It's official, Summit Point has been re-paved. All of those jarring, thudding, unsettling places have been smoothed over. It is like a completely new track.

On the first session today, I found the track to be very slippery. So slippery, I changed my, barely broken in, 34 heat cycle Hoosiers that gave me my best lap time last week of 1.218, to a new set of Hoosiers. Even with that for various reasons I was pretty slow today.

Sideways was there with his Ford GT student and I am sure he will chime in some time. Also a few other 'vettes were in attendance. The course did get faster as the day wore on, so I expect after the NASA weekend it will be fine.

With the repaving, we did lose a few landmarks and, most disconcerting to me, the painted track out on turn 3 has been removed. The pavement know ends right at the gravel pit-yikes-makes me a little cautious. But I am sure they will either re-paint it or I will get used to it.

Also, all of the concrete patches have been paved over-that surprised me as I was told they would stay-somehow I think they will resurface-not literally!

Anyway, for those of you who hated the bumps, rest assured the course is now smooth and with a little more rubber being laid down, will be fast.

Enjoy, Geoff

 

All right -- It's about time they spent some $ on the track. Can't wait to run my next event there. Thanks for the update and first hand report.

 

Great news about the repaving. Unfortunately I won't be able to get there until next spring.

 

It was nice to meet you, Geoff. As for the track, the concrete patch was not something I missed-- I actually had a much more productive day then before. There are plenty of other visual landmarks, we'll just have to be more creative.

You are going on Nov.16 too right? See you then.

Andy

 

Good meeting you also Andy. I will be there Nov 16th-see you then!

Geoff

 

I would like to hear what Randy has to say about summit aswell

 

Dunno about Randy but I really liked it. I had memorized landmarks that you can't pave over and it worked very well for me. I didn't find any tar on the car or evidence of rock chips. There were some pebbles from someone going off track on Friday--didn't get cleaned up for Saturday--too bad.

Overall I think a lot more people will be signing up to run at Summit--NASA will be hard to book from here on out.

 

I loved summit before with the bad pavement, I cant wait to try out the new surface.

 

I have been doing track events at SP now for 10 years plus-probably 40odd track days. I have always thought that the track had a good layout but the surface has ALWAYS been terrrible. Whether my M3 was hopping through turn one or trying to avoid the bottomed out jolt from the concrete patch that felt like an uppercut at the entrance to turn 5 etc. etc. , and especially after experiencing VIR and Mid Ohio (freshly paved) I always knew it could be better.

Well, now it is. Yes, overall grip is down, and many of the track imperfections that were reference points are gone, some turns lost some good camber and there was alot of loose dirt and crap all over the track but to me the effect of the smooth, new pavement had on the way I could drive the course FAR outweighed the changes.

First, good news for Vette owners, it is now even more of a horsepower track. The Z was in it's element. The smooth, consistant surface gave me more confidence in getting on the gas sooner in turns, braking later, steering with the throttle, and just generally sliding the car anywhere I wanted to. Turns 1, 5, the whole carosel are just fun as hell.

Second, much of the track is now substantially wider, allowing you to try different lines, avoid other traffic, etc.

Third, with the smooth surface I was able to concentrate more on lines, throttle position, braking etc. simply because the car was much "quieter" not jumping, wiggiling and moving all around like on the old surface-much more fun.

The two guys that I showed up with both had prior SP experience and both said they liked it much better also.

Geoff, it was great meeting you, your car looked good out there.

Nando see you up there soon!

All in all a great event, Summit Point just got alot more fun!

Randy

 

Thanks Randy, are you instructing in Nov

 

I was told that asphault optimally needs several months to cure. I have heard even though they have fast curing compounds, for a few months the actual oil in the ashpalt slowly makes it's way to the surface before finally drying and washing away after several months of weather. I wonder if this isn't what you felt?

They are building Thunderbolt in SJ and for this reason, they are allowing 5-6 months for the course to cure before allowing a single car on the track.

 

It felt pretty grippy to me, I was driving a 100 HP momentum car though. I think they did a great job, now if they add new dragons teeth at the edges, even better.

 

I was at SP this weekend with the Corvette "over the hill" guys and we had a great time on the new pavement. Seemed a little slick Saturday morning, but as the day wore on grip seemed to get better. All the holes and bumps are gone. And you can now take a much wider line entering turn 5 with the change in both the width and pavement there and easily pick up 2 car lengths entering the short straight to 6. It works well in HPDE's, but would leave the inside door open in the race environment.

Probably the only disconcerting thing was the absence of the old familiar marks on the track. But, after a couple of sessions, it didn't seem like a big deal. The one thing that was a pain in the rear end was all the damn dust that kept getting kicked up from the dirt that was laid along the edges of the new pavement. There were some corners where you couldn't see a thing because a car had gotten two wheels off and just smoked the place up.

Track was certainly very smooth and the NASA racing groups were putting up 2 to 3 second faster laps than on the old pavement. Should be great until the pavement starts getting torn up where it's laying overtop of the concrete!

It's a great improvement and everyone should like it.

 

I have only run at SP once and I really liked it, good to hear that they are taking care of it. How much did the repaving cost? I hope the Lime Rock does the same, and actually builds a real bathroom as well.