KRP Sand Drags Article - May 19th, 2013
Written by Chris Messer Tuesday, 21 May 2013 15:12
Photos: Nick Latulip
The weather is blowing in from the West and the temperature cooling even though it’s still early in the afternoon here at Kalaeloa Raceway Park. Kalaeloa is often one of the warmer parts of the island on most days and today’s humidity is making it a little uncomfortable if you’re not in the shade. Then again I am a Haole! The clouds are starting to darken from their normal fluffy white and, as I write this, we are going through hot and cool spells at the track as some clouds pass while others gather. I’m almost certain it will rain at some point, but time trials went smoothly and maybe if we’re lucky we will squeeze the racing in before the heavens open.
Time trials earlier on in the day were relatively uneventful except for the drivers adjusting to the lengthening of the track which has been extended to 300 feet. Tinker Toy had a scary little spin in the shut down area on his first run which got everyone’s attention. And I learned later that he had had a stuck throttle and had needed to hit the kill switch in order to avoid disaster.
We always start with the “Unlimited’ class in Bracket 1. We do this so that the fastest cars get a smooth track with ample depth of sand at the starting line which makes for safer racing. The track naturally gets rutted and pits develop at the starting line in each lane where big paddle tires throw the sand back in huge rooster tails as the cars launch off the starting line. The Unlimited class is comprised of tube chassis cars with custom bodies and great power to weight ratios. Rails; both blown and naturally aspirated, four and eight cylinder pipe buggies, some with turbos or nitrous, and full bodied sedans, custom fabrications and roadster are examples of the types of vehicles that make up this class. The class is intended for cars faster than a 5.00 elapsed time (ET).
