kmagvette

I had the opportunity, through dumb luck, to be in the HPDE group on the track after the repave. It was my first time coaching for HOD (well run group). First impression was that it is really smooth and slippery. We also did a track walk after the track maintenance was done for the evening.

The surface is all asphalt, all the concrete is gone. The aggregate is not as tight as you would have on a nice driveway so there are little pockets where water and rubber can collect. There is a fine rubber powder everywhere on the car even under the hood. Tire wear was not abnormal.

Turn 1 appears to be unchanged.

The esses are the same, even have the yellow to white line transition in the same place; turn 4 no longer has pot holes. The rather abrupt curbing has been replaced with rumble strips.

The biggest change I noticed was the turtles in the bus stop; they are way more disruptive than the old ones...and it appears that the Armco is closer to the turtles on the entrance; that could be a result of my standing right there staring at it. I was accustomed to putting the entire car up on the old ones, I did that once before the track walk and damn that was a surprise. The new ones are segmented wedges and start small and grow to about 1.5", over a little more than a foot. Clipping them slightly with the unweighted tire results in no more than a bit of noise. Looking at the rubber laid on them you can see where tires are airborne before contacting the next one.

For grins I drove over them with my truck at about 30 mph and that was disruptive to the rear.

In turn 6 the general consensus was that the tire wall did not extend as far down turn exit as it used to.

I never really appreciated how steep the hill is going from toe entrance to exit as well as the amount of available camber.

At the exit of turn 8 they paved a bunch of the runoff area, but there is still a patch of gravel to plow through before finding the Armco.

Turn 9 is still the same however they did replace the steep curbing that was on the inside of 9 with rumble strips.

10 and 11 are what they used to be minus the concrete.

I am sure I missed a few details, the surface is very nice and grip should return with use and a little more seasoning. It was fairly chilly especially today.

Track management is very concerned about keeping the surface pristine. A few folks dropped fluids and they responded with very generous servings of kitty litter. I am sure that generated a nice bill for the offender.

jlutherva

Good update. I'll be there with Chin May 16-17.
Cheers,
Jim

spdislife

Thanks! End of July for me and looking forward to it

Scooter70

I can't wait. A few of us from Detroit are thinking about coming out for the NNJ-PCA weekend July 29-31.

apex26

Thanks! Considering going this Mon-Tues with NASA. Rumors, and maybe even the local paper had guard rails being moved back, sounds like that didn't happen. One instructor said it's the same aggregate mix as COTA--permeable so water flows right through it. He said he saw a video of a pitcher of water pour right through it! I also heard they used ground glass in the mix, and indeed an online search confirms that has been a blacktop additive for decades depending on availability. (Corning Glass Works). The glass does not absorb water. Guess the only way to know for sure is to just go!

Radiologue

Yes, I saw that video showing the water poor right through the aggregate. Simple science making driving / racing safer.

Joe speed

I have run the glen for over 26 years with the scca its one of the best tracks that I have raced on. I stopped racing in 2014 and started a 64 coupe resto mod build to use for track days and the street. Looking forward to try out the new track next year. Its nice to see their are still corvette owners that like to go on track and not just car shows.

Radiologue

The Glen is one of my top to do list this year or next year. I am new to the corvette community, but I plan on driving the hell out of my new to me vette on numerous tracks. Hope to see you out there.

Bill Dearborn

Hey Keith, how are you doing? It sounds like the took the bus stop rumble strips back to what they used to be about 8 years ago. I guess they wanted to make it harder for the NASCAR guys to straighten out the turn. I have been thinking about coming up for one of the events this year. Was hoping to make Joe's event in June but I am instructing with Tarheel at VIR the two days before and there just isn't anyway to get there in time. Are you still running the C5Z?

Bill

spdislife

I'll be there the weekend before with the RTR region of PCA. We missed the event last year due to the repave and I'm chomping at the bit to get back

05dsom

thanks for the review...i am there May 30-31 and June 8-9 with PCA.

Dan H.

Can't wait to go there with PCA June 17-19!

TKOGTO

Last year, the sealant up thru the esses was atrocious and T9 has been awful for several years. Track desperately needed repave so thrilled it has been done. Will have to ID a ton of new reference points though. I used the inside, outside or middle of the concrete as a reference point in every turn it was in place. Also, there was a thin line of sealant about 2 car widths off the inside of the carousel that was a perfect guide for the line thru the beginning part of that sweeper. It took many attempts to get the exact position relative to that line I needed to get back to power so I would be ~ 30% - 40% throttle at the apex. I am not making the pilgrimage until June 6 + 7 with BMW Patroon so for those going before then, figure that out and let me know.

Terry

kmagvette

Bill, the C5Z is still running strong, however the diff just started to whine, sounds like a turbo charger now, so just a matter of time before that thing goes. Sucks because I had the engine/drivetrain out over the winter and did a lot of heat shielding in addition to the clutch and torque tube rebuild...guess I'll have to take some more of that apart again.

Hope you get up to WGI again, it would be worth the trip.

apex26

Just spent 2 days at Watkins Glen, including a track walk. The biggest change seems to be the aggregate itself--it is very dense with few cracks, holes, etc. It is also is very smooth. A shoe slid across the surface does not catch on rough pebbles sticking up with jagged edges...there aren't any. It's so dense maybe twice the actual tire surface is touching the tire. Maybe that's why the grip is so much higher. There are some square areas where they shaved the surface to remove high spots, but the pavement is small ridges with rough tops--one can imagine those areas won't age so well with ice busting up the ridges, but maybe that's the plan. You will brake later, get on gas sooner, and corner faster. No bumps to speak of, and the transition out of the boot at turn 9 onto the NASCAR straight is amazingly smooth. It rained, and water does stand on the track, and there is a slight crown on the back straight so be careful tucking back left after a pass. Speedy dry, a coke, track rental, and everything else is more expensive, but in all fairness probably they got reassessed and got slammed with much higher local taxes, welcome to NY. All in all, a blast to drive on. I was on 305 Nitto nto1's and feel and control were awesome. They predict every track record will fall.

truth.b

Does anyone have any driving footage post repave? I'll be racing there for the first time with ChumpCar at the end of May.

BierGut

If you've never driven the Glen any of the old videos will show you the line... There are ZERO changes to the track dimensions. The course is the same except the entire surface is black & (currently) smooth. If someone use to use concrete spots as some type of marker now is your time to correct that habit and look up further down the track.

Anyone who drove the track before will find the place the same -- no worries.

TKOGTO

Exactly the type of info we're looking for. Keep it coming.

apex26

I did forget one thing...the old curbing was not all that upsetting, but NASA was saying stay off the new curbing. It is much more aggressive--tall humps spaced so that it disrupts the car. It looks like the curbing on the infield at Pocono, but painted. The exception is the bus stop, which is a different kind of curbing--more like small ramps that the tire goes up then drops onto the next ramp. We bounded over those with no problem, but the others are not so forgiving--you lose a lot of grip, and lots of vibration.

Bill Dearborn

Agree on the concrete. What will be interesting is if the banking in some of the turns has changed. The inside of the carousel (right next to the painted line was banked more than the track one car width further out. If you tucked into the line as soon as the car could turn in a nice arc you could ride the line around the carousel going a shorter distance at a higher speed and quickly running past people one lane out. Same goes for the banking in Turn 6 at the bottom of the hill. It was banked more one car width in from the edge than the lane right at the edge (you could be faster by not using all of the track).

Bill