Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Test Day in a 305 Sprint Car Last Weekend

Last Saturday, I made the trek to Lady Luck Speedway in Lubbock, TX with Gary Floyd. Gary owns and races a winged Sprint Car in the 305ci (500hp) and the 360ci (750hp) classes at dirt tracks all over the Southwest. I've been helping him get his car prepped for the season and he was gracious enough to let me drive his car in two sessions this past Saturday.

It was an unreal experience and was my first time for many things...first time on an oval track paved or dirt, first time driving any dirt track racecar, etc. Weighing in at only 1,550 lbs and packing 500 horsepower from it's Chevy V8, the acceleration is wicked and carrying large yaw angles through the corners was ridiculous fun. The seating position in a Sprint Car was very different as you are seated like in a regular table chair instead of reclined like most racecars and the throttle operates basically straight down instead of at an angle. Each session was a about 5-8 laps (at 14s per lap this goes by very quick) so it was a difficult to get a feel for such a different racecar in such a short amount of time, but I was able to improve drastically from Lap 1 to Lap 10. Overall the test was success. Gary shook the car down, I got to experience a new form of racing, and we all made it back in one piece without having to write big checks.

Thanks to Gary Floyd for letting me hustle his toy around!

Here is a clip from my 2nd session:

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