NVR2L8

Well, I just got back from the Redline Time Attack at the Nashville Superspeedway, and I can only say one thing:

NEVER AGAIN !!!

First, I have nothing bad to say about the folks at Redline. They were pleasant and seemed to be well organized.

I went to this event mainly because it was only an hour away and I wanted to see for myself what it was like to drive on a "Roval", so I could compare it to a traditional road course.

The course used the front and back straights on the oval track, with a few infield "twisties". The transition from the oval to the road course was 4 times per lap, and it was terrible. I had to completely alter my driving line to keep from scraping. There was no way to get any rhythm. The other six turns were just like a flat "service road" in the infield, no camber, no elevation change, absolutely zero character!

The course was, for the most part, just laid out with cones, very poor curbing, inadequate runoff room, and on and on. There was even a water hydrant about two feet from the apex of one of the turns (at least they warned us about it!).

I ran my first session (30 minutes), went in for a cool down, thought to myself, "What in the heck am I doing here?", then loaded up my stuff and headed for home.

One cool thing about the event. There were about 50 back to back open garages that were free. Almost everyone got their own garage to park in between sessions. Very nice amenity.

I wonder if anyone has ever driven on a "Roval" that they liked.

As for me, NEVER AGAIN!!!

BEZ06

WOW!!! That's too bad.

I've run HPDEs at Daytona, but maybe it's set up better as a road course because they run the Rolex 24 there - and I LOVE it!!!

Here's a video of running at Daytona:



You can see that the curbing is great and although there's no camber (except for the banking!!!) and the twisty part of the course isn't real technical, I find it a really fun track.

There's a chicane on the back straight to slow the non-NASCAR cars down before heading up onto the second part of banking, it's a little bumpy up on the banked sections, but the transitions are smooth - even at above 150.

Sorry you didn't have a good experience, but come on down to Daytona in December (Dec 4-5-6 this year). I think you'd have a blast!!!

Bob

cgh1

I like all race tracks, so take that into consideration; but...

You should come to Lowes in Charlotte sometime - for a roval, it's quite good with a little elevation change and a pretty challenging infield course (as roval style short road courses go.) Also, Rockingham is fun, albeit the interior course is relatively flat. As already stated, Daytona is excellent, as is Homestead and many others.

I too am sorry you didn't like it. The banking to interior course transition is usually a bi dramatic at any roval. I'm surprised you didn't give it more than just 30 minutes consideration... Again, sorry you had such an experience (or should I say non-experience?)

trackboss

I've driven las vegas and california speedway rovals. There is always abrupt transition from road course to roval. Enough that it can break cars. California speedway is the best I've see in that coming off the oval there is a very hard left prior and its on the straight portion so the car is slowed down way before going in and its also basically flat. Going on is a different story, but it can be done pretty smoothly and gradually.

AU N EGL

Give me some asphalt and a few orange cones, and I will have fun one way or another.

NVR2L8

You guys are probably right, and I probably should have stayed the whole day, and made the most of it.

I think my problem is that I have gotten spoiled. So far this year, I have driven at Spring Mountain, Road Atlanta, Autobahn, Putnam Park, and VIR.

I think everyone will agree that those tracks are tough acts to follow!

ssdeuce

I ran at Nashville back in May for my first track day. I enjoyed it but two weeks later ran at Putnam and had tons more fun. In the drivers meeting did they not show you where to come onto the oval part of the track? If you do it right it’s not that bad. I wish I knew they were having a track day today I would have gone instead of mowing and taking a nap.

63Corvette

Tws!!!

NVR2L8

No instruction in the intermediate group, not in the driver's meeting, and no first lap lead-follow.

I'm not complaining, but it could have been better. I talked to a guy in a Viper in my run group, and told him I wanted to follow him for a couple of laps, but he was too far ahead of me on the staging grid, and by the time I could get by all the Hondas and Subarus, the session was over. There was even a '71 Chevelle in my group holding up traffic!

