BUZZ SODEMAN / SPECIAL TO THE PVT Operating a road grader is just one of the skills required in creating a banked oval that can handle dirt-track racing. Advertisement

One aspect that most "dirt track" race fans give little thought to or know a lot about is the racing surface and how it's prepared.

More work is required than just flooding the track with water and having the cars wheel-pack it. The Pahrump Valley Speedway is basically a dirt track consisting of clay and a conglomeration of caliche-based material. The most important ingredient, clay, isn't exactly a staple found here in the desert, but it is what holds the track together.

Clay is a very fine-grained sedimentary deposit that has undergone a greater or lesser degree of consolidation. When moistened it is plastic, and it hardens on heating, which renders it impermeable.

Clay minerals consist largely of hydrous silicates of aluminium and magnesium together with iron, potassium, sodium, and organic substances. According to the U.S. Geologic Service, "Clay minerals all have a great affinity for water. Some swell easily and may double in thickness when wet. Most have the ability to soak up ions (electrically charged atoms and molecules) from a solution and release the ions later when conditions change."

Additionally, "Water molecules are strongly attracted to clay mineral surfaces. A mixture of a lot of clay and a little water results in a mud that can be shaped and dried to form a relatively rigid solid."

With all this technical jargon in mind, I went to the track to dig up the facts on this transformation firsthand. There's something rather eerie about an empty racetrack. A distant siren and the sound of downshifting "belly dumps" rumbling down Basin have replaced the usual pre-race din of revving engines.

The sun, usually setting in the west, was just beginning to peak around Mt. Charleston, bathing the entire valley in an ever-increasing warm haze. Highway 160 began its usual hustle and bustle as commuters headed for Las Vegas or the Nevada Test Site. From the spectator parking lot, I was amazed by how much of the Pahrump Valley is visible from the track.

Prior to the beginning of this racing season, several racers and local construction-based owners (namely Leland Hibdon, Jason Pike, Levi Keifer, and Dan Snowden) hauled in 160-200 loads of dirt. They assisted in shaping the track, building up the banking in the turns and expanding the entire width of the racing surface (I have witnessed five-wide racing in the mini stock feature).

Dave Hall begins the process of preparing for a Saturday night event the Tuesday after the last event. Using the blade of his grader, he collects and distributes the buildup of clay (marbles, so to speak) from the top of the track toward the center and bottom of the racing surface.

Walking on the "battlefield," now totally dry, was like walking on a tile floor where all the tiles are loose, uneven, and very brittle. It's not a deep cut, actually a mere skimming of those "loose tiles." Up close to the wall was just a hint of moisture under the skim.

Hall returns Wednesday evening and puts 10,000 gallons of water on the track. Thursday is much the same routine: no grading but an additional 20,000 gallons spread on the racing surface.

Friday and Saturday are a "kind of a guess and by golly" evaluation. Hall has to determine if more water is required, and if so, just how much. It could be another 10,000-30,000 gallons.

It's obvious that this isn't an exact science and requires the combined skills of a meteorologist and an agronomist. Through trial and error, Hall has a measurable level of understanding of the soil environment, soil morphology and soil-forming factors, soil chemistry, physics, biology, and the dynamic interaction of these areas. Ultimately, the weather determines what Hall needs to do to provide a track that will, one hopes, remain tacky throughout the entire racing program. And we all know that "tacky" is good.

The way that the track is situated makes it susceptible to the wind.

"It's really a wind bowl up here, which quickly dries out the track," Hall said, "and it's extremely hard to gauge how much of the water will be self-pumped by the track to the racing surface."

Obviously, the cooler it is, the less amount of water that is required. "Now is the hardest time for me to get the track in shape," Hall said.

Usually about once every month, Hall pulls out the "sheepsfoot," a medieval looking contraption, which acts as an aerator. This definitely isn't an exact science and requires practice and patience and years of experimentation.

Jim Wulfenstein, who once prepared the track, said, "Getting it right is truly a case of black magic."

As I walked around the track, I couldn't help but notice the amount of "track" on top of the walls and in the pit stalls and wondered just how much of the track disappears after each event.

A few years back, the track was experiencing a serious problem with the inability of the clay to adhere to the soil composition located beneath it. As weird as it seems, the solution was to haul in some "organic" material produced by the bovine residents living at the dairy. That odoriferous mixture of manure and straw absorbs and holds moisture, which is important in binding the soil particles together.

I find this compound is rather appropriate, especially around election time. There seems to be a lot of bull being spread around. It goes a long way and it always smells the same.

Knoxville Nationals Update: Sprint car driver Steve King died Aug. 10 from injuries suffered in a crash during the previous night's Knoxville Nationals. He was pronounced dead at 4:32 p.m. King was the first person to suffer a racing-related death during the Nationals in 38 years. Donny Shatz captured the crown.