The Dome at the America’s Center is not a typical setting for a dirt track race
I wrote a piece just before the start of this past weekend’s Castrol Gateway Dirt Nationals that I have not always been a fan of indoor racing but that I am beginning to come around to those kinds of events. Part of the reason I had not always favored races such as those held inside The Dome at the America’s Center in St. Louis is that I have tended to view them like every other dirt track race. However, I have now come to realize that these types of races can’t be viewed like any other event.
Quite simply, the Gateway Dirt Nationals are not the same as other races in any way, shape, or form. It is not Eldora, it is not Knoxville, and it is not Florence. As a result, this three-day happening can’t be evaluated in the same way as those marquee events on those venerable tracks. In watching these races, one has to divorce him/herself from virtually everything already known about dirt racing. For that matter, one has to divorce him/herself from virtually everything already known about … everything.
The style of racing is unlike that seen just about anywhere else because the track is one of the smallest in use by Super Late Models, or any other division for that matter. Furthermore, that small track can get quite rough. The skillset required to be successful there is unlike that required pretty much everywhere else. Also, from an entertainment point of view, the interviews tend to be a bit more spicy than those normally seen and heard.
Obviously, when building a dirt oval race track inside of a building meant to serve as a football stadium there are going to limitations in terms of the size of the track. There are only so many square feet to work with and there have to be walls and catch fences put in place which will take up some of that room. And more, there has to be room on each side of the actual racing surface to stage those cars about to come onto the track and to allow those leaving the track to do so without creating traffic jams.
All that said, this is one of the smallest tracks used by Super Late Models. The dome’s fifth-mile measurement is equaled in smallness by facilities such as Macon(IL) Speedway and a very few others. Many tracks regularly used by this class of cars tend to measure no less than a quarter-mile and up to a half-mile. So the size of the track itself is not typical and one of the reasons the Gateway Dirt Nationals cannot be treated like an average Dirt Late Model race.
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The dirt has to be moved into the stadium and shaped into an oval race track in relatively short order. With that being the case, the clay doesn’t have very much time to settle where the dirt at permanent facilities has, in all likelihood, had years to settle. And after numerous cars with 800+ horsepower and wide tires rip around the track, it is bound to get rougher than most tracks.
Of course, we have all been to races in which the track proved to be rough due to any number of factors. But those permanent venues do not have newness working against them as does the St. Louis stadium.
And finally, the fact that this event takes place inside of an enclosed stadium with a large and raucous crowd on hand can lead already energized drivers to do and say things they might not do or say under more normal circumstances. Thus, some crazy introductions, interviews, tantrums, and celebrations take place there that are more rarely seen in other locales.
Over the years, I have learned that the attendee or the viewer cannot treat these races like any other. And when one learns how to separate the ideals for how races ought to be in typical circumstances from how things are in the dome, it makes the Gateway Dirt Nationals more enjoyable.
This is not so much a racing event as it is a spectacle. I watched it this past weekend and was entertained. And after all, isn’t that what we want from sports?
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