I was the only Corvette, sure would have been nice to have some "brethren" there.

ssdeuce

The guy in the Chevelle is cool I talked to him a lot back in May. I ran with the Music city Mustang club and they had good instruction about the entrances to the straits and exits. Was this a track day or time trial event?

NVR2L8

HPDE Saturday
HPDE Sunday morning
Time Trial Sunday afternoon

You can still sign up and run Sunday if you want:

http://www.redlinetimeattack.com/Event/Details/7

ghoffman

Tell me about it! Here is a video that Bert took of his suspension at NHMS.:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/auto...k-at-nhms.html

varkwso

I have run several Rovals - they can all have rough transistions to the infield. The fast line at Rockingham is particularly brutal.

At Nashville I stay off the banking unless forced to run on it.

WBHighwind

Translated to mean Texas World Speedway I take it? Because if thats the case then I would say its an amazingly fun roval that isn't violent on the car at the transition. You can feel the transition, and there is a way that you don't want to hit it, but for the most part I don't feel bad every time I go over the transition. I could see where there are parts of the track where I wouldn't want to move from the banked portion to the flat track. But as illustrated by everyone else thats commenting here, no two tracks are alike and so I think the next on you think about trying wont be like this case.

rfn026

Pocono, Homestead, Daytona. I've never had a bad time at any of them.

If you want tough come on down to Sebring. No garages and hardly any real pavement. The guys from Europe come here once a year just to see if they can break their cars.

Richad Newton
Race Cars 360

drivinhard

I would like to try Daytona. I mean heck, it's daytona

Of the 4 I've been on, Pocono was the "smoothest" on and off the oval, the infield wasn't too bad, no elevation. Lowe's infield I didn't really care for, getting on/off is like driving through a toll booth, rip your mirrors off on the concrete. But the oval @ Lowe's is pretty cool (depending on how much safety equipment you have, in relation to the size of your nads).

The other ones were smaller ovals, and rough. Still better than a day sitting in the office clicking a mouse.

BEZ06

Come on down to Daytona this December 4-5-6. Here's a link to info about the HPDE:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/auto...with-audi.html


It's expensive at $1200 ($600 if you're an instructor) for the 3-day event, but you get a lot of seat time. You should get 4 thirty minute sessions per day for about 6 hours on the track.

Hope to c'ya in December!!!

Bob

davidfarmer

Charlotte is fun......infield is short, but nice camber and (believe it or not) elevation changes. Texas Motor Speedway was fun, as I remember it, but only ran it once (World Challenge 2001).

Chuck, let me know of any Lowes/Charlotte events you hear about. I instructed PCA last year, missed NASA this year, but I haven't heard of any other events. I've emailed the speedway, but they don't even know what an HPDE/DE is???

varkwso

NASA-SE would like to pick up more days there this year.


I am with you there - but I did break my right inner fender at Rockingham from the compresssion....

Jason

I've run about a bajillion laps around Nashville, all in C5's that have been lowered to some extent. If by "rub" you mean the front air dam drags, well, that's just going to happen. It's hinged, it's plastic, and it's cheap.

I've seen a lot of people spin there, and only once did anyone hit the wall, and that was a little tap on the inside of T1. If they'd have gone 2 feet in, they'd have spun up the banking and stopped long before hitting anything. The hardest braking zones all have infinite runoff room, if you can't make the turn, blow the cones and continue around the oval.

There are 3 elevation changes, onto the back straight, into the bustop, and out of the bustop. It's an infield, it's not 6 stories tall like Rd Atl, but they are elevation changes in the middle of a curve that will loop your car if you don't do them right.

There is curbing climbing up the esses to the backstraight, and into and out of the bustop. Where else do you need it?

I run pretty hard there, and while my front air-dam drags, I've never broken anything, nor have any of the other regulars in C5s and C6s.

YMMV