Friday night questions

[31 RACER]

MODIFIED FEATURE
Why would you choose to move the tires into the only race groove that had any tack in it after the race had already got started and ran almost half of the race.
If the tires were a problem half way thru the race then why was it not an issue before the feature started. I did not understand that move, I  do not have a dog in that race but that just did not make any since.

LIMITEDS HEAT
Why did we run only 2 heats with 19 cars (10 in the first heat and 9 in the second) I would have thought that they would have cut the heats cars down a little  (6 cars in the first and second heat and 7 in the third) it was like running a small feature for the heat race.

I understand we are trying to get finished early and that is great but they need to put a little thought in to the line up.

I am not trying to BASH just trying give feed back that may not be given.

[Jonathan Johnson]

Gary,

I am going to tell you what I was told about moving the tires.  It needs to be known that this was something that was done with good thought in mind, but was not planned at the begining of the evening.  Sooo...when the modifieds rolled out supposedly Butch pointed to the tires to the frist few drivers, and they shook their heads that they did not want them moved.  Now, if I were on the front row I would have done the same.  Once the frist or second caution arrived they decided to go ahead and push them out since it was a one groove race track.  The idea behind moving the tires up was to put everyone up in the dry, with the intentions of possible having two grooves or at least two lanes to race in.  However, it turned out to continue to be one groove on the bottom and essentially follow the leader and avoid all spins and wrecks at all costs.

Now for the limited heats.  I am going to talk to Glen as well, as the modified heats were the same way, and I am sure some of the other classes as well.  To my understanding they did it that way to somewhat simplify the feature positioning.  Obviously with three heats the guy that runs third in the third heat could start inside row four of the feature if there is no invert.  No different than if that same car runs fourth in their one of two heats.  However, I see your point and the larger car counts in the heat races makes for a tougher race to move forward in, as well as sometimes a rougher race.  I will check into this and either myself or Glen will respond.  Thanks for the feedback.

JJ

Ok, after talking to Glen.....

1. The heat race issue.  Joy Graham normally does the heat line-ups.  She was unable to be there Friday and thus the higher car counts in heat races.  Ms. Joy does not like to see more than 6-8 cars in a heat, whomever did the line-ups did so with two heats in each class.  Sorry about any inconvenience, but nonetheless we still started on time...
2.  The tires will no longer be moved during a race.  IF they are moved out it will only be before the feature, thus allowing the drivers to see them on the pace lap.  It was tried in an effort to make for better racing.  Glen and the GTRP Crew apologize for any problems this may have caused.

Amidst all the cautions, and confusions the races (all 6 classes) were complete by 11:15...still a pretty good night.

JJ