annual Warren Wampole Memorial.” This is nothing against any of that, and I’m not here to take away or diminish the Wampole family in any way shape or form, but this something that makes me even crazier then people constantly wearing their Dale Earnhardt gear (or any other NASCAR driver) to a dirt race.

The first time you hold event; you can’t call it “Annual” you have to call it the “Inaugural” or “1^st” without the “Annual.” It is impossible by laws of the universe to have a “1^st Annual” anything. By definition annual is something “occurring or happening every year.” The first time something takes place it has yet to happen every year so technically you can’t refer to something as “Annual” until the second time it happens. Hey, I don’t make rules, you’ll have to take it up with whom or whatever higher power you believe created life as we know it. I’m a knit-picking here, probably, but I’m good at it and this is my blog. Other people are thinking it I just created a forum to say it, plus it just makes you look bad when you get simple stuff like that wrong. By no means is Thunder Raceway the first place and probably not the last to get it wrong, and that’s unfortunate! 

With that out of the way my first impressions of the track were excitedly positive! The facility is top notch with excellent grandstands and sightlines, I loved the size, layout and banking of the track, top of the line safety light system for the drivers, and overall I thought it rivaled Tucson’s USA Raceway in quality. The one interesting quark of the place was it appeared that the front straightaway ran uphill while the back ran down. After walking on it, that indeed was the case but I don’t think it was a much as my eyes lead me to believe.

This being my first trip I don’t know what the normal track conditions are, this particular weekend the track was very smooth but there is very little moisture in it. There was a lot of water on it, but when Lonnie Parker, Jr., stuck his screw driver into the surface and got it no farther then a ¼-inch down it pretty much told the tale of things to come. And while the first nights Modified main event provided some solid action, that was the only decent race of the weekend. I’m not sure if breezy conditions contributed to the poor track surface, or if it was just lack of preparation, but it was certainly disappointing to see single file racing on a rubbered-up surface two-nights in a row for the late models and for the second night of the Modifieds. The extremely high fan turnout both nights certainly deserved to see better racing and hopefully the track realizes that too.

All racetracks with a wall around them and the pit area located outside of the infield struggle with the issue of having an opening for the cars to exit. After two pretty significant impacts with the abutment in turn three I hope Thunder Raceway (and all tracks) can find a way to make that a safer situation for the drivers. I’m not sure how they can do that but hopefully a solution exists somewhere out there. While the uke tires now in place provide some protection, and that has been the widely accepted solution at various tracks around the nation, they just don’t provide the impact absorption and have a tendency to deflect cars into an even more dangerous situation after impact. 

Another issue that needs to be addressed is agonizingly long caution periods and yellows for reasons other tracks would certainly let go. When a driver spins into the infield and is out of harms way I don’t see the need for a yellow yet they are quick to throw one. The problem is there is such a large inside berm it’s almost impossible to get back on-track once a driver goes to the infield. It would be more beneficial if the track and drivers still racing (why should someone’s spin to the infield effect their race with a yellow) would make some entrance/exit areas so the fans don’t have to sit though numerous cautions so someone can rejoin the race at the tail of the field. Having all of the caution periods it brings to light other deficiencies that lead of them being very long.

Normally I’d tear apart a track for having only one tow-truck on hand, but honestly that didn’t seem to be an issue. The person driving it on the other hand seemed lost, confused, and very unsure of what his or her actual job was. I didn’t think it was that hard to drive up and hook a wrecker to a racecar but I guess I was mistaken. Additionally, they had two infield track officials, with quads, and one at the track entrance. I was wondering why when both infield guys were showing off their mad quad riding skills getting to a spin a) why do both guys have to be there and b) why isn’t the other track official getting the cars lined-up correctly when both guys felt the need to show off and get to a spin?  Way too many times cars were circling endlessly without any track officials getting the cars ready for the restart. Only after both guys returned to their spots did they start lining up cars. They need to have a better system then that to help speed up the caution periods. A small investment is one or two more track officials would go a long way. Sure hearing the announcer talk about sponsors, birthdays, anniversaries, upcoming events and whatnot is fabulous, but I came for a race not to watch a slow parade. After all, I was already getting a fast one.

Unfortunately, all in all I was disappointed with my first visit to Thunder Raceway. There are several places where they can make improvements and I hope they do so. Just being a destination to escape the heat of the Valley is not going to be enough to get me back. All tracks have hiccups and it’s too bad Thunder Raceway had to have theirs on the biggest weekend of the season. Hopefully that was just an anomaly for them because I’d like to go back, like I said the facility is great and there is a lot of potential for the place to be the best facility/racetrack in the state.