ForConstructionPros.com

When a race car driver designs his own track you can bet he'll want it to be the smoothest surface possible. That's just what former NASCAR champion Rusty Wallace got when he designed the Iowa Speedway in Newton, IA thanks to the hard work of the paving crew of Manatt's Inc. According to www.iowaspeedway.com, the Iowa Speedway's website, after driving numerous laps around the track, Rusty Wallace said, "This surface is flawless; a great ride. It's simply going to offer a great racing experience and be the best racetrack in the world." The Manatt's crew might have taken an even more special interest than normal in providing the best surface since they are actually the primary owner of the Iowa Speedway.

The Iowa Speedway will be a groundbreaking racetrack in many ways.

"First of all it is the first ever track designed by a driver, and it will feature seven different racing venues including a drag strip, an asphalt road course and the recently completed 7/8 mile main oval track," says Brad Manatt. "The track will also be one of the first tracks to use the SAFER barrier system around the entire outside perimeter of the track and will have cameras with audio mounted into the surface of the track. The race track will have 25,000 permanent seats which can be expanded to 40,000 seats for larger events. It will also feature a unique multi level RV viewing area along the backstretch." It's apparent that the Iowa Speedway will be a model for future generations of racetracks.

Constructing the track

To construct this state-of-the-art track Manatt's decided to use windrow paving.

"We do a lot of windrow paving, it's what our crews are used to and we own a fleet of belly dump trucks," says Donn Eide, general manager for Manatt's.

Using windrow paving meant that Manatt's needed a paver that could operate in the banked turns, reaching a maximum of 14 degrees cross slope, while pushing a windrow elevator. To handle this task Manatt's turned to Roadtec who offered their RP-195 10-foot rubber-track paver and its industry leading footprint paired with an Eagle 10 screed.

Roadtec also provided the necessary modifications to operate while sloped 14 degrees. These modifications included extending the fuel fill pipes, as well as adding fuel suction ports to ensure fuel would be drawn from the low side of the tank. Roadtec also extended the hydraulic reservoir fill/vent port. Roadtec made sure the modifications would not interfere with standard operations on future projects. Due to the high tractive effort of the RP-195 paver there were no problems keeping the paver up in the banks with the elevator out front.