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The SHELBY AMERICAN
Fall 2015 345
The portion of the convention
which received the most emphasis
was, of course, three days of open
track. Unless you have driven Road
America it is impossible to understand
what a long track like this is like. It
has everything: three fourth-gear red-
line straights, some elevation changes,
a high speed carousel and some tight,
90° corners. We were almost at the
point of turning away members who
did not pre-register in advance. Once
they saw it in the flesh, could not re-
sist. Realizing that some had traveled
so far, we had no desire to send them
home with a “next time you should
pre-register” admonition.We squeezed
them in by adjusting the run groups,
moving some drivers up to accommo-
date additional first-timers.
One thing that really impressed
us was the track’s safety crews. A
large track like this needs several
points along its length where wreckers
and ambulances are stationed. If there
is an incident, it’s not wise to have to
wait for a safety vehicle to have to
drive three-plus miles to get to the
scene. It needs to be there
right now!
The crews took their jobs seriously
and used every yellow flag incident as
a practice for something that might
have been much worse. They moved at
double-time and aside from demon-
strating their dedication and skill, it
meant a lot to the participants be-
cause when speedy dry is being spread
or gravel swept off of the track at a
corner, the on-track action stops. They
kept down-time to a minimum.