ALGER, Wash. — Just a few months after the season finale of the 2009 racing season, the track at Skagit Speedway is ready for the 2010 season to begin.
Great weather and the unexpected discovery of a special clay in the area allowed the speedway’s maintenance crew to complete some significant track work and paint all the guard rails and fences.
“We are ready for the spring as far as the track is concerned,” Skagit Speedway owner Steve Beitler said. “I am really optimistic that this new surface will be great for the racers and the fans will see a big difference.”
In the past the 55-year-old speedway had used its own clay — located outside turn 1 — but the convenience was offset by the high silt content of that material, which didn’t always make for the best racing surface.
“Dust has always been a problem since the early days and the cars are getting more demanding of the track,” Beitler said. “It is very difficult to get a track that has enough moisture to keep the dust down but not so much that is doesn’t get rough.”
Beitler set about finding a better alternative, including making a tour of regional tracks during the American Sprint Car Series Speedweek races. He watched how each speedway did track preparation, and sent dirt samples from Speedway venues and six other locations for analysis.
“When I got the results back it showed the northern Oregon tracks had the best make-up of dirt/clay,” Beitler said. “This showed true as both tracks were smooth, racey and (had) virtually no dust. Cottage Grove had the best mixture of all the tracks.”
Finding the right stuff locally proved to be an easier proposition than Beitler first thought.
Former racer Jeff Jansma, owner of Jansma Construction, had a large pile of material from a jobsite that he thought might fit the bill. “When I saw this material it looked pretty good to me” said Jansma, “I called Steve and gave him a sample, (said it) looks like it might be the right stuff.”
It was indeed the right composition, so Skagit Speedway purchased more than 3,000 yards of the new material, Jansma hauled it in and the track maintenance crew went to work with it.
Turns 1 and 2 were raised up about 2 feet to keep cars from dropping down in the corner on the entry and the bowl was fixed on the exit of turn 4.
“I was surprised that we found this material so close to the track, everything I had checked had a high content of silt, (but) this stuff was really quite low in silt.” Beitler said. “It (laid) out real nice and has a rich tan/brown look to it. The track packed in tight and took water real good. We were able to reshape the corners and get the banking more consistent.”
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