September 2010, Dover Saturday Race, Picture Page 1

The Dover International Speedway the morning of the race.

The building is full of things that most of the staff at the track would rather put back unused at the end of the day.

On the other hand, most of these will be used before it's time to go home.

A sight that most people never see, the inside of the tent used for the pre-race driver's meeting. Not fancy by a long shot, but very serviceable. And when the driver's weren't meeting, it provided a quiet place for the Desk and its partner to rest, take notes, make plans, and change batteries in a cantankerous camera.

Each team has its own garage space at the track but they have to bring their own tools and gear. Which makes for some tight quarters indeed.

All of the cars that run at Dover use some major camber in their front left tires due to the banking. On this speedway, even the straightaways are banked nine degrees, and the corners are that famous twenty-four degrees of banking. While this makes the car easier to drive through the corners, it tears the tire up in short order.

The templates used to ensure that the profile of the car matches the spec sheet. Each and every entry is checked before being allowed their qualifying run. Which means that this place will be busy in short order.
(you can see this rack of templates in use in the next photo....)

The cars are put through a rigorous pre-qualifying inspection for everything inside and outside the car. There is also a post qualifying and post-race inspection for the winner (or fastest qualifier when talking pre-race), and a selection of others from the field. So there is a chance that your car could be inspected three times at a single race. Now, do you want to talk about cheating?
(The templates to the left in the top photo check the windshield against the spec sheet. In the bottom photo, they are measuring the height of the race ready car.)

In the end, it comes down to one man and one car against the clock to make the race.

And then there will be some that don't make it, in this case, the driver spun out and backed into turn two at speed.
but you can still read the sponsor's name on the TV panel above what's left of the bumper!