Desert racers adjust swimmingly

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For $6,500 you can rent the swimming pool behind the wall in right-center field at Bank One Ballpark to watch an Arizona Diamondbacks game.

Attend a NASCAR Nextel Cup race this summer, and you’ll find a few temporary watering holes set up in campsites at and near the tracks.

But probably the only time you’ll ever see a pool of cool, refreshing water in the pit area of a race team is at Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s dirt track during the SCORE Las Vegas Terrible’s Cup.

Desert racers are famous for acclimating to challenging environments and making the best of a hot situation.

Before Friday’s opening of two nights of desert racing on the track’s 1.5-mile circuit, it was important for teams to keep crews and guests comfortable in the 105-degree weather. Large above-ground pools were set up to assist at least four teams.

Joel Liska, Southern California team manager for Lawrence Equipment’s Class 10 buggy, took a late-afternoon dip in the team’s 4-foot pool. The water temperature measured 89 degrees and a crew member’s beer can was 68 degrees.

“The only problem is you can’t stay in the pool all the time,” Liska said as family and friends joined members of the team.

It was break time after a practice session and before the team began preparing its open-wheel racer for driver Mike Lawrence, who was said to be resting at his hotel.

Asphalt temperature: 149.5 degrees in the sun, 120 in the shade.

High temperatures won’t be a challenge for drivers with Terrible’s Cup races lasting for only two 10-minute, six-lap races per night, which contrasts starkly with 12- to 20-hour marathons at traditional desert races such as the Baja 500 and the Baja 1000 in Mexico.

“It’s not nearly as hot in Baja, and a lot of those races we’re running near the ocean,” said Chris Emer, the ride-along mechanic for the Class 1 racer driven by Randy Wilson. “The Nevada races are the hottest.”

But crew members have to work in the heat of the day after late-morning practice sessions at the speedway and then between heat and feature races each night.

Emer’s black firesuit indicated a temperature of 131 degrees when measured by a laser thermometer at 5 p.m. Friday. The engine got even hotter. He said after two laps of the 1.5-mile course during Friday’s practice, the coolant had reached 185 degrees and the oil 210.

“In other races it takes around 50 laps to reach those temperatures,” Emer said.

Racers and crew are well-schooled in the need to drink water throughout the day, and they also adjust their diets.

The Terrible Herbst Motorsports compound features food cooked by David Twaddle and a 5-foot temporary pool that’s cooled with a couple of tons of ice. Twaddle, the executive chef for Terrible’s hotel-casino, cooks high protein entrees and serves plenty of fruit.

“We’ve got to keep their energy up,” Twaddle said while turning chicken breasts on a 298-degree grill. “It’s a long two days.”