Track Focus – Dirt Nitro Challenge (Fear Farm)

Track Name – Fear Farm
Organiser – Joey ‘The Dirt’ Christensen
Country – USA
Location – Phoenix, Arizona
Direction – Anti-clockwise
Surface – Dirt
Previous DNC hosted – 2012, 2013, 2014 & 2015

The Fear Farm, so named after the themed haunted house that is located on the grounds of this large sports complex, plays host to its 5th Dirt Nitro Challenge with this being the 17th running of the Joey ‘The Dirt’ Christensen’s signature event.  Having based previous builds on a theme which in the past have included ‘Burm’ and ‘Triples’, Joey has themed this year’s track ‘Dub Step’, the key feature being two big step ups.  With Joey’s normal signature of being ‘big jumps’, this year he said he has gone for a more European style track and rather than move dirt to create big jumps he has more went with the natural elevations that exists from previous track builds.  Describing it as fast he has focused on more sweeping corners in combination with the elevation changes.  He is particularly proud of his two ‘flat lanes’ in the centre of the track which he said ‘is unusual for (him)’ but planning to use this as the starting grid, 10 cars on one lane and 5 on the other, he said this should make qualifying more important.  Describing the overall look of the layout as ‘not intimidating’, he said initial feedback from drivers was that it ‘looks easy’ to which he replied ‘ovals look easy too but its not easy to win in Nascar’.

Defending DNC Buggy Champion Ryan Maifield said the ‘layout is cool’.  The TLR driver said the surface is already super gnarly making the it ‘pretty technical’.  A super hot day in Phoenix yesterday, the Arizona native said the dirt which is old farming soil needs a lot of water to bind together and rain prior to the event is usual a big bonus but that didn’t happen and only having a water truck to wet the track yesterday in the hot temperature the single round of practice has already taken a toll on the surface.  He added that with the surface as it is it is good that the track is not as ‘crazy’ as previous years in terms of the layout.  He said the double after the finish line dropdown is one area he is finding a little tricky due to its position from the drivers stand but pointing to the double straight section he said ‘the flow of this centre section is rad’.

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