A wheelie on a single wheel is unusual though not unheard of. It required some skill to handle it and still keep the lead.

The driver in this type of situation is effectively blind dur­ing the turn. He or she needs to steer the vehicle using just the gas pedal and a feeling for the vehicle's momentum and speed of the turn.

This is a “360 wingless” sprint car. A sprint car is a light vehicle with large wheels. The wheel sizes are designed so as to optimize the vehicle for racing around an oval track.

Some sprint cars are assembled with aluminum wings, one at the front of the car and the other on top. The wings produce down-force to press the car down onto the track. This allows a sprint car to go faster with­out flipping over.

The term “wingless” used in this case means sim­ply that Bobby's car omitted the wings. This is usual be­cause the wings are expensive. So, wing­less sprint cars are more common but they aren't quite as fast and they require more skill to drive.

The “360” part means that the cylinders in the engine total no more than 360 cubic inches in volume.

The car is power­ed by methanol. Gasoline needs more oxygen than methonal to produce the same horsepower. So, a methanol engine can be the same size as a gasoline engine while producing more horsepower.

One trade-off is that methanol burns pretty quickly. So, a methanol engine of the same size as a give gasoline engine will produce more horsepower but require a larger fuel tank than the gasoline engine will.

A 2nd trade-off is increased fire risk from methanol, not be­cause methanol is more explosive but be­cause it burns clear. This means that flames aren't as visible.

OTOH methanol is water soluble so you can put out a methanol fire with water. You can't do that with gasoline; water will spread a gasoline fire. Fire exinguishers need to be used for that type of fire.

To navigate, use the black buttons at the top of each page. The list may be dif­fer­ent from page to page. There are also links in the text.

A Turn for the Worse

In 2021, races at the Antioch Speedway usually took place on Saturdays. However, for Thanksgiving Week 2021, it was moved to Friday Nov. 26 instead.

We'd noticed a change in the track over the Summer and Fall. Grip had increased. This was probably due to two factors: sig­ni­fi­cant work that was done on the track and changes in track prep.

Higher grip was good. It meant that cars went faster sooner and things were smoother in general. The flip side was that driving had become more sensitive. Slight manipulations produced more dramatic effects.

Bobby Newberry would be racing in the usual 360 wing­less sprint tonight.

One factor that was new was that our two Dylans, Dylan Bloomfield and Dylan Newberry, had both noticed that the throttle on the car was operating in too much of a light-switch style; i.e., it was either on or off.

Usually you'd like to see more of a linear transition. Ideally, you should be able to finesse the throttle.

The pit crew dis­cus­sed the throttle's be­ha­vior. The consensus was that it was an issue that need­ed to be addressed. However, the throttle was operational. This was also the final race for the 360 wing­less sprints. In fact, the season was over and this was a post-season non-points race.

The decision was made to race with the throttle as it was but to replace it be­fore the start of the next season.

Bobby went into a turn. Once you've com­mit­ted to a turn, you need to finish it and finish it just right. When grip is high, things are espe­cial­ly sensitive. However, dur­ing this particular turn, another car passed Bobby's and a wheel on the passing vehicle touched a wheel on Bobby's.

That was all she wrote.

Bobby's car was launched into the air. Unlike in the movies or in Speed Racer, there is nothing that you can do at that point but pray in the moment that you have.

Bobby saw the track fence be­low him and was afraid that he'd come down on the other side and flip into the stands. Fortunately, his car struck the ground short of the fence, flipped and rolled a few times, and stopped.

Explosion was unlike­ly but fire was a possibility. Bobby wasn't injured, so he got the Hell out of the car as quickly as pos­si­ble.

It isn't clear if the increased grip on the track or the slightly eccentric throttle were factors but either may have contributed. We're glad that it ended O.K. except for a totaled vehicle. It does seem as though there were more incidents of this type starting in Summer 2021.