The bite at Epping ??
 

Never really read much about the traction at the Epping national. I assume it was fine for most (or all). If so, what changed from the E-town race? Different recipe or brand glue?

Re: The bite at Epping ??
 

The bite was good at the beginning in qualifying but slowly went away in eliminations. I'm speaking from a stick car perspective. The autos seemed to be hooking pretty good from what I saw. They did regrind the starting line Friday night but with heat on Saturday it got slick again. From what I read about E Town it was a whole lot better this weekend

Re: The bite at Epping ??
 

From the Auto side of things:

I was at both events, with the dakota in SS in both, with my dragpak in stock at epping....

No issues with the dakota at either place, but it is hook gifted for a 9 inch tire truck. I didn't see any SS get sideways at the line at Epping like I did at E-town.

Dragpak was fine for qualifying and then hooked and hit a bald spot and spun in E-1....thus ruining my top end dance with Mr. Pires. I wasn't too happy, but those are the breaks. shorter wheelbase, lower HP cars seem to thrive on it though....Track was real well prepped, they did the most that they could with the conditions.

The Gremlin wouldn't have had any issues with either track!

Eric

Re: The bite at Epping ??
 

You had to watch for the development of bald spots and stage accordingly. I blew off the tires in my car on the second q run on Friday. I saw several other cars spin. In 2nd round on Saturday, I watched Charlie Sousa and Dave Casey both get into bald spots and blow their tires off.

Overall though, the crew did their best with repeated dragging and spraying.

Re: The bite at Epping ??
 

From your responses, it seems that it was hit and miss for the faster half of the alphabet or at least better than RP was. So what was the difference? Why was Epping a better surface?

Re: The bite at Epping ??
 

Cooler helps

Re: The bite at Epping ??
 

You have to have someone on the starting line that first knows how to fix the bald spots, gold dust , spray and drag and second someone who will tell the people in the tower that the track is not safe. Bill, Redman, Floyd is that guy. Brad who also works the starting line in d3 will do the first part and is starting to do the second. Oh you also need to use VHT or PJ1 for your spray. This is not rocket science.

Re: The bite at Epping ??
 

Just wondering if a racer getting ready to run would advise the starter that the track was not safe because of the bald spots and would request politily to prep the starting or you will not run ?? You are at the head of the staging lanes and don't move ??? Just wondering ??? remember NHRA says that the racers are responble for the safety of the track I think LOL Correct me if I am wrong???

Re: The bite at Epping ??
 

PJ1 owns VHT, they are the same thing. When the drums are shipped they are labeled PJ1 but it's the same old stuff that has always been used.

Re: The bite at Epping ??
 

I know.

Re: The bite at Epping ??
 

Epping was fine for traction..Didnt spin once..Guess my car is just Awsome..lol
Got to ask this question.As you pull up to stage and there are bald spots ..Why would you pull directly into a baldspot? I my self and who ever im helping on the starting line will move over one tire size to the left or right,,Seems to work.NHRA cant rest the starting line for every set of cars .

Re: The bite at Epping ??
 

There were bald spots, but it didn't seem to matter to the auto trans cars, yes I saw Charlie spin, but that was not the norm. Over the last few years Epping has not been very good for us stick shift stocker racers, many of us tune for it, but still churn the tires more than we want to. I don't think it has anything to do with the prep as much as it is the surface maybe. I believe that with more clutch tuning I could've got down the track better.

The starting line was in full sun with temps around 85 + thurs fri and sat. It was plenty hot, probably only a few degrees less that e'town.

I have not seen them use gold dust at a national event, do they ?

I think the track overall was better than average, and they certainly worked hard at it. props to them.

Re: The bite at Epping ??
 

The NHRA crew worked on the track all day everyday to the point were they did do a grind thursday night . The starter tried his best to give us a good track and I appauld him and the whole NHRA crew for doing what they could . When pro ran NHRA applied gold dust for every pair I watched on friday and it seemed to help them. Most cars got down without issue , however my stocker CJ never got down clean one pass , My super stocker did get down( 10.5 tire) with 60lbs added , 12 degree's of timing pulled for 2 seconds and the RPM's lowered . In the first round however the SS spun the tires and went side ways at aboult 1200 ft the data logger shows rpm's went from 7900 to 8900. We tried similar adjustement to the stocker but just no luck with the 9in tire . Again Hats off to the NHRA crew for working on the track and doing the best they could . In my opinion that's the difference between Etown and Epping . The track operators at both Epping and Etown need to resurface the starting lines in my opinion

Re: The bite at Epping ??
 

Well said Sir.
MB