Posted by Mark Feldt on April 28, 2012, 11:10 pm 98.230.199.75
Here is the race recap for Napa Speedway 4-28-12 complete with some photos of the wild crashes. I apologize for any errors or driver misspellings. I was trying to put names with drivers as the races went along. None of the results are official but I finally got the top 5 of The Street Stock main after the show was over.
Was great to see such a great turnout in the pits yesterday!!! We enjoyed ourselves. Thanks for giving us a place to race! Lots of positive things have been going on at NAPA speedway during the off season and it is showing!
I'd agree with Tre that there were positive aspects at Napa Speedway yesterday, there were also areas that need to be addressed. Before I say anything I'll be clear & make the disclaimer.that I am an avid fan who has already attended multiple shows at multiple venues in 2012. These are MY Opinions and I am entitled to them when I pay price of admission at the gate. First why string out the show with 2 5 car heats in classes with low car counts? It takes additional time & westerns track surface, why not have the heats run 1 lap/ car if there are less than 12 in the division? I saw at least 2 cases where cars unloaded in turn 2 and drifted into the wall due to lack of control. This issue they tried to fix at intermission but track officials knew of this from practice days & nothing was done. Again the repair work slowed the show. The dust due to either winds, dry track conditions or both has become an expected nuisance that track officials have had a full season and practice days to work on. Additional Claiborne help but the rumor mill says that the drivers need to pay into a fund if It isto be added. (funny I didn't realize the drivers had any ownership in the facility) I hope that they don't add a fee to the admission price to build bathrooms! I couldn't help but notice that the pa system went down around intermission (Mike B has never been at a loss for words) another possible fee added to ticket price? Last I'd like to give kudos to the moron driving the water truck who completely soaked at least 20 fans including babys in strollers. The wind was blowing, no sunshine and I was cold. I can't help but feel bad for those people, to my knowledge NOTHING was done in the way of an apology, & to me it shows low class by class officials. I'd give opening day a grade of C+ at best. Will I return? Probally Do I expect further improvements? Definitely.if no progress is made then I feel UCS has a comparable facility that shows more promise than Napa Speedway at providing more enjoyment at a reasonable cost for both the racer & fan alike. If not for travel Aztec & SNMS are the place of choice!
Hughes, you really hit the nail on the head with your post. Again, I would like to copy your disclaimer and add that I am very thankful to have a track here in town. That being said, I have to call it as I see it and I think a C+ is a bit generous. First off, I appreciate the added amenities behind the grandstand as well as the convenience of a shuttle in the parking lot, but let's face it, the dust hampers any positive experience and leaves more of a negative and literal gritty taste in your mouth. To that effect, to be blunt, the track surface was complete garbage. I will not accept the excuse that the water truck broke or that the track ran out of water because as Hughes mentioned these issues should have be fully addressed during the offseason practices. It is pretty clear that either the track is being prepped completely wrong or the surface is in dire need of deeper clay. The conditions that the drivers are being exposed to in the main events are beyond dangerous and it shouldn't take someone getting killed for the staff to realize the gravity of the situation. To that effect, I would like to point out the Twittle-Dee in the infield needs to keep his hands off the rope attached to the cone and Twittle-Dum up in the flagman stand needs to resist throwing the green when there is personnel anywhere near the front stretch or when the safety trucks are sitting on the outside edges of the turns. Seems like common sense to most, but safety is clearly not priority at Napa Speedway and that has to change stat. Please guys, get your stuff straight before you duplicate another disaster sprint car show.
The water truck deal was bad, I had just come up to the stands when that happen, those people were mad. I don't know what that was all about. I think it was an ok show, fans really got their $ worth in terms of wrecks and close calls. The show was pretty good, it could have been better sure evrything could be, and I saw that most of the "band drivers" were out there racing, which proves anything can happen. I even saw Mr. Petronovich out there for his first time at Napa!
I just want to thank the officials at Napa that accommodated the Mini Sprints by letting them run the first main event so that they could make it out to Grants in time to run another race there. Showed a lot of class.
