difference between "micro" & "mini" sprints?

It's all relative. Down in El Paso the track is a big 3/8 mile. I geared for about ninety and hit a couple perfect laps that touched the rev limiter. It was a thrill. Up in Aztec the track is a nice 1/5 mile and we run in second gear and it's a blast. The Aztec track is definitely more work, braking and sliding in much closer quarters. The El Paso track has a thrill of speed that can't be beat.

I do admit, micros require more investment than karts by a long shot but, they are a hell of a lot less to campaign than a sprint car.

As long as you are racing I guess it doesn't matter what you race.

DK
 
What Don K said. The biggest track we ran our 600 on is Susquehanna Speedway, which is 4/10 of a mile. If traffic doesn't slow you down, you hit the rev limiter bending into turn 3 (or 1) just as common sense says it's time to back off a bit anyway, and that translates to 95 miles per hour, plus we can run 4 wide, which the crowd likes. Fred Rahmer told me that his 410 topped out at 115 and backing off coming in to 3. The brute speed is a thrill in the turns, but the straights are a bit boring in a 600. Even with the high speeds of a track like that, you end up having a bit of time to make decisions; the first time we ran there my driver was taking a bit of an odd line in 1 and 2 the last 3 laps, so after the race I asked him if the car was getting tight, and he said, "No, the setup was great the whole race - I could put the car anywhere I wanted; I was just dodging potholes."

Our personal feeling is that for a 600 micro a classic banked 1/4 mile bullring is perfect - big enough for the car to go fast, but small enough that the track doesn't overshadow the cars. For central PA types, think Path Valley Speedway. Anything smaller than a quarter is really a blast, just not quite as fast; our favorite for breaking in a new 600 driver was a nicely banked 1/5 mile bullring that they discovered was a lot smaller when they ran a 600 on it than when they ran a kart - the KT100 drivers made the transition a bit more quickly, as they already were used to braking a bit for the corners; it would probably not be much of a change for UAS types. :)
 
We are just getting started around here first race is first weekend of April down in Las Cruces, NM. Double header Friday and Saturday night. In preparation this winter I got wheels, tires, shock rebuilds, front wing, engine rebuild (after three seasons), fuel pump and a bunch of work. About two grand in preparation. Never spent this much on two karts. In contrast my friend just got his sprint car engine back from rebuild for $6k.

What I like about open wheel racing is there is a level of respect that has been lost in kart racing. Ruffing up a competitor has consequences that can bite back. Maybe that is why you can mix thirteen and seventy three year old racers without a lot of fanfare.

DK
 
Back
Top