This weekend's Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk will be contested as planned after an emergency repaving of the final eighth-mile of the racing surface.

"We're in great shape," said NHRA Senior Vice President-Racing Operations Graham Light. "The quality of the paving job that the contractor, Gerken Asphalt, did was excellent; it's a very nice, smooth, tightly packed surface. They and the track need to be commended for the job they did over the weekend getting the old asphalt off and the new asphalt on. They actually went two and a half inches deep instead of the originally planned inch and a half, but it was all laid by Sunday night."

This weekend's Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk will be contested as planned after an emergency repaving of the final eighth-mile of the racing surface.

"We're in great shape," said NHRA Senior Vice President-Racing Operations Graham Light. "The quality of the paving job that the contractor, Gerken Asphalt, did was excellent; it's a very nice, smooth, tightly packed surface. They and the track need to be commended for the job they did over the weekend getting the old asphalt off and the new asphalt on. They actually went two and a half inches deep instead of the originally planned inch and a half, but it was all laid by Sunday night."

The NHRA Safety Safari presented by AAA attacked the track first thing Monday and spent two days scrubbing the track with detergent to remove the excess oil, repeatedly scrubbing, washing, and rescrubbing the surface.

After letting it sit overnight Tuesday to analyze the progress, the Safari team did a final wash and began prepping the track, spraying traction compound and laying rosin on the new surface between applying rubber using NHRA's "tire machine."

They worked into the night Wednesday to get as much rubber on the surface as possible in preparation for Sportsman time trials that begin Thursday.

"It's going to be fine, and the weather looks like it's going to cooperate nicely," added Light. "The teams on hand have all inspected the surface and offered their comments of appreciation for the work that's gone on and to address and fix the problem before it might have become a problem during the event. They’ve told us they are convinced they can make whatever adjustments are necessary to put on a good race."


 

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