Pictures of the Day July 13, 2009
A couple of race cars going topless.BEHIND THE PICTURESPosted for Monday July 13th.............................One of the first things done with a sprint car, usually soon after the pit meeting, is something called "Heat in the Engines".
Sprint cars do not have starters in them and they need to be pushed off.
Every other race car can be fired up in the pit area next to their haulers to let the engine warm up.
For sprint cars, they set aside a time when the cars are pushed over to the track, then pushed off to be fired, the car then circles the track, comes back to the hauler, and then sits there with the motor running while it is checked for leaks and such.
Last Saturday at Can-Am, there was so much mud around that us and Tommy Wickham's team took the top wing off for heat in the engines. This way, there would be less mud to scrap off when the car came back after travelling around the track and through a muddy pit area.
After hot laps on a muddy track, it's not uncommon to scrape off a good 15-20 pounds of mud. Off the top wing, off the side bars, off the shocks, everywhere.
