Restrictor Plates, Good or Bad?

For those people who are not racing fans a restrictor plate is:

an aluminum plate that is placed between the carburetor and the engine's

intake manifold with four holes drilled into it. The plate is designed to

slow down the flow of air and fuel into the engine's combustion chamber, making horsepower and speed very low. (Restrictor Plate)

Restrictor plates are used at Talladega Superspeedway and Daytona International Speedway. The two tracks are high banked, (degree of banking in the turns) D-shaped ovals that measure 2.66 mi. and 2.5 mi. respectively. These devices used to slow the cars are used at these tracks due to the extreme speeds reached by the cars, which is made possible by the high banking in the turns. These plates came into use in 1988 after Bobby Allison’s stock car went through a chain-linked fence barely missing hundreds of spectators at over 200

. . .

Some supporters of the restrictor plates say that that is the price of safety. In the final turn of the Daytona 500 Earnhardt’s car made contact with another car. The end result is the big one, a wreck that has been known to involve as many as thirty cars. The drivers use drafting, an aerodynamic cat and mouse in which the cares can go faster in a single file line of anywhere between two to twenty cars rather than by themselves. Now there are reinforced cement barriers with fences on top. These stronger barriers were put to the test in a truck series race at Daytona days before Earnhardt died. Earnhardt was one of the most vocal advocates of the end of restrictor plate racing. With so many cars running so close together at 180mph to 190mph if someone in the front of the pack messes up the drivers in the rear have no time to react. All they are doing is getting in a pack and driving in a circle. The fences are made of meshed wire, which is reinforced by woven steal cable that can be up to six inches thick. What about the fans? At the time that Allison’s car left the track and entered the grandstands there was very little between the track and the fans.

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Approximate Word count = 1038
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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