I understand what you were saying Falcon. I'm only talking about new construction, not something that's already built.
I'm sure pouring a dragstrip presents a huge challenge. I realize things move and nothing can be made to last forever. My only comment would be that five years doesn't really seem an acceptable time frame for such a project to be rendered unusable. But I have to admit I know nothing about it, maybe that's considered the average life span for a track. If that's the case I can see why so many of them go out of business.
Since I'm not and expert or even a small drip under pressure, I can only say that spider cracks seem to be the norm around here. I assume mine are there because we didn't have any option other that to pour when ready and that that was in the middle of our 100+ days over 100F. I kept it wet as long as I could - 2 days - then it was what it was. Since the surface would hit 135+ in the afternoon, I'm sure it was cure related. The house next door had walls and a roof on it before 28 days were up. I think it was a 5 sack, 3500+ pour. Why they have some larger cracks I'm not sure. The ones in mine are pretty teeny and should be covered by the epoxy paint.
The slab next door is about 5 years old. It has 18"x18" footers, beams, steel on 18" centers, 5~6" thick. It also has the teeny spider cracks on the surface.
My last shop did have a big one that ran diagonal. That was all site prep, I'm sure. It was contracted and done while I was away, and it waited about 5 years to do it. It was wide enough to feed it a nickle sideways. Very disappointing, but the space was still usable.
Our soil here is pretty expansive, with some percentage of clay. I had to start watering the foundation of the house this summer due to the lack of rain - the dirt was 3/4" away from the slab on the east side. We got one 1.5" rain dump on a weekend and every crack in the ground closed up. 10 days later, all were back. You can see that at the track too - even though the ground is sloped away from the racing surface, after a heavy rain water seems to move under the track. When the sun comes out, it will percolate up through the cracks in the track. I know from reading up on soils before my pour that there are many areas where a slab might not move at all.
I would not say it's not possible to be crack free for sure, but for most common homeowner slabs around these parts it seems to be something we can expect.
> If that's the case I can see why so many of them go out of business.
O/T for sure but I can offer some insight:
Cost vs revenue. A two day weekend will run around $700~900 for insurance alone. The water/sewer bill at the track runs about $220/mth with zero usage, so in the winter they have the city lock the meter because it's only a $25 reconnect charge. Pull the plug on everything - EVERYTHING - turn off all the breakers except a couple of mercury vapor lights and the power bill runs about $400. Turn on the track lights for night racing - you donna wanna know. Add 10 employees at min wage and a payout. Charge a resonable run card fee, get maybe 80 cars and you will lose your **** on a weekend. Pull 100 miles with a flat trailer, pay the gate fee, buy a Mod run card and you are already out around $75 and you haven't bought race fuel or food. Lots of people just can't do that right now. We've lost two tracks this year in the area - that's a 200 mile circle area.
>Falcon, did they come in and mill the surface and put a whitetopping-type overlay?
No, they just ground it flat and did some "buffing" to smooth it out some. You can easily see the grind marks in the track, but it does not affect traction. It was "green" for a while for sure until it got a bit of rubber worked into the surface. When they got done I could run through the traps at 95 MPH with one hand on the wheel. Smoother than the dang freeway.
