Pain in the Gas

Let's hope the sun is shining this weekend in Las Vegas because I for one couldn't stand to watch another disaster like that in California last weekend.

I'll concede that the running of the Auto Club 500 was the extreme when it comes to race management in times of detrimental weather, but there has got to be a better way to deal with rain no matter if it's a little sprinkle or a torrential downpour.

And I can't wrap my head around why the sport pushed so hard to run the race on its scheduled day,  especially when Monday's weather outlook was so rosy.

Of course the eco-conscious side of me is most upset about the waste of fuel in attempting to dry the track.

From an excerpt on the internet:

During the weekend, the jet dryers that circled Auto Club Speedway for more than 10 hours during several rain delays consumed more than 6,500 gallons of fuel. They burned 3,000 gallons on Sunday night as they tried in vain to dry the track. What could an airline do with that much fuel? According to Virgin Atlantic Airlines statistics, a Boeing 737-800 can fly 3,383 miles on 6,875 gallons of fuel.

The distance from Los Angeles to New York City is 2,462 miles. A Boeing 737-800 can carry a maximum of 162 passengers.

Now a simple fix for this issue and a great PR move on NASCAR's part, especially since this happened in California, would have been to offset the carbon footprint of the jet fuel used.

To do that might help appease critics on the waste of resources, but it still won't help all the fans who awaited the race. Especially those fans on the East Coast who waited well into the night to hear that the race was postponed.

And nothing will take back the wrecks of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Denny Hamlin, Casey Mears and Sam Hornish Jr. when they were out of the race as a result of a crash in the early laps of the Auto Club 500. Even while it wasn't coming from the skies, water on the track has been blamed for the accident. There was enough absorbed in the ground that it seeped through the cracks.

Hopefully NASCAR will learn from this weekend's trials and come up with a better way of dealing with the weather to present a full race that all fans can enjoy.

One friend of mine suggested a tarp system at the track. But I guess that would probably be too expensive and maybe a little bit difficult to implement effectively.

Maybe they could just make the decision to not run a race when rain is on and off throughout a day and moisture is in the air, because the cars are not built to deal with these conditions. Have a sunshine clause, at least one that is in place for when it rains before a race and is forecast to come again.

Like back in the day before jet dryers.

If it's raining, pack it up and go home for the day and try again tomorrow. That's the only way the race was redeemed in California last weekend, when the decision was finally made in the twilight of Sunday evening to run the race on a sunny Monday. I hope that because of this debacle, NASCAR makes that decision much sooner next time.
Posted: 2/29/2008 11:43:00 AM
Comments:
Rachael, even though I agree with the idea that the race definitely should have been called off til Monday when they lost the track surface, I really don't think the wasted Jet Fuel was a big deal. I mean, there's tons and tons of flights every single day, and the jet driers were trying to please 60,000-70,000 fans which is far greater than the tiny 162 passengers you would find on a 737 jet.  I mean at least NASCAR tried to dry off the track for the people that paid a lot of money to see the race. Of course it was all a wasted effort that ticked me off because they had me stay up til 2am to be told the race was postponed, but it was at least nice to see NASCAR put in a big effort for those at the track itself.

Also, you may want to re-evaluate your carbon footprint phobia. This winter has been brutal! China has had it's coldest winter in 100 years, it snowed for the first time in Baghdad in recorded history, and places such as Madison Wisconsin have not seen this much snow since the 1950's. Infact, check out this story:

http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=332289

Here's a snippet: "The U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that many American cities and towns suffered record cold temperatures in January and early February. According to the NCDC, the average temperature in January "was -0.3 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average."

There's nothing wrong with trying to be environmentally friendly, but don't impose such a view on others. It is absolutely ridiculous to even suggest NASCAR needs to "offset their carbon footprint". Do you have any idea how much carbon was burned up just for fans to get to the track???
Posted On: 2/29/2008 11:43:00 AM

Report Inappropriate Content

Select the reason that best describes why you think this content is inappropriate, and then click Submit. We'll review the content to determine if action is required. Thanks for your input!
 
Submit
Cancel