The fuck is that stupid thing?

Open Shows are a one-a-year throwback to the infamous "wedge car" era of short track racing from the mid 1980s until the early '90s. Back then rules & regulations for Late Model bodywork mods were virtually nonexistent, and the ones that were hardly got enforced. So when polycarbonate plastics (i.e. Lexan) started to become widely available, short track racers started to figure out that if you attached larger and larger sheets of the stuff to the left door, the sideways aero force would counteract body roll & act like a massive rudder, meaning you could set the cars up insanely stupid loose and they still wouldn't spin or even slide.

Due to rising costs and safety concerns over visibility & driver access in the event one of them got upside down, plus the general ridiculousness some cars were reaching (ending in "Chargin' Charlie" Swartz and Loy Allen Jr.'s mid-engined dirt late models at the Dirt Track World Championships), all the powers-that-be of the time sat down & crafted stricter body rules that made Late Models look like they do today...but some short tracks still to this day will, for one night, throw the rulebook out the window and let drivers and teams craft whatever Frankenstein-ian creations they can come up with for the sole purpose of setting track records.

The K&N race at VIR looked so amateur, that includes the broadcast and the racing. Terrible camera placements, out of focus shots, shaky shots, and racing so bad I actually laughed out loud.

Also I can't say I'm a big fan of (pit reporter) Derek Pernesiglio, I worked with him once and he's kind of a douche.

Also, with all the shit Bowman Gray gets on here, did anyone watch the West race from Meridian? It's another 1/4 mile around a football field, but it actually produced two grooves and great side by side racing I thought.

The fuck is that stupid thing?

Open Shows are a one-a-year throwback to the infamous "wedge car" era of short track racing from the mid 1980s until the early '90s. Back then rules & regulations for Late Model bodywork mods were virtually nonexistent, and the ones that were hardly got enforced. So when polycarbonate plastics (i.e. Lexan) started to become widely available, short track racers started to figure out that if you attached larger and larger sheets of the stuff to the left door, the sideways aero force would counteract body roll & act like a massive rudder, meaning you could set the cars up insanely stupid loose and they still wouldn't spin or even slide.

Due to rising costs and safety concerns over visibility & driver access in the event one of them got upside down, plus the general ridiculousness some cars were reaching (ending in "Chargin' Charlie" Swartz and Loy Allen Jr.'s mid-engined dirt late models at the Dirt Track World Championships), all the powers-that-be of the time sat down & crafted stricter body rules that made Late Models look like they do today...but some short tracks still to this day will, for one night, throw the rulebook out the window and let drivers and teams craft whatever Frankenstein-ian creations they can come up with for the sole purpose of setting track records.