Atco closing ?

[Ed Wright]

Atco was fast! Back when we all ran off National Records, instead of these very soft indexes, and the NHRA World Finals were held here in Tulsa, and Div 1 cars with National Record Holder painted on their fenders that could not qualify. Most could not even run the records they held.
Jere Stahl told me to check where they had set the record. “Probably Atco” he said.
A few years later I was invited to bring the car I race now (my daily driver then) to an EFI Shootout” that GMHighTech Magazine was putting on at Englishtown. That magazine’s office was near there. One of their writers had come to Tulsa to attend Oral Robert’s University. I had no Weather Station then. Had never gone nearly as fast as I did at Englishtown. Local guy told me “You think this is fast, you should go to Atco Saturday.
Best I had ever gone was 9.96 on a cool night at Tulsa. Went 9.88 at Englishtown. Went to Atco, unloaded with a 9.66.
I was invited to leave when they found the single layer jacket was all the “fire suit” I had, and no license to go that fast.

But, I then understood why those Atco record holders were not actually fast.

[Rich Biebel]

Thats not totally true Ed...

Yes Atco and E-town were pretty fast but it's more the conditions...I've seen -1000' DA at both tracks. Cecil County is another fast track even when the weather is not that great.

We are lucky around this area to have great weather in spring and fall and it makes most all the tracks pretty fast compared to may others around the country.

We set a record at Atco in 1970 and went faster than that record at Island Dragway which was nowhere near as fast as many other tracks.
We went just as fast at York much earlier that year and way more MPH....
Ran just as fast at ETown on our cars 3rd ever run......Ray Allen driving...

Cool air, good barometer and good traction.
Asphalt sucked in the hot summer and was fine in cool weather....

[Stan Weiss]

They did not call Cecil County the traction capital of the east for nothing.


Stan

[Ed Wright]

Rich, not sure what was not true. We have No Problem raceway here in Div 4, that fast some times.
I was working at the World Finals at Tulsa when the Div 1 guys that set the records they were running off, could not even qualify at Tulsa. I know how much faster my car was at Englishtown & for sure at Atco. We don’t see 31” + Baros around here. Setting a record at Atco back then, when you can not run it in the mid-west, just to get your name in National Dragster, is dumb. We saw it all the time. If you never leave Div 1, OK. Go somewhere else, and can’t make the show?

[rognelson777]

Originally Posted by Ed Wright

Atco was fast! Back when we all ran off National Records, instead of these very soft indexes, and the NHRA World Finals were held here in Tulsa, and Div 1 cars with National Record Holder painted on their fenders that could not qualify. Most could not even run the records they held.
Jere Stahl told me to check where they had set the record. “Probably Atco” he said.
A few years later I was invited to bring the car I race now (my daily driver then) to an EFI Shootout” that GMHighTech Magazine was putting on at Englishtown. That magazine’s office was near there. One of their writers had come to Tulsa to attend Oral Robert’s University. I had no Weather Station then. Had never gone nearly as fast as I did at Englishtown. Local guy told me “You think this is fast, you should go to Atco Saturday.
Best I had ever gone was 9.96 on a cool night at Tulsa. Went 9.88 at Englishtown. Went to Atco, unloaded with a 9.66.
I was invited to leave when they found the single layer jacket was all the “fire suit” I had, and no license to go that fast. Not using ET as the only item to change

But, I then understood why those Atco record holders were not actually fast.

This (above story) is why I say HP changes or Indexes should use weather/altitude SAE correction factors in determining if it was a faster run