RaceJunkie
03-18-2006, 03:13 AM
For much of its two decades as a dirt stock car dirt track, the most frequent complaint of Fayetteville Motor Speedway fans and competitors was the dirt itself.
The brown clay of the region is filled with hard sand granules that chew up tires and diminish the competition. The sandiness also keeps the racetrack clay from retaining moisture, leading to an asphalt-like hardness after several hours of high-speed pounding.
Track co-owners Larry Norris and Ed Longhany recently completed a resurfacing of the speedway, using a better quality clay found deep under the track’s banking. Now, the 4/10ths-mile oval is undergoing an extreme makeover prior to Saturday’s first preseason practice.
A slicker, redder clay is being trucked in nearly nonstop, Norris said. The clay was excavated from a mall construction site in Cary, and all it’s costing Norris and Longhany is the expense of hauling it here.
“We’re taking all the man can get loaded,” Norris said. “It had to be hauled away anyway because what we need for racing, you can’t use in construction because it’s too slick.
“As a racer, it’s some of the prettiest dirt I’ve ever seen. You can squeeze it in your hands and it holds in a tight ball. It doesn’t crumble and come apart like the stuff around here.”
CLICK HERE FOR FULL STORY (http://www.fayettevillenc.com/article?id=228767)
The brown clay of the region is filled with hard sand granules that chew up tires and diminish the competition. The sandiness also keeps the racetrack clay from retaining moisture, leading to an asphalt-like hardness after several hours of high-speed pounding.
Track co-owners Larry Norris and Ed Longhany recently completed a resurfacing of the speedway, using a better quality clay found deep under the track’s banking. Now, the 4/10ths-mile oval is undergoing an extreme makeover prior to Saturday’s first preseason practice.
A slicker, redder clay is being trucked in nearly nonstop, Norris said. The clay was excavated from a mall construction site in Cary, and all it’s costing Norris and Longhany is the expense of hauling it here.
“We’re taking all the man can get loaded,” Norris said. “It had to be hauled away anyway because what we need for racing, you can’t use in construction because it’s too slick.
“As a racer, it’s some of the prettiest dirt I’ve ever seen. You can squeeze it in your hands and it holds in a tight ball. It doesn’t crumble and come apart like the stuff around here.”
CLICK HERE FOR FULL STORY (http://www.fayettevillenc.com/article?id=228767)