Big Diamond Raceway

Big Diamond is one of the best tracks to go for talking to fans. Big Diamond features a plethora of race fans who attend every week, and the large area directly behind the grand stands makes it a great place to catch up with old racing friends, and even make new ones. Big Diamond also features one of the most friendly staffs of any track around. Big Diamond also has one of the biggest weekly crowds of any tracks around, which leads to an awesome atmosphere of cheers, boos, and groans throughout the night. Big Diamond race fans are very passionate about their home track.

Despite Big Diamond's best efforts, they still need to do some major work to the track surface. The track is known to eat up tires, and that has led to car counts dwindling to between the high 20s to the low 30s on a weekly basis. The track has a tendency to peel up during warm ups, as the surface seems to be too soft for the weight and speed of the modifieds on the track. On good nights, the track smooths out by the end of the night and offers some pretty good racing.

The Big Diamond facility has come a long way over the last 5 years, new concession and souvenir stands have been erected, along with new bathrooms and upgrades all around. However, the bleachers could be updates, as they're still just wooden planks on a hill, and the track itself could use some color to make it a little easier on the eyes.

The best place to sit at Big Diamond is actually in the grass-section towards turn one. It's a great place to sit and view the cars really twisting sideways going into the turn. It's also the only place you can sit at the track and truly be able to hear when all the drivers jump back onto the throttle after entering the turn.

The fan group at Big Diamond is very tame during the races compared to the groups at other tracks, but, they tailgate like no other. The Diamond Dog's, as they call themselves, always set up at the very back of the parking lot, straight back from the entrance gate, and celebrate being at the races every Friday night with lots of food and beer, and really enjoy having everyone come over and having something to eat or drink with them. They're surely not the most entertaining group during the races, but are by far the friendliest and most approachable.

My favorite Big Diamond moment happened in 2000. A young driver named Rick Laubach, who now is one of the top drivers around, was battling for the lead in his qualifying race when he made contact with driver Mike Nicholas. Nicholas proceeded to spin out and the yellow flag came out. When the field came around, Laubach was shown the black flag and ordered to the back of the pack for rough riding. It was a questionable call, and half the crowd cheered and the decision, and half the crowd booed. Laubach was not happy, when he saw the black flag he immediately stopped the car at the flag stand and had the flag man come talk to him. He spent a few seconds pleading his case before the flagman had heard enough and ran back up to the flagstand. Laubach sat a few more seconds, and then shut his car off. The officials waved for him to move, but he continued to sit there, and even took the steering wheel off the car to show he wasn't going anywhere. After a few minutes of officials pleading with Laubach to move, a tow truck came to the aid to tow Laubach to the pits. When the tow truck was backing into position to get the idle modified, Laubach fired up the car and slowly backed away from the tow truck. Eventually, Laubach stopped, put the steering wheel, and sped around the tow truck and into the pit area. Laubach only ran about 6 competitive laps that night, but he sure was in everyone's conversations at the track that night.