Gingerman repaved

I did a few laps (in a car), on the new pavement. No seams, no bumps, consistent surface. Grip was good, but car had more drift to it (good consistent slide under heavy corner loads). Ran the short coarse. Old pavement on back straight only, and majority of last turn, everywhere else new. New section added a couple years ago still in VERