Oregon Raceway Park? Really?

So what's the point of the post?

The subject makes it sound like you hate it.  First 3 words- Fantastic new track.

Many tracks are in the middle of nowhere.  Most have ER's closer than 2 hours.  Hopefully, there's med evac svc available if you need it bad enough.

People can camp. 

I'd imagine that if there was no gas available at the track, someone on the team should be able to get 3 cans full every 2 hours or so.

Races are finished before sundown, unless 24 hours.

Summit point Shenandoah's pretty technical, very tight, and most turns are crowned, so there's alot of off camber turning on the outside line.  It was an awesome race.

Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

I think that a big part of it is just supply and demand. Texas gets 5 races this year because we have tons of participants here. The MSR-Houston races routinely see 120+ teams and last year's inaugural event at Eagles Canyon was close to 80 teams on a weekend that defined hot weather racing. I expect we'll see more like 120 at the ECR race this coming April as the weather should be perfect that time of year. The midwestern races (other than Ledges, which is off the schedule for entirely different reasons) just don't put up those kinds of numbers.

Plus I suspect that it's harder to schedule the midwestern tracks since they have less year-round availability (due to weather) and thus their calendars are already more crowded with NASA/SCCA/PCA/BMWCCA, etc. events. The west coast and Texas tracks are available pretty much year-round since we don't see the kind of winter weather that y'all get up there.

Most of these same things can be said about Nelson ledges and many other tracks.  If the track is fun, the rest is just a bonus.

Welcome to Lemons, You will soon find out it doesn't matter where you sleep, how far the nearest facilities are or where your next gallon of gas is coming from. Ive seen teams siphon fuel from their own cars just to have enough to finish. I have had team members insist on sleeping at the track, and as far as parts I've been with a team that adapted a pulley and belt from a Miata to fit a MR2 to finish the race because they didn't want to go to autozone.(10 Miles Away) You will soon see how crazy we really are.
P.S Thanks for the info, we will be driving from Utah for that race.

OK, get your car running and ask these questions in 5 months, people will help you more then.

OK, thanks we appreciate the comments, sorry about the slams. yes the Half pipe looks like a blast.

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You think this is a tough track! how many tracks have you driven on?

The track will probably arrange for a fuel truck, 55 gall barrels, or maybe not. Maybe you should give the track a call, and ask them how they are going to fuel 125 cars getting an average of 12 mpg for 16 hours of racing? get them thinking ahead, since it seems you are, way ahead.

We may race crappy cars, held together by funky welds, with pieces from several different makes/models, but that don't mean we're dumb. We figure this stuff out. Besides your car will break, you'll need to drive to a PDX junk yard to find a new engine, and trans and you'll be up all night, using someones borrowed engine hoist and someone else's borrowed lights. (which is what happens).

Borrow a generator and get a couple of those 500W hallogen lights from HF. Or bring a couple Colman lanterns.  Even if there is lighting, its probably 40' up in the air and not sufficient for working on your car at 11pm, much less 4am. So yes you need to plan ahead. Get a treadmill, pull the motor, install a DC generator, take the 12 vdc 50W lights from your car and build a light stand and have one of your crew run on the treadmill to have lighting. You'll only use it when you need it so it will be super green tech.

We are not afraid. We never bring spare parts. Nope, not ever, honest. Really trust me......... no spare parts, if the car don't run thats' it, pack, give up, go home.
Just ask the guys who drove 3 hours each way to get a new engine from a PnP, the guys who drove 120 miles RT to get bearings and gaskets, the 240z guys who show up with not 1 spare engine, but 2, the teams that bring an entire junked car as spare parts.

we used to bring a hodge podge of toolboxes, some packing tape, and a spare set of brake pads. Nowadays we still got the hodgepodge but with a genny, canopy, welder, 3 sets of brake pads, 2 spare sets of tires, a box of fluids from glass cleaner to oil to tranny fluid, and oh yeah, we now have our own duct tape and, wait for it... electrical tape!

we love the info, but most of us just wing it and do OK. let us know when you start talking to track management and give us heads-up on fueling. that's the 3rd most important on our collective lists, behind killer pit grub and kickin' theme-related costumes.

Us Northwesterners have a limited track season too.  We're west coast but certainly not year round.  It's more the south west that has the year round glory.  California, Arizona, Nevada, etc.

Semantics shemantics but I hate to be lumped in with SoCal, the beatiful year round weather and plethora of tracks they have available.  We're just as jealous of them up here as you guys in the midwest are.

Thanks for the insight on the midwest. I grew up in Indianapolis and listened to the race (and if you're from Indy then you know that there is only one race that is entitled to be referred to as "the race" without further explanation) on WIBC from the time I was a baby until I moved to better weather after graduating from college in '94. It was only last year that I finally watched the 500 in real-time on TV because before that I just couldn't bear to not listen to it on Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network.

I'm a 20% owner of a Lemons car that's based out of Indy as well as a 100% owner of my car down here. I'm all for more races in the midwest, especially those closer to Indy, because that's cheaper for me. Unfortunately, there's just not a lot of availability nearby. Take a look at Putnam Park's 2010 schedule for an idea of how booked up it is on the weekends -- there's not many free weekends available there.

Jay did look into IRP but the road course there is too scary for him to seriously contemplate, even if it were still useful. One of Lemons' big qualifiers in looking at tracks is how much runoff space is there versus how many walls are there. Most tracks have some walls, but Jay seems to prefer those that have a lot of grassy runoff before you get to anything you could hit, and with good reason. Safety first, right?

What other tracks within a 5-hour drive is Lemons missing? They checked out Putnam and didn't like the config. You'd have to ask Jay directly more about that, but that's what he told me was their conclusion after Jeff went out to Greencastle to check it out. Mid-Ohio is way, way, way too expensive even if you could find an open weekend. Ledges -- that's barely within the 5-hour radius and Lemons has decided that it's unsafe for their purposes (I suspect due to the bridge abutments, the way that the pit exit basically runs slow traffic right into the apex of turn one, and several other factors including the high speed back straight and kink without a ton of clear runoff before you hit the tires, but that's just my speculation). FWIW, I'm not saying that I agree with these decisions, but I don't make them for the org, either.

So if you've got a track that you think that Jay should check out, I suggest you send him an email about it. But I don't think that they're avoiding the Indy market for lack of trying.

With regards to workers at ORP, the last two times I was there, the track provided all of the corner workers and ambulance staff. Unemployment is so high in that part of the country that there has been little difficulty in finding bodies to train as corner workers and fill the turn stations with. At least during weekdays. Maybe weekends are different, as I have always been there on weekdays only.