Judy Worley takes us behind the scenes with the United States Auto Club or USAC as it is known around the track. For an invigorating and exhilarating racing experience, Sprints, Midgets and Silver Crown open wheel racing is sure to get your adrenaline pumping with some truly spectacular racing. This kind of racing will bring you to the edge of your seat, with a lot of thrills and excitement…
July 3, 2009 at 2:57 am
Whether dirt, clay or pavement, you can enjoy watching incredible speeds while you actually feel the rumbling of the engines as they come out of a turn, then accelerate into the straightaway. This is some awesome racing where you can feel and hear the power!
The United States Auto Club (USAC) sanctions some of the best Open Wheel Racing in the Nation.
Their Sprint, Midget and Silver Crown are three different divisions with each having a different style of racecar and their own scheduled series. The series all run throughout the year across the United States with the West Coast heating up the tracks in the winter and the Mid-West in the spring, summer and fall.
All three of these divisions are capable of racing on dirt, clay or pavement tracks. It is completely intriguing at the different effects the track surfaces had on these cars as they heated them up.
For instance the car mechanics have to lower their engines for the pavement track and raise them up for the dirt and clay, while continuing to stay within the guidelines of USAC.
They also have different types of shocks; gear set up, front-end set up and tires for the different type of surfaces too. And in the sport of racing the tires are a very critical and a very important part of the racecar. The tires alone make a huge difference in how the car handles and its speed. On the pavement the tires are slick and on the dirt and clay the tires have various grooves cut in them for better traction. And having the wrong tires or bad tires alone, can lose a race.
As for the actual racecar, the Owners usually have a different racecar built for each type of race track, while others make the needed modifications and adjustments to gain speed and performance.
And, with all the modifications and adjustments for the different surfaces of the racetracks, all involved know that getting that WIN is what it is all about.
So if you don’t have the correct surface set up, a good driver and the fastest speeds, odds are you won’t be pulling into that winner’s circle for the WIN.
Racing, you gotta love it!
Special thanks to Norm Shields for sharing his valuable knowledge of Open Wheel Racing.
For more information and schedules log onto http://www.usacracing.com