Facility improvements are under way at
two of NHRA's most historic East Coast facilities, Old Bridge Township
Raceway Park in Englishtown and Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, both of
which host NHRA POWERade Series events.
Maple Grove Raceway, home of the annual Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals,
set for Aug. 14-17 this year, is undergoing a facelift for the 2008
racing season. Prior to the season-opening test-and-tune event March
22, several improvements will be in place. New LED Daktronics
scoreboards are first on the list of new items. The 20-foot-long boards
will feature red LED digits that will be much easier to see in daylight
and can be viewed from a wider range of angles so that spectators close
to the finish line will no longer find themselves straining to decipher
them. No longer having to frequently replace burnt-out incandescent
bulbs is another plus with the new LED scoreboards.
Fiber-optic wiring is second on the to-be-accomplished list. Bob
Brockmeyer from Compulink will soon install this latest technology in
track wiring. Maple Grove
will be the seventh national event facility to feature fiber-optic
cables the entire length of track. Utilizing fiber optics rather than
traditional copper wiring safeguards the entire track and all connected
components, such as the timing computer and Tree, against the
devastating damage that lightning strikes can cause. The electronic
damage that used to plague Maple Grove's computer after lightning storms will be one less thing to stand in the way of getting the show back on the road.