I-30 Speedway banking on track modifications

Officials at Little Rock's I-30 Speedway didn't plan to do a complete track reconstruction just a few weeks before their biggest race of the year.

"No, we did not plan that," track promoter Tracey Clay said this week. "Secondly, we were told we were crazy for doing it, but it's worked well."

Heading into the 28th annual Comp Cams Short Track Nationals, which opens tonight and continues through Saturday night, I-30's quarter-mile oval has a significantly contrasting configuration and an entirely different surface than it had two months ago. Clay said she expects the changes to provide excellent racing for what has become one of the nation's top sprint car events.

"Years ago, we had more banking on the track and the racing was better, although I thought the racing was still good, but I know I'm biased," said Clay, who owns and operates the track with her father, Joe, and her brother, Joe Jr. "At last year's Short Track [Nationals], there was some constructive criticism about how the racing wasn't as good because we had lost all the banking in the track."

Tommy Estes Jr., a retired sprint car driver and former competition director for the American Sprint Car Series, is someone whose opinion Joe Clay trusts on track preparation and condition.

"Even Tommy told Dad, 'Not that it's bad, but you really need to do something,' " Tracey Clay said.

So at the end of the 2014 season and continuing well into this season, a search began to find new dirt to put on the track. While that might seem like a simple procedure, the surface of a dirt track provides its character. There are hundreds of dirt tracks across the country and few of them, if any, share the same type of surface in terms of tackiness, smoothness, ability to retain moisture and the rate of change for each.

Three years ago, I-30's track was resurfaced with a "black gumbo" vertisol found in river deltas in the region, replacing the red clay surface that had been on the track for years. In three years of trying, Clay said the gumbo never completely worked.

"So we started looking for new dirt," said Clay, who also incorporated assistance from local construction companies. "Every time we would think we had found it, it wouldn't hold up or it would have too much sand in it or would have too many rocks, that kind of stuff."

Help finally came from James A. Rogers Excavating.

"James A. has been our go-to guy with equipment and things over the years," Clay said. "He found this dirt and said, 'Let's go.' "

About 70 dump truck loads -- roughly 1,400 tons -- of the dirt were delivered to the track. Crews began adding and spreading the new dirt onto the track surface Sept. 13. Rogers' grandson, Chris Meyers, a mini-sprint driver at the track, handled much of the reconfiguring of the track banking and the rolling of the surface.

Banking was added in each corner and a flat "shelf" along the top of each turn was removed. The surface wasn't completely set for the first night of racing with the new dirt, but Meyers spent four days the following week grading, tilling and rolling. Clay said the results paid off.

"That first weekend we raced it did get a little rough, but nobody complained about the new layout or the new banking," Clay said. "Then that next week, those that complained about it being rough ate their words. The racing has been excellent."

Tim Crawley probably has more laps in a sprint car over the years at I-30 than anyone. He said he agreed it was time to refurbish the track's surface and he likes what he has seen.

"All tracks need to be brushed up now and again. They just get used up over time," said Crawley, the 1998 Short Track Nationals champion who has made the feature race a record 18 times at the event. "On the backstretch, you can carry [the car] a little bit more and get some speed off the turn. There seems to be a lot of places you can race.

"At the [Short Track Nationals], when you have that many cars for that many nights in a row, that's the main challenge, to chase the track and figure it out. Then all this rain we've had, that makes it that much more interesting."

A total of 81 drivers have entered the event. Last year's winner Christopher Bell of Norman, Okla., who finished second the previous two years, will not attend. While continuing to race sprints and midgets, Bell has moved into the NASCAR ranks, claiming his first victory in the Camping World Truck Series this summer. He has an asphalt late model race scheduled for Sunday at Hickory, N.C., which will prevent him from defending his STN title.

The Brandon Berryman-owned car previously driven by Bell will return to I-30. It will be driven by Sheldon Haudenschild of Wooster, Ohio, the son of Jac Haudenschild, a 56-time winner with the World of Outlaws.

Sports on 10/28/2015