NASCAR old skool layout at Sears

[budman]

I don't normally watch much NASCAR, but yesterdays race intrigued me because it used the old track layout that we/AFM used back in the 80's.

The old turn 1, and 9-10-11 layout was fast as hell.. fun as hell and dangerous, but really awesome too.

I was curious about how fast these cars are and they are damn fast!

I remember 1:53's being my fastest laps and them boys were doing 41's.
Granted faster dudes than I dipped into the high forties.. I kind of remember Doug Chandler doing 48's at the National on a 750 Supersport bike..almost 30 years makes some of that fuzzy... :laughing

Darrell Waltrip's last race call made it kind of cool too. As a kid I was hungry for racing of any kind and there was not much to be had on TV so I watched quite a bit of the circle track stuff during DW's hey day and before.

Pretty fun race.

 

[bikewanker]

Didn’t know that was the plan until I watched my recording. That and Watkins Glen are my “want to watch “ nascar races, the last 7 or 8 laps of a speedway are palatable. Them boys were doing some serious sliding around yesterday.
Dennis we was all fast in the good ole days!

 

[budman]

A few showed passing happens. Hamlin's run thru the field was impressive as were a few others.
This layout is way better for passing... way!

We was all hella fast in teh old days.. :teeth :thumbup

 

[#1Spies Fan]

dont forget the old days of sears had the chicane before turn 1 so that adds time. Also, in like for like years...Nascar was much slower than they were this year due to better tires. The fuel injected cars have less hp but better suspension and tires helped them break the old lap record. Was cool to watch and I think MotoAmerica superbikes would beat a Nascar around sears. First Nascar raced I've watched in years!

 

[budman]

That chicane in 1 was added by the AMA in '89. AFM ran a hay bale /cluster bale chicane arrangement in '89 just as you exited the straight out of T11 onto the start finish. That led to some havoc and a lot of hay being picked up (delays). :laughing

AFM before that ran straight up to Turn one with no chicane.
I remember that well because I crashed on oil just past start/finish and my bike ended up the hill in T1. I ended up in the tire wall separating the drag strip and the track.

It was super fast (for Sears) across start finish... as we got to use the dragstrip coming around there. The inside drag strip wall there now did not exist.

 

[89fj]

^^^:wow

 

[Gavin Botha]

F1 Lap around Sears

https://www.roadandtrack.com/motors...r-sonoma-lap-record-video/?date=053019&src=nl

 

[TWF]

That chicane in 1 was added by the AMA in '89. AFM ran a hay bale /cluster bale chicane arrangement in '89 just as you exited the straight out of T11 onto the start finish. That led to some havoc and a lot of hay being picked up (delays). :laughing

AFM before that ran straight up to Turn one with no chicane.

Old turn one was fast and fun, with or without chicane. I was casing my GSXR under the bridge
Car guys still use old layout, I was doing track day with my Cayman 3 years ago, old turn 1/9/10/11. My lap time was same as your on bike 30 years ago, 1:53.

 

[riffraffracer]

It has been a while, but I was thinking that I ran 1:47s-48 on a TZ250 in the early 80s. This is old track with old turn 7 and no chicanes. On this track in 1988, I ran 1:50 on a production Honda 600 Hurricane.

They held a special race for 250GP bikes at a NASCAR West race in the 80s. The old NASCAR races cut out turn 1-6. The kinked straight was from turn 11 to turn 7. I won't stray off topic, but I won the heat race and had everyone covered by almost a second a lap. Race won by Chris Steward. I ran out of gas leading. Kiss that 1500 goodbye...

 

[SonoraMike]

It has been a while, but I was thinking that I ran 1:47s-48 on a TZ250 in the early 80s. This is old track with old turn 7 and no chicanes.

iirc my best in the early 90's haybale out of T11 config was a :49 on a TZ250 in FP

 

[Holeshot]

Old turn one was fast and fun, with or without chicane. I was casing my GSXR under the bridge
Car guys still use old layout, I was doing track day with my Cayman 3 years ago, old turn 1/9/10/11. My lap time was same as your on bike 30 years ago, 1:53.

Old turn was legit...I lost the front at the apex back in the day as I opened the throttle and slid for days. Destroyed the bike too...Pete Doyle behind me said smoke was billowing off my front tire for 20 yards before it hit the ground and spit me off.

Ah...the days where we were actually cool...

 

[budman]

It has been a while, but I was thinking that I ran 1:47s-48 on a TZ250 in the early 80s. This is old track with old turn 7 and no chicanes. On this track in 1988, I ran 1:50 on a production Honda 600 Hurricane.

They held a special race for 250GP bikes at a NASCAR West race in the 80s. The old NASCAR races cut out turn 1-6. The kinked straight was from turn 11 to turn 7. I won't stray off topic, but I won the heat race and had everyone covered by almost a second a lap. Race won by Chris Steward. I ran out of gas leading. Kiss that 1500 goodbye...

Damn... My memory has to be off a bit. Damn fast Dwayne!

Bummer about running out of gas..

 

[riffraffracer]

Kenny Roberts ran 1:45s at the 1979 National on a TZ750. The next best time by any other rider was in the 1:47s. In superbike that year Spencer, Cooley and Pierce ran high 1:49s -51:50s Found this info online in Cycle World Jan 1970. (I actually went to the race and remember Kenny running 45s, but needed to get concrete facts so I wouldn't spread "fake news").

Pretty impressive considering this was 40 years ago. Do get me started on the armco barriers...

Back then there were not many riders who could ride a TZ750 faster than a TZ250 at Sears Point. Kenny could, and only a hand full of others could. For AFM events, the the TZ250 was typically the fastest bike from the mid 70s to mid 1980s. I course this is just my opinion so don't flame me too bad.

 

[EastBayDave]

Kenny Roberts ran 1:45s at the 1979 National on a TZ750. The next best time by any other rider was in the 1:47s. In superbike that year Spencer, Cooley and Pierce ran high 1:49s -51:50s Found this info online in Cycle World Jan 1970. (I actually went to the race and remember Kenny running 45s, but needed to get concrete facts so I wouldn't spread "fake news").

Pretty impressive considering this was 40 years ago. Do get me started on the armco barriers...

Back then there were not many riders who could ride a TZ750 faster than a TZ250 at Sears Point. Kenny could, and only a hand full of others could. For AFM events, the the TZ250 was typically the fastest bike from the mid 70s to mid 1980s. I course this is just my opinion so don't flame me too bad.

I was at the 78' (79?) National where KR was running the Daytona "cheater" bike (680cc= 500 bottom end, 750 top end massaged.) I recall him doing 1:45's that day. I even got pics someplace of him turning the record...

The old layout was the only layout IMHO. Adding chicanes ruined Sears...