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| Jet Car vs Car. The car lost in this rather unfair contest! Nobody was in the car. |
I was looking for an event near Los Angeles to go to last weekend and I came up with the Night of Destruction at Irwindale Speedway. They regularly hold these Saturday night events of family entertainment, although the one last November was meant to be the last event at Irwindale before closure. However, come January it was rescued for at least another couple of years. Irwindale Speedway is a half mile lightly banked oval but the Night of Destruction is mainly held on a third mile oval running inside the main track.
The weather was extremely rainy all night and thus a couple of races were cancelled, including the destruction derby and the Race of Champions for late model stock cars as they were considered too dangerous for the conditions. However, with good rock music playing before the event and fun and entertainment from the other races, we all had a great time. The same cars and drivers took part throughout out the night - the cars being rather second hand four cylinder front wheel drive compact sedans such as Acuras, Accords etc. It reminded me of the banger racing I sometimes used to see at Wimbledon Stadium in London, England many years ago. Unlike Irwindale which survived by the hair of its teeth, Wimbledon did close last year.
On a dark wet evening, from high in the grandstand to avoid the rain, photos were not easy to take. They were all taken with a Panasonic Compact as the organisers don't like spectators with DLSRs and long lenses.
ENDURO
The opening race was a 7 minute, 20 lap race around the third of a mile oval. The top three finishers were cars 19, 117 and 17 driven by Rodney Argo, Michael Hudson and Daniel Hudson respectively. They beat the other twenty three starters.
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| The wet conditions proved rather tricky, even for the leaders. |
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| The winning driver, Rodney Argo, being interviewed after his first win of the night. |
Figure of Eight
The second race, also over 20 laps, was even more fun as it was held over a figure of eight shaped track with a cross-over. This certainly thrilled the spectators even though only nine cars started. It was again won by Rodney Argo in car No.19 but this time from cars 7 and 95.
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| Part of the grid for the Figure of Eight race. |
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| The conditions were extremely wet. Rodney Argo is in the lead car. |
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| The cross-over in the centre of the figure of eight. |
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| The leader again avoids a car at the cross-over. |
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| A wider angle view of the circuit. |
The Flag Pole race
This race featured a 360 degree corner, so again a cross over and 20 laps like the previous race. This race lasted over ten minutes and had a different winner, Joseph Bereiter in car No.27 from cars 2 and 14. Fourteen cars started this race.
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| The pace car leads the field around for the Flag Pole race. |
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| The Flag Pole corner on the pace car lap. |
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| The same corner showing the cross-over. |
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| slippery conditions at the Flag Pole. |
Jet Car vs Car.
In this demonstration a pickup with an aircraft jet engine mounted on the rear reduced a car to a smouldering ruin in a few minutes. Forty years ago this would have been in distinctly bad taste at an auto event but with modern safety standards it is more acceptable.
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| The Inferno begins its demonstration. |
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| The car well on the way to destruction. |
Skid Plate race.
This race was for seventeen of the front wheel drive compacts but with metal skid plates on the rear wheels instead of tires. This made them slow but with a tail-out attitude. This 20 laps race around the third of a mile oval was won by Mike Digregorio in car No.18 from cars 16 and 14. It lasted nearly twelve minutes.
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| The skid plate cars go out on to their pace lap. |
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| Val Cummings in his skid plate car. |
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| Tail out in the corners. |
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| Action involving two of the leaders. |
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| More action from the lead bunch. The eventual winner in fourth place. |
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| The winning car No.18 still playing catch-up. |
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| The usual post race interviews. |
The Trailer Race
What a lot of the crowd had been waiting for - the Trailer race. This features cars (the same as before plus some station wagons and a Chevrolet El Camino) pulling a variety of things including other cars, boats, jet skis etc. A sort of demolition derby with trailers. A few extra trailers were placed around the track for the cars to avoid or not! This event was judged on style! The eventual winner was car No.7 driven by Robert Rice, the King of Destruction from Cheryl Hyland (176) and Steve Cook (99). This was the longest event at around fifteen minutes. Seven drivers took part in the mayhem.
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| The trailer race about to start. |
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| Robert Rice got the judges attention early on by driving straight through the caravan! |
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| The conditions continued to be extremely wet. This is Tony Cummings. |
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| The winner, Robert Rice, chased by Robbie Salcido. |
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| Cheryl Hyland lost her trailer very early on. |
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| The end of a fun but very wet evening. Don't expect rain if you come to Irwindale - this evening was very unusual in terms of the amount of rain. This is SoCal after all. |
John Etherton asserts his copyright to all of the photos on this blogpost. However, you may post the photos elsewhere on the web as long as you credit the photographer, John Etherton, and this blog post, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com and provide a link to this page.
John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web aussi longtemps que vous créditez le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com et fournissez un lien vers cette page.
