Bodine took Dante for a ride,

Bodine breaks down track
BY DANTE TERENZIO
STAFF WRITER
06/09/2008
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LONG POND — In his glory days, former NASCAR driver Brett Bodine sported a variety of different cars, whipping around turns while exceeding speeds of more than 200 miles per hour.





Bodine retired from racing five years ago and now spends his time giving pace car tours around various tracks on the NASCAR circuit. One of them being Pocono Speedway.

With 480 starts, including 32 at Pocono, who better to explain the course’s anatomy than Bodine? He was fortunate enough to test drive a souped-up Chevrolet Corvette on Sunday morning on the 2.5 mile Long Pond track. Bodine, 49, enlightened his passengers on the course’s tendencies while giving an unforgettable two-lap joyride at the same time. The white Z06 was a 6-speed manual that took the three diverse turns beautifully.

Turn one, Bodine explained, is a 14-degree turn that elite drivers take at about 200 mph. It’s a three-lane turn where driver’s have no choice but to accelerate to build speed into the second longest straightaway on the track.

Following the straightaway is a sharp second turn. Bodine hit a top seed of 145 mph in the Z06, but dropped to 90 mph at the cut of the turn, coming within inches of scraping the wall.

“You’ll see a lot of guys scrape the wall on turn two,” Bodine said. “Top speed is about 10 mph less than turn one. It’s critical to carry speed out of this turn.”

On the final turn, most drivers float on the top of the turn before picking up the throttle. Bodine stressed that a driver must come off the corner at a high speed in order to head into the final straightaway at their absolute top speed.

Rounding the final turn, the rear of the Z06 felt a little unstable, but kept its acceleration heading back into the pits.

“This is a high banked track,” Bodine said. “Driver’s need a lot of finesse and a lot of brake to have good results here.”

With nine top 10 finishes at Pocono, Bodine would know all about good results.

Contact the writer: sports@timesshamrock.com