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2000 Eddyville
Raceway Park Experience
Eddyville was a blast. Mike and Tracy Crees, Chuck
Gerst and myself went down and were surprised to find so few people that
night. It was a perfect night for racing.
When you pay your $20 at the gate you get a number for your
car that you use every time you go there. You put your car number on the
passenger side of your windshield and on your drivers side window. This
number is used by track officials to tell who you are and to mark your time
slips.
Unfortunately we had brought nothing to mark our number
with. We found that you can bum a polish marker from someone or buy one
from the gas man. One bottle will probably last you all year if you attend
regularly. If you plan to do a lot of racing over the year I suggest
you get some stick on numbers like the car dealers have because the polish
leaves a residue on your windshield that takes some rubbing to take
off.
After we got our cars inspected we found a place to dump our
stuff and put our numbers on our cars. We then got in line. There
were six lanes and depending on what is going on that night it is a good idea to
ask which lane you should be in for test and tune.
We got up to the line and waited while cars staged and left
before us. Our first round up we had to wait quite a few minutes for track
workers to clean up a mess a Camaro had left halfway down one lane.
When it was our turn they flag you to the staging lanes and
you drive through the bleach box and get your tires wet. The officials
hold you there until the cars in front of you have launched. Then they
give you the hand signal to heat up (spin) your tires and move to the staging
lights.
We did our burn-outs and put our front tires through the
first beam. Then the second beam and power braked till the lights did
their dance down the tree. As the last yellow blinked on you hit the go
pedal and make your way down the track. In my case I just put it to the
floor and kept it there because I had no wheel spin off the line. Chuck
had traction problems with the street radials he had and Mike had to watch how
he launched as well.
Eddyville is an 8th mile track and you get to the end pretty
quickly. When you do, depending on how fast you are going and what lane
you're, you take one of the three turn offs that lead to the time slip shack and
where your handed your time slips.
We grabbed our slips and couldn't get back in line fast
enough. Because there were so few people there that night, it felt like an
amusement park ride where you run back to get in line again. Each of us
got in about ten runs before the track closed down at 10 p.m..
Luckily nobody had any mechanical problems and we all had a
great time seeing what our cars could actually do. It is a lot different
from taking off at a street light. It is especially so when you have your
street car lining up against a 600 plus horsepower drag car and he has hit the
traps before you even get to half track. But make no mistake. It is
addicting. You just want to do it again and again.
There is no doubt we will try to get a trip going this Fall
to get back there before the weather sets in.
Mike McGillis
Secretary
MCCI
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