3/15/2017
Coos Bay Speedway
Coos Bay Speedway 'soft opening' is wet success
COOS BAY — The parking lot was grass once. But now it’s just soft mud with ruts snaking through where vehicles, mostly pickup trucks, parked in anticipation for Coos Bay Speedway’s soft open on Sunday.
At least one car got stuck in that soft, sandy mud in the dark after the races were done, and everyone, to some degree, had mud splattered on some part of them. The soupy conditions made for some exciting and enjoyable mud drags, a local fan favorite, but also proved a learning experience for track owner Drake Nelson’s tuff truck experiment.
“It was definitely wetter than normal,” Nelson said. “But that’s attributed to the 7 inches of rain we got in the past however long you want to go back. We’ve had an extremely wet winter, i.e. the parking lot. It’s not normally like that.”
In not a hard, but a steady rain, the 70 or so trucks and jeeps – even a Subaru wagon – made passes through the seemingly interminable mud strip.
It was difficult for the trucks essentially up to the Road and Trail class to get great traction, especially early on. Before the runs could be packed down into manageable ruts, the mud was deep and soft, allowing no traction for the lighter four-cylinders in the night’s first heats.
Working through the six-cylinders and into the V8s, the track packed down somewhat and with the larger engines quicker passes obviously came about.
“It was a little more soupy than normal,” Nelson said. “But that’s what makes it fun.”
Lingering over the whole event was the tuff trucks experiment. In the drivers meeting before the races, Nelson presented the track to all the drivers and pitched the event to have them run.
Though the quickest time got a trophy, there wasn’t a separate entry fee. He wanted people to enter the event so he could see how it would work.
As the Powder Puff races — the all-female driver conclusion to the mud drags — Nelson stood in the main concourse of Coos Bay Speedway and smiled.
“It could be great,” he said. “Or it could be terrible.”
Overall, it wasn’t terrible. A combination of hesitation, super soggy conditions and a worked track from the three-plus hours of drag racing made life difficult on the volunteer drivers. One truck had its steering essentially knocked out, though, on the whoopdee section Nelson was excited about.
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Ultimately, though, the participants either had a lot of money invested in the trucks for racing and didn’t want to unnecessarily damage them, or they brought their daily driver to drive in some mud and decided on site to try out the tuff truck course.
“It’s gonna take a special type of vehicle for what I’m expecting,” Nelson said. “Some of these guys with full-blown racing trucks are a little hesitant to roll through what I’ve built.
“We gotta find that right clientele, the people who are willing to risk their vehicles a little bit.”
As Nelson hoped, the tuff trucks gave the fans something new to see. Many onlookers were friends or family of the drivers, and therefore had no issue braving the chilly winds, sideways rain and muddy ground so familiar to the mud drags.
The tuff trucks, though, were something new, something fresh, something to be anticipated. When a particularly adventurous driver hit one of the small ridge-like whoopdees, fans ooh and awed.
When the steering column on another was severely damaged, the crowd rose into a cheer, willing the truck across the finish line.
“Not everyone has a big pasture to go play in,” Nelson said. “You can only do so much in the Wal-Mart parking lot. You can go up to the hills, but that’s limited. I have a venue people can play with and tear up. Just gotta find the right avenue.”
The speedway is hosting its second round of mud drags Saturday.
The pits will open at noon, with the grandstands opening at 3 p.m. and racing starting at 4.
General admission is $10 for adults, while senior citizens and students 7 to 17 get in for $8 and kids 6 and under get in for free. A family pass, good for two adults and up to three children, is $25.
The driver fee is $35, with an additional $20 to enter a second division. Powder puff drivers pay $20. Pit passes are $20 ($10 for kids 12 and under).
For more information, visit the speedway website at www.coosbayspeedway.us.
Article Credit: World Newspaper