NASCAR Clash at the LA Coliseum

[Pablo]

Wow. VERY COOL!

 

[Kennedy01]

Hello Everyone:

What an OUTSTANDING weekend!!!!! We got back yesterday afternoon and I'm just now getting back on BITOG.

First, my overall impressions. I watched the television broadcast last night. As is typical with any sport, the television broadcast doesn't come close to doing it justice.

The cars looked MUCH faster when seeing them in person. And those cars were snorting, bucking BEASTS!! The sights and sounds were amazing! For the main 23 car race Sunday afternoon the solid concrete LA Coliseum literally VIBRATED under your feet. This exhibition race on Sunday was a spectacle that exceeded even my wildest dreams.

A quick word about the cars. They are a brand new package this year. Everything is new. They now have a spec chassis frame that is built by a single supplier. They now have rack and pinion steering, independent rear suspension, rear mounted Xtrac transaxles, full carbon fiber bodies, 18" BBS center look wheels, and MUCH larger brakes.

I'm a chassis/suspension geek. One thing I noticed was how much the cars bucked and porpoised at low speeds, their front and back ends heaving up and down, the cars clearly unhappy when first rolling out of the pits at low speeds. But when the drivers warmed up their tires or turned laps the car had virtually no body roll. It was my impression that the cars were relatively softly sprung (springs) but had wicked stiff roll stiffness (anti-roll bars).

We were there both Saturday and Sunday. We pretty much had the place to ourselves on Saturday. A few pictures when we first walked in on Saturday. The last picture with "Welcome Fans" - that picture has meaning. We were in those suites, the upper level.

Wow!

Scott

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Great pictures, and glad you had a good time. You hit on a point about racing that is easy to forget when you are accustomed to watching it on TV. Tv never does it justice. I went to the srx race at Nashville last year, and you can't capture the way those cars hurdle towards you put of turn four. You can't capture the smell of rubber and race gas. It's amazing. Again, glad you had a great time. Cool that you got to meet those guys. I'm a Tony Stewart fan, Kyle Larson seems like a great guy. Probably the only current driver I'd pull for, although chase Elliot is a good one too. Maybe I need to not be so cranky about what I don't like about modern nascar, and soak up the things I do.

 

[racin4ds]

Awesome Pics Slo Town! Super jealous of you! I'm a die hard race fan, doesn't really matter what type it is, if it has an engine and tires we'll watch it! So many people knock NASCAR and I even complain and gripe at some of their dumb decisions but you have to take the good with the bad. Its still miles better than any NFL or NBA game

 

[AZjeff]

Next time they need to haul dirt in there, then you'd have something!!

 

[bdcardinal]

I think that might be a transponder in your picture. There is a specific location for them, and the timing lines in the track are actually offset so that the nose of the car is on the "line" but the actual buried sensor is the equal distance back to the transponder.

On our way home my mom called the post race show on Sirius. I am a regular caller on The Late Shift on Sirius NASCAR, if you hear "Ed in California" that is usually me. The host of that show Brad Gillie also hosts the post race show with Claire B Lang. When they picked up her call Brad asked "hey are you Ed's mom?" Which was pretty cool.

What is fascinating is the list of vendors for the different components. Some of the teams themselves are vendors, while other companies like Visser Precision, were owned by team owners. Visser Precision is owned by Barney Visser who owned Furniture Row Racing.

 

[bdcardinal]

Next time they need to haul dirt in there, then you'd have something!!

I don't disagree. But in this market where they were trying to attract a lot of new fans, the setup was pretty much perfect. They announced that merchandise sales were up 3 times compared to the last unrestricted attendance Clash race (2020).

 

[FZ1]

Boring race. Cars could get no separation. Was like "Bumper Cars" at the Fair. Looking forward to Daytona.

 

[TODOR]

gay..............

 

[GON]

I can do without Pitbull and Ice Cube, but being LA it was inevitable.

No idea who either of them are.......

 

[manicrodder]

No idea who either of them are.......

I don't think Ice Cube does much music anymore. More into acting. My wife likes Pitbull. I like one of his songs but only by a little bit.

 

[AZjeff]

No idea who either of them are.......

Try to keep it that way, your life will be better.

This is NASCAR's attempt to interest the younger crowd? I tried but couldn't get interested. Amazing attendance.