Woodburn - an alternate view

[Ralph Merwin <rmerwin@aracnet.com>]

I went to the EV drags at Woodburn last Saturday.  It was nice to see
the Vipers get tromped.  It was interesting to see the latest in EV
technology up close.  I was especially interested in Rick and Bryan
Woodbury's Tango prototype, and hope to see more of that vehicle soon.
It was fun making side bets on which run we would see Bill Dube or
Rod Wilde going sideways on the slippery track.

The major downside of the drag races were the long, long times between
races.  The track was mostly empty during the EV time slots.  Given
the heat of the day, it was a chore to sit and wait for the next race.  
The pace was so slow a few times that the track workers (the starter)
had to be called up when a couple of cars decided it was finally time
to run.  Twice I got tired of waiting and went back into the pits to
look at the cars, only to miss a run I wanted to see.

The other downside of the drags were the "junior dragsters" sharing the
track.  These are loud two-stroke wonders driven by kids 8 to 15 years
old.  While it was nice to see them so involved in racing with their
parents right there helping them out, their presence conflicted with
the quietness of the EV racers and crowded the ElectraThon racing to
a boring little oval track.

At least the junior dragsters were very well organized, with all of
them running quickly in a short block of time.  This did, however,
make the waiting between EV races even more frustrating.

Hopefully future EV races will be run by schedule.  The lack of any
schedule at all makes it difficult to be a spectator or to catch a
specific vehicle race.  I understand the needs for recharging between
races and that the rather low overall vehicle count makes it hard to
put a structure to the event, but if one of the goals is to draw more
spectators to the track, the races have to be more interesting for
spectators.

Ralph