Dominion Raceway

Yeah - most of the track day Orgs have pulled out from Dominion. From that video it is clear why. That place looks significantly worse from a safety standpoint than the even the Shenandoah circuit. Shenny is OK for track days, as I just take it easy on the couple of the iffy corners, but way too much of Dominion looks worse than iffy. Really sucks that I will not have another close by track for track days.

 

I wonder if it is possible to have motorcycle racing organizations contact these tracks when they first start on them. That way the safety issues can be addressed before construction ever starts. It seems like a little time investment with the track owners in the beginning would be very helpful with getting new tracks on the schedule.

 

Could you imagine going down and having to jump a wall to get off the racing surface?!

 

A lot of orgs have been there as part of the developing process (N2, EvolveGT, TPM, etc). Apparently, Dominion is about as receptive as a brick, because they didn't listen to anyone. I made several visits while the track was in progress, and cringed each time I saw turn 1-4. A damn shame, because the actual layout of the track is badass.

 

That's really annoying that the tracks don't even care to have help.

Yea the layout looks great, but it sucks they won't listen. It's their loss. It's seems odd to me that with so many tracks struggling to pay the bills, a new track would limit its capabilities.


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Unless Summit doesn't keep up with their online calendar, there's a lot of empty days during the week. Do races during the work week just not produce enough racers? I would think that everyday they don't run an event, they are losing money. So why wouldn't they be open to a discounted weekday rate?

 

Most folks are on the 9-5.

 

I guess. I suppose I know a lot of folks that take either Friday or Monday off for a weekend event anyways. I know I am one of them.

 

Summit is full during the week with alphabet soup government agencies, they are the ones keeping Summit in business, racing and track day orgs are just icing on the cake.

As far as Dominion is concerned I am one of a select few that have actually ridden a motorcycle around the track and there is no conceivable way that track can be made safe for motorcycles. If you removed the concrete retaining walls from 1-4 then you would just fall off a cliff if you crash, the inside of T1-4 is a retaining pond with a 20ft. drop, there are light poles and fire hydrants 15ft from the track surface in the fastest section of the track...We have also made multiple suggestions to the owners of the track and all fell on dead ears. Unfortunately they are NASCAR/ circle track people and just don't have any understanding of road course safety for motorcycles or cars. It is very unfortunate as this track is in close proximity to DC/MD/VA/NC and could easily draw large crowds.

 

I did not turn a wheel on the track but I walked it quite a few times, both before and after they laid down pavement and I agree with your assessment 100%. So many people were concerned about the underpass. I told them if you saw the track in person, that underpass would be the last of your concerns.

I just find it hard to swallow that they spent so much money on the construction of the road course, and it's the biggest failure there. There is definitely a NASCAR/circle track crowd there, but if they just wanted to do that shit, they could have saved a fuck ton of money by just making their toilet bowl circle track and called it good.