davidfarmer

great time at the new track this weekend, ran counter-clockwise due to some safety issues, ran with and without artificial chicane.

Anyway, I enjoyed it, a lot like Roebling (backward), nice flowing, fluid corners, several very long sweeping corners. Turn one is really a lot of fun, which is unusual for such a slow corner.

anyway, video is uploading and should be available soon. I'll post a link as soon as it's up

BERETTA

Thanks! Can't wait to see it!

davidfarmer

day 2, no chicane http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxDjY_vv45c

day 1, with chicane, later session but my camera was turned http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r2BD1IPLBk

day 1, with chicane, early session http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnwEQfVzh3s

WNDOPDLR

David and I disagreed on this one. I did not like the track at all for our cars and wish I had taken the CRX. NASA did a wonderful job and there was tons of track time (DE only). The facility people were great and happy to have us. Everything is so brand new that it sparkles, but we were there for the track.

Thurs 1,2,3 and 4 are good, but after that the whole thing fell apart for me. It was like driving a skid pad until you got to the front straight. Saturday, with the chicane up, was definitely worse than Sunday.

I think, that a spec Miata or other momentum car would have been fun, it just didn't work for me. There, you have two differing opinions, so go and check it out for yourself.

AU N EGL

Great Videos David.

brkntrxn

Sounds just like Roebling -- you either love it or hate it.

CHJ In Virginia

What was the purpose of the chicane ?? In viewing the other video, I did not see any real safety issue that would cause the folks to cut speeds. This area on the track is the one real straight where you could get some speed. What was the reasoning ??
How were the pit facilities, staging etc. Did it all flow OK ??

beerkat

First off I had a great time visiting with David and Wally and some of the others that came. I enjoyed the track and will go back in September.

This was the first time anyone has driven this track. The track was not made for racing but for vehicles that are driven buy video and GPS. The chicane was to keep the speed down while everyone had a chance to figure out the track.

The paddock was a large gravel area. Grid was done on the road that lead to the track. This place is still unfinish so a lot was done in tha lst week or so to get this event put on. Jim Pantas spent the last 6 months work with NCCAR so we could run there.

They do have some very nice garage area that will have lift and such in the future. One garage will hold several cars at one time. They are going to expand the track to cover about 4 miles with different course options like VIR.

davidfarmer

I think the chicane was there to keep speeds down for the VERY slow turn one hairpin..... which currently has very little runnoff before hitting tires and a huge mound of dirt.

I found turns 1-7 very rewarding, high speed sweepers where flow was very rewarding. You go into one corner early, you pay for it at the next one. My kind of track (for education). Jim Pantas thinks racing there will happen with more infrastructure, but I'd want more track time before taking high risk passes. If you go off track currently, you get stuck in the much, plus there is very little safety equipment.

beerkat

I think that it depends on where you go off at. I drove off twice and was not hindered by soft ground.

WNDOPDLR

And we all know that Kim is THE AUTHORITY of offroading a Vette.

AU N EGL

Opps

cgh1

I like the chicane that was setup - looks cool!
I still have yet to get up there, so I'm relying on videos to get an idea (Thanks David!) It looks quite challenging and like a very good study in rhythm & timing. Get something wrong and suffer the snowball effect.

Again - thanks for sharing David!!

StackTrack

David, thanks so much for those videos... your thoughts on a couple things:

Corner station placement... kinda hard to tell from the video, but it doesn't look like the large carousel was covered too well. Otherwise it looked pretty good.

Safety barriers... It looks like they used double-height armco around the worker stations and coming out of turns 1 & 2... but it looks like the barrier between the carousel and the main straight is only single height?

Overall though, how would you rate the safety of the facility as it sits?

davidfarmer

There is as corner station on the front straight to covers the straight and the carousel/turn 7. I felt perfectly safe driving there, and wasn't concerned for my own safety. The major corner station issue that I had was that they were throwing the checker at turn 4, and the corner station is on the left side, BUT your focus is to the right for the corner, causing lots of missed checkers (one guy ran 4 laps before they had to throw red flags all around the track).

Also, I didn't arrive early enough to walk the track, and you can see the majority of the track from the single viewing area, so I can't comment on the safety of the stations themselves. I did notice they seemed to be single layered (4x4 posts with a single wrap of aluminum etc), but based on our limited time, they are not in likely impact areas. This is something that only time can tell us.

Short-Throw

Great demonstration of smoothness David!

davidfarmer

"smooth" is my middle name......

Racing crappy cars in the rain early in my "career" gave me that trait, if nothing else!

beerkat

beerkat

I ask jim about that corner station being on the wrong side of the track and he agreed that it was. They placed it there any way because of some of the future track layouts.

Hazman

Fun track! I agree with David 1-7 flow well and are a blast. In the Corvette you could run in third and just lift a little to slow or rotate as needed and no brakes at all. You do have to brake at 6 before going into 7 the big right hand sweeper then it is again throttle steering all the way to 11 where you have to brake. We tried several different lines through 11 and I think that there is just no pefect line. It maybe a mind game thing since up to there all the corners do have a nice smooth rythem to them. Any way it is one of those corners where you just have to give up, slow down and setup for 12. If you do that you can be in fourth just past the exit of 12 and with no chicane fifth if you really want to test your brakes at one! Very similar to Roebling in some ways but more turns and alot of fun.