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Coffee Shop / Hay bales around the track
« on: October 02, 2012, 09:34:53 pm »
I'm just wanting to complain a little bit. I don't like hay bales around the track. I think they are dangerous. In the years that I've been racing I think I've seen more wrecks from mowers hitting hay bales than from any other reason. I agree that sometimes they are needed in certain places to protect the driver from obstacles around the track, or to protect the spectators from a runaway mower, BUT I think they should be as far away from the race track as possible, instead of right around the edge of the track. On Sunday I was racing in Maryland. I was wide open, just a gettin' it, about half way down the back stretch. I didn't think I was as close to the bales as I was and clipped one with the right rear tire. They sucked me right in and spun me around. I went from wide open to a dead stop in about 10 feet. The bales were tightly packed and pretty heavy (I know, cause I helped put them there!) I stayed on the mower and it stayed on its wheels, but any other mower, other than a Super Mod, and I would have been tumbling and flipping out through the weeds. So, what I'm trying to say is, if you need to have hay bales, or any other type of barrier around your track, try to keep them as far away as possible. It will make it a lot safer for everybody.