Track Drying Methods

[Stoke Potter 242]

What methods (other than sun and wind!) have been tried or researched to dry tracks out after a rain storm to get a meeting on and, more importantly, allow some decent racing?

As we're talking BSPA I can be fairly confident there will have been zero research into any appropriate methods but what, if anything, has been tried in the past?

[DSC67 1,465]

I'm sure Ronnie Russell had a track drying machine but I can't ever remember it being used

[iainb 4,994]

Didn't Colin Meredith have some kind of jet engine? or was that an April fool?

[montie 1,273]

ive often wondered if one of these would be any good

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGuho_ui74c

 

or an even bigger one

[steve roberts 9,242]

What methods (other than sun and wind!) have been tried or researched to dry tracks out after a rain storm to get a meeting on and, more importantly, allow some decent racing?

As we're talking BSPA I can be fairly confident there will have been zero research into any appropriate methods but what, if anything, has been tried in the past?

I remember saw dust being used at Cowley on more than one occasion.

 

Recall John Davis and Neil Middleditch lighting, I think, petrol on damp patches (Weymouth) hoping to help dry the surface!

 

Jet engines/cars were used prior to the 1974 World Final at Ullevi.

[Stoke Potter 242]

I'm glad you both remember that as I vaguely recall a gas jet type thing on the back of a tractor somewhere but it could've been abroad. Limestone(?) powder and saw dust are old favourites that seemed to have gone out of fashion I think. Perhaps they didn't work.

Edited September 23, 2017 by Stoke Potter

[cityrebel 2,960]

I remember seeing cement dust being used at coventry for the NL fours a few years ago!

[Aces51 2,778]

I remember seeing cement dust being used at coventry for the NL fours a few years ago!

Cement dust and a very wet track doesn't sound like a good idea, especially when the bikes have turned it over a few times. Sounds like a fun way to mix cement though but what would I know.

[The White Knight 9,039]

I know that Glyn Taylor, when he was at Redcar, had some good ideas on this subject. I can remember discussing it with him.

 

I don't know if he ever came up with anything that came to fruition though.

[foamfence 2,917]

I know that Glyn Taylor, when he was at Redcar, had some good ideas on this subject. I can remember discussing it with him.

 

I don't know if he ever came up with anything that came to fruition though.

I know he'd thought about something like those machines that melt the tarmac on the roads but I would have thought they were a bit expensive.

[The White Knight 9,039]

I know he'd thought about something like those machines that melt the tarmac on the roads but I would have thought they were a bit expensive.

You are spot on ff.

 

I remember now, that was certainly one of his ideas. (No Likes (still)).

[Tsunami 10,219]

I remember a few years ago a Swedish GP being saved by the authorities shipping in some red hot coke( maybe furnace bottoms) from a nearby coke works. It was dropped all over the track and in no time produced a pretty good surface in a reasonable time scale. I don't think this was an isolated time that it was used.

Correct that Glyn did pioneer with a heating system, similar to a tar laying apparatus, that was going to be used by all the tracks when it was needed.

With reference to concrete dust at Coventry. It might have dried up the wet shale on the night, but can you image the damage it would have caused when they returned the following week to try and blade it for their next meeting. I have heard of promotions useing that sort of solution with holes in the track, but the drive is affected quite badly as a spinning wheel goes over from loose shale, to concert surface to loose shale again. A recipe for disaster.

[cityrebel 2,960]

Cement dust and a very wet track doesn't sound like a good idea, especially when the bikes have turned it over a few times. Sounds like a fun way to mix cement though but what would I know.

it was only used on one part of the track at Brandon. I thought it was a strange idea at the time, but it worked!

[racers and royals 8,720]

I remember a few years ago a Swedish GP being saved by the authorities shipping in some red hot coke( maybe furnace bottoms) from a nearby coke works. It was dropped all over the track and in no time produced a pretty good surface in a reasonable time scale. I don't think this was an isolated time that it was used.

Correct that Glyn did pioneer with a heating system, similar to a tar laying apparatus, that was going to be used by all the tracks when it was needed.

With reference to concrete dust at Coventry. It might have dried up the wet shale on the night, but can you image the damage it would have caused when they returned the following week to try and blade it for their next meeting. I have heard of promotions useing that sort of solution with holes in the track, but the drive is affected quite badly as a spinning wheel goes over from loose shale, to concert surface to loose shale again. A recipe for disaster.

Hot ash is still used in Sweden- it was used on Thursday in Vetlanda to relay and dry the track http://www.elitvetlanda.se/nyheter/banpreparering-pagar/

[Midland Red 2,383]

 

Sawdust was commonly used in days of old

Edited September 23, 2017 by Midland Red