Formula D Pro Am in Texas put on hold!
Posted by Wrecked Magazine on 21 Sep 2008 at 02:38 pm | Tagged as: Grassroots
According to our sources at the event the event ran fine until competition where a car spun out and popped an oil pan on returning back to the racetrack. The racetrack owners seemed less than pleased and shut down the event during competition. We will try and provide more information as we get it to you guys, especially on a replacement event for all the drivers looking to gain a Formula D license.
Summary from Mike Speed of event
‘Forcing the Renter to clean up the TRACKS hurricane mess the day before
Not having ANY equipment/oildry/brooms/STAFF
A Track manager that never stepped foot outside his 1993 Honda Prelude the entire day or lifted a finger to help with the event staff from what I saw
Shutting down the facility due to an OIL SPILL
Not allowing ANY rocks on the track at all
Having rocks all over the track in the 1st place
Seen this ONCE before on a track that was completely torn down for renevation during the ONLY event of the 2008 season before the renevation:
Rumble strips with enough dropoff on the backside of them to completely hide above my ankles
But heres the kicker, for how much the facility costs per day, it comes with NO STAFF, NO EQUIPMENT, no NOTHING. I’ve seen parking lots that rent for 0-1k that come with more staff/equipment than Grand Sport Speedway had to offer. And the fact that they shut down an event due to a competitiors car being damaged by a rumble strip and losing an oil pan is absolutely absurd. In my 1st/2nd/3rd person history in motorsports I have NEVER seen an event SHUT DOWN due to an oildown.
Then on top of that you THREATEN your renter that you will SUE HIM if he doesnt clean all the oil off the track himself, and threaten you will cancel your corvette club event the next day and charge him 2 day rental because your too lazy and cheap to do the racetracks job which is assist and supply cleanups.
Instance EVERYONE can vouch for. Dragstrip, car fails, the evac/safari/safety/cleanup/rescue 1 2 3 crew whatever you call it CLEANS UP THE TRACK, this normally takes a while due to the fact that you have to clean it up, then normally put some vht on the track then burn it back on.
Roadracing is much more simple, COAT it in oil dry, run 2-3 laps , then blow it off with cars or a sweeper.
I’m thankful every other facility on the planet doesn’t operate like Grand Sport Speedway, if it did every time an engine failure occurred it would be the end of the Indy 500 / US GP / Top 4 at Atlanta / X Games Rally finals.
I’m fully in beleife that the owner of this track, David Zubiak is either retired or has no financial stake or future plans other than make money initially and whatever happens after that happens judging by how it is operated. Charge the most money for your product you can, put absolutely ZERO investment back into your product. From the fact that the rental cars are the same from 3 years ago using the CHEAPEST Falken Ziex tires available on them and probably wagner pads on napa rotors he can find, to the obvious refusal to spend the money landscaping to make a safe facility for cars that do something thats to be expected on a racing facility, which is lose control and go off course.
I could go on, but I’ll stop with that.’
Dang… mike! Stop holding back! Let it all out man..
that wasnt even the full post they cut out a lot of it.
track is run by a super cheapsk8…i just went to hang out and watch, ended up helping pull cars off the track that were broke and sweep the track all day since GSS dropped the ball on providing those things.
my fav part of GSS was they seriously had an ambulance, that was broke and being worked on by another amubulance’s crew all day, that was funny.