There always seems to be a debate ever whoops after Anaheim 1. This time was no exception.There are really 2 issues with whoops, 1) How they are made, and 2) How they hold up.
It's no secret the faster guys usually want the whoops as difficult as possible, since they have megabuck suspension and hours on a nice test track to get ready. RC isn't always on that list.
Villopoto wasn't complaining after Anaheim, he won. DeCoster said they were too much and you couldn't race in them. Some other top team folks said something about them too, after they saw them Thursday at press.
Last year it did appear that whoops started getting smaller, more uniform, and more consistent after the first round. What makes it tough in Anaheim is the dirt and how whoops hold up. Check the photo.
The dirt packs hard on its own, and if you roll it into shape, it can get worse. With the cool Southern California nights, moisture comes out as the night goes on and things get more slippery.
What happened at Anaheim is the faces would break down, like shown in the photo. That made the whoop faces sharp edged and tougher on tires. It's a combination of how the hard dirt behaves, the shape of the whoop, and how the moisture changes over time.
If there was a way to roll them harder, they would squeeze out all the moisture and create rock whoops. If they are left looser, they come apart even more than shown above. It helped a little in 2007 due to show changes that translate to less time on the tracks before each night show.
What to do? Its hard to re-invent how dirt behaves!
