Mini-Sprint Racing at Deming, Washington

I'm trying something new here - well, new for me. I'm hoping to get this short (17 seconds) video to work so as to help my non-racing readers to understand what it is I do every Friday night. You see, I'm not just a racing fan and a part of a racing family...I am also an Official at our local high-banked clay oval track here in the NW. My position is at the Pit Gate. At smaller tracks, like ours at Deming Speedway, we have the race cars and teams pit inside the track. This allows everyone to see all the action - racing, repair, drama and more. It's an old tradition that is slowly being phased out in favor of more room outside the track itself. I hate to see this tradition go as it's so much more fun to see it all...like a 45 minute complete engine swap. Yup...it happens all too often.

A race track is laid out like a big sideways zero (oval...get it?) with the center front as the Start/Finish line. Racing to the right is Turn 1, where our Pit Gate is located. Rounding the curve, the racers exit Turn 2 and fly down the Back-Stretch where they enter Turn 3. Coming out of Turn 4, which is now on your extreme left, they race back towards the Start/Finish line again. Make sense? OK, watching this short clip, you are standing with me just 5 feet behind the closed pit gate and only about 7 feet from the cars themselves. And these 1200 cc cars (think Harley Davidson motorcycle engine size but they don't race with Harley's), can get up to say, 70 mph and more. THEN...they slide sideways through the corners. Doesn't that sound like too much fun?!? It is...and scary and exciting and more.