Phoenix area racing

The AMA and PIR have been talking for quite some time about making changes to the track to make it safer for the bikes.

I'm still waiting.

One idea was to build some sort of chicane in the middle of the banked area to keep the speed down, but it would have to be where the bridge is now. In any case, it would be nice if they would do something! The track is great for spectators, and the paddock facilities are excellent.

Firebird, on the other hand, well... it just sucks. It's what we have, so we race on it. But it's a crappy facility, and a crappy track. They've run two national-level races there, WERA F-USA in 1990, and AMA in 1995. At each event, there was a career-ending injury for a front-running star. Paul Bray in '90, and Fred Merkel in '95. 2 for 2, not a good record.

PIR could be made into a bike-safe track, but it would take a lot of work. Otherwise, it will eventually become known as "Loudon West".

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A fool and his money are soon partying.

Thanks for info about track conditions. At either of the sites I could not find a link to a map of track. Like either a site map or an aerial view. do you know where to find one?????

Trevor

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Those cheesy maps were just what I was looking for. They look awesome to me. I want to go to a variety of tracks. I hope to go to Seattle Inter. Raceway Sept. 2-3, I like racing in Portland, but a change of view would be nice. Exactly how bad are the tracks?? I was told that no one could touch Dave Sakowski't record at portland, because the track has gotten so bad since 94 when he set it. I actually think our track is good, besides some patches. Are the AZ tracks messed up from cars racing on them???

Trevor

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One other thing to note is that neither of these tracks have any elevation changes. They are totally flat (with the exception of banking).

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- Dan