Postponed due to rain

What's the problem with Fontana in the rain? Is it unusually dangerous?

I ask because I've just read that the F Extreme race is postponed "due
to rain".

 

Like Daytona, the Speedway part of the course has a fairly high degree of
banking, which makes it very dangerous to run in the rain. And it never
rains in southern California...

Craig

 

Not to mention that the infield turns are put inside of the oval,
and have movable walls and such. Not enough runoff room anywhere
except the front straight.

One would think that the AMA would be on the lookout for more tracks
where races could be run in the rain, there are such places in the
U.S.

 

Such as?

 

Daytona and Fontana

Craig

 

Kansas, Texas, they both have road courses that would be better
then tracks like Pike's Peak and Fontana. At least they have added
Virginia and Barber in Alabama in the past few years.

 

Brainerd, becasue the main straight is used for a drag stirp, they
spray traction enhancer on it, when it rains it becomes unridable, or
at the very least extremely dangerous, Pike's Peak is another one that
they will not race on in the rain because of the tight infield (under
1 minute lap times in the dry).

 

So that's Daytona, Fontana, Brainerd, Pike's Peak and Sears Point.
Although of course, the spring under the tarmac at Sears Point has been
"fixed".

It sure is a good thing the AMA series isn't in the UK ;-)

 

And let's not forget that they couldn't race in the rain at Loudon.
Now they don't race there in the dry either, despite it having a
better than average safety record.

 

rain...

Daytona and Fontana

Craig
[/QUOTE]
You miss the point . AMA doesn't put on races, promoters do. All the AMA
does is provide the framework
If someone comes up with the money, you could race at a million different
tracks. As long as the nut is made and the track passes inspection, you got
a race...
Of course, turning a profit is something that a promotor takes into
account...

 

You miss the point . AMA doesn't put on races, promoters do. All the AMA
does is provide the framework
If someone comes up with the money, you could race at a million different
tracks. As long as the nut is made and the track passes inspection, you got
a race...
Of course, turning a profit is something that a promotor takes into
account...
[/QUOTE]
I actually havenn't missed the point, I simply did not elaborate on that
part of it. How many tracks actually make money putting on AMA races? The
crowds last year were more pathetic than the year before and so on...

By the way, for what it is worth, I have see a rain race as Brainerd, though
perhaps since the drag strip has been redone, they no longer do that...

Also, the condition of the tracks for bike racind at Brainerd, Pikes Peak,
mid -ohio and others is horrible, full of patches and bumps that should not
have to be dealt with at a "professional" level of road racing. I can't
wait till next year when hopefully I can just attend Laguba Seca and Moto GP
at Barber and be all the happier for it..

C-

 

Kinda hard to draw a crowd when the promoter can't guarantee that the
show will go on. They used to have an AMA National at Pocono. After
it got rained out a couple of times nobody showed up.

When the AMA postponed the Superbike race at Loudon due to rain, the
promoter made a deal to run one of the support races paying double the
purse but no points, just so the crowd would get to see some racing.
The Superbike race was held on Monday, with nobody there to watch.

The next year the AMA not only refused to run the Superbikes in the
rain, they would not allow any bikes to go out on a wet track. Guess
they thought it would make the Superbikes look bad if others went out
when they wouldn't. When they ran the races on Monday, not even the
camera crews hung around to watch. That was the last AMA Superbike
race at Loudon, or anywhere in the northeast.

Last year Daytona got rained out on Sunday. There wasn't much of a
crowd on Monday, and the turn out was pretty sad this year. Good
thing it didn't get rained out again.

 

Cadwell is such a good track! Where else can you find a road race track
with a jump? It's brilliant for the spectators and often produces good
racing.

But you're right, it is stupidly dangerous in places. They've done a lot
of work to sort out the place that Kagayama crashed but the woodland
section is still pretty tight.

Almost all the UK tracks have character and are a real test of skill and
nerve. But at the same time almost all the tracks have at least one
glaring flaw.

But we do race in the rain. Even at the Rockingham Oval.