Alternate venue for motorcycles

[edinlr]

With all of the rainouts we have been experiencing, has there ever been any discussion of holding the motorcycle event on a runway?  With bikes going 250+ at Blytheville and Loring, it would give a venue where all but the fastest bikes could run at nearly max speeds and have lots of fun.  There could be alternate records like SCTA does with Bonneville and El Mirage.  The course at Blytheville is great and is very centrally located to much of the population of the country.  Loring is great too, but a long drive for anyone not living in the NE.

[donpearsall]

I was thinking the same thing. Although I have been racing motorcycles on the salt for 17 years, I hate it. Everything I have is rusted and corroded. It has cost many $1000s in damage. But a decent  LSR track needs at least 5 miles so that eliminates runways. A dirt lakebed is about all there is to be practical.

Don

[MAYOMAN]

Would a runway be as flat as Bonneville, not wavy?

[edinlr]

I have ridden on three runways at Ohio, Maine, & at Blytheville, all are smoother than the salt.  The military runways are built for heavy bombers and have up to four feet of concrete.  Even on a 1.5 mile course at Loring I did not use my brakes at all slowing from 200 to make the turn off.

[edinlr]

I was thinking the same thing. Although I have been racing motorcycles on the salt for 17 years, I hate it. Everything I have is rusted and corroded. It has cost many $1000s in damage. But a decent  LSR track needs at least 5 miles so that eliminates runways. A dirt lakebed is about all there is to be practical.

Don
I think the added traction would allow all but the fastest bikes to come pretty close to maxing out given that they can do a much harder launch on concrete.  As I said above it would be a different record like El Mirage vs Bonneville.  The main thing to me is it would be real records that are certified with motor inspections.

[rockracer]

One thing to consider:;  CRASHING.  😟😬
How would be going down on salt vs. concrete  ?
Would you slide more on salt vs concrete would grab you more and start tumbling/ragdoll.
Plus runway concrete is way rougher than highway concrete.  My uncle raced scca on a airstrip and it tore up his tires quickly.  Also the grooves did weird stuff in the handling on the straightaway.
They never went back.

I wonder if we could incorporate landspeed racing into the Nevada open road challenge  with a timed mile or something to that affect for those wet years.
All good stuff to ponder.

[stay`tee]

There are a number of Alternative Tarmac venues for motorcycles to run and have fun at, and thay are all weather affected,, also each of these venues have their own individual records 

[tallguy]

El Mirage dry lake is kinda short.  The Alvord Desert -- in southern Oregon -- is fairly long, but like other dry lakes, is subject
to flooding.  A competition there would likely require a fair amount of effort in preparing a track (not so much by dragging,
but more by fodding and laying out some mile markers).  This was done quite a few times when the North American Eagle
was running there (not after 2019).  It's a pretty good dirt surface, and relatively non-corrosive.  I don't know how much
traction it provides, compared to salt, but the extra length probably would at least help compensate.  About 9 miles was usually available when not too wet.  Unfortunately, it's pretty isolated.  There's not much of anything useful within a few miles of that place.