Don’t be discouraged, short tracking is still alive and healthy in parts of the country. I made another visit to Kalamazoo Speedway last Friday night, and they knocked it out of the park!
The promotion team is well known in our racing world; in fact, the one time I got to attend the promoters workshop the crew from Kalamazoo presented a session on what they do to keep the stands full.
This was one of their nights for the hard-core racer, They have theme nights like the Kalamazoo Clash coming up on Wednesday, the Big Rigs are next weekend, “The Call of the Wild”, events for young singles, etc… So this one was just racing: 4 local classes with out a spot-light event like SLM or sprints.
By the numbers, they had 4 classes with 95 cars. Green flag at 7:30 and the final checkered flew at 10. That was non-stop heats and features for 2 1/2 hours. “Victory Lane” is outside the track, so the time spent on the winners was a quick photo while driving by, then they could take their time to celebrate while the next race was underway.
The REAL KEY to Kalamazoo is the racing surface. It is the best I’ve ever seen in 45+ years. Their are THREE workable grooves, and room for a few chaos lanes as well. It is a high banked, paved 3/8 mile, but there is something about the layout that makes it look fast as hell. From my seat in the stands, every lap looked like a struggle to just miss piling into the wall at the flagstand. In fact, they have an infield wall (to protect the infield pits), but because the track is so round, I could see that the drivers are on the gas long before they can even see the straight. Think about it; that is a real leap of faith.
Door to door, lap after lap. Three wide with no problem, passing and re-passing. Handicapped starts so every race was won by the guy who passed the most. It was wonderful fun!
I had met up with an old friend there, a guy who can be very opinionated and critical of tracks, but he was also dazzled at the presentation.
So if you are in Michigan during the summer, make this a “must-see”. It is on my list as a “must race”; I can’t wait to give it a try.
A final note: they have a lighted scoreboard that shows the lap count. However, they don’t count up, but instead count down the laps. it is pretty cool! It is easier to keep track of the laps remaining since the fans are not always certain the length of a race.