So let's do the math. 15 mph on a 7-mile long course = about one hour/lap. That's two beers/hour. Three long courses @ 90-100 feet wide per course, using a drag that's 10 feet wide yields about thirty trips down the salt (and thirty back) for just one pass over each part of the salt. Multiple runs for better course prep is common, I think, so let's (for the sake of this discussion) use two passes/10 feet. So now we're up to 60 hours, 120 beers, multiple yellow spots.
Add in the turnouts -- one/mile in the three timed miles, and two/mile between 5 & 6 and 6 & 7 and more after that. I get about nine of 'em, and let's guess one hour each. Nine more hours, 18 more beers, more of those damn yellow spots (now not so yellow anymore!).
Return road and road to the timing tower: Unh, hell, call it fifteen more miles for them, return road is wide enough to require a couple of passes of the drag. These don't need quite so much preparation -- ten hours total? 20 more beers, couple more spots (which are growing bigger as the driver's aim gets worse).
Hey -- don't forget the short course. Two courses, five dragged miles each, a return road, some turnouts -- hell, there's another ten hours/20 beers, and a few puddles.
Roads for getting from Land's End to the pits, the pits themselves, access to staging, staging/prestage -- what, maybe another ten hours/case of suds?
Do we have to allow time for the driver of the drag truck to visit his liver doctor?
Now we see why they volunteers are out at the Salt NOW preparing courses: They've got to have time to sober up after this hazardous duty!
