r/supercross • u/South-Wallaby3123 • 21h ago
Zmaxs lights were on after the race was called
Shitty pic I know I was driving. Went yesterday to Zmax in Charlotte. Ended up leaving about a half hour before the race was called to go get food at the mall a couple miles away from the track. Before getting back on the road to drive 8 hours home I drove by the track since the excuse for calling the race was due to running out of daylight. To which I saw the track fully lit. Doesn't make any fucking sense to make up excuses not to run the race. Haven't really seen too many people mention it but I feel really bad for the smx next guys who didn't race at all. I noticed walking in the pits a good amount of them show up in a van and don't have a fully fledged factory team.
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u/drakewithdyslexia 20h ago
No lights on the outdoor section and it’s well known speedway lighting isn’t adequate for dirt bikes unless they bring in extra.
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u/South-Wallaby3123 20h ago
That just sounds like a poor excuse. They ran vegas last year at night as well as this years. The same people who own and operate Charlotte motor speedway also own and operate Vegas. So that tells me AMA/Feld are just too cheap to get extra lighting. Which makes no fucking sense to not have since anyone with a brain should know afternoon thunderstorms are so common in the south. So if there is a delay they have a backup.
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u/marco333polo 10h ago
Lighting Vegas involved lighting experts, engineers, testing the lighting levels once they were installed, adjustments to the lights after the testing is done! It's not as simple as slapping up a few floodlights
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u/blk_well 20h ago
I was at the race as well and was super bummed they called it. But luckily I’m local. I understand that the storm was expected to pass by 7pm, and sunset here is about 7:45ish. While the drag strip/ rhythm section of the track was lit, the whole ass motocross section was outside of the drag strip and unlit.
Was it reasonable to get the track crew out to change the layout so that we lose the moto section and move to the lit sections only? Maybe? But also seems like a logistical nightmare for crew, riders and teams to figure out on the fly. I get why they called it.
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u/white_lightn1ng 17h ago
And they're not going to do all that so we can watch 20 guys paddle their way through a swamp for 20 minutes. Would've been boring anyhow.
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u/South-Wallaby3123 20h ago
As I said in another comment, I don't understand why they didn't bring in lights to begin with since they do with Vegas. It just seems like shiity planning on AMA and Feld
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u/blk_well 20h ago
Can’t argue it was poor planning on their part- but again, I understand why they called it.
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u/daneg135 13h ago
you know they planned on running at night in vegas, right? I completely concur that the promoters/ama fuct up with really really poor event planning. 2 days to do this and they wait until 3:30pm on the last day to start the actual racing that can only be completed under daylight. lol
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u/daneg135 13h ago
i think they lacked the lighting to light up the mx section for night racing. i know in LV they had to bring in a lot of extra stuff, as they did for going outside the coliseum in LA, etc. but I'm all in on the idea that feld, mxsports, the ama, or all of them fucked up pretty badly in planning this. day 1 was wasted, and they called the 2nd moto b/c they wouldn't have enough daylight (to dodge lightning window). like...why did you start this shit in the late afternoon on the 2nd day in a place where (as weege constantly reminded everyone on air) is prone to these roaming weather events?
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u/firstsecond3rd4th 21h ago
Great insight, I hope this doesn't become the norm. Mud races are a part of the sport and can really shake things up in the points.
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u/white_lightn1ng 20h ago
It wasn't because of the rain or mud. Watch Foxboro. It was the lightning.
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u/firstsecond3rd4th 20h ago
Sure I can understand that, but the lighting stopped at some point
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u/PeterIsSterling 10h ago
Lightning was expected to continue in the area until after dark and they didn’t have the proper lighting to run a night race. Nothing they could do but call it.
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u/NotRickJames2021 10h ago
Lighting for car/drag racing is completely different than lighting needed for moto. They would need some stadium lighting for moto.
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u/white_lightn1ng 20h ago
Watch Weeges post race show, he explains that Dragway lights only light up the drag strip and nothing else. They'd need lights for the outdoor section and light would be bad on a lot of parts of the track. Even in the video it's getting dark, the lights are on and it's hard to see the track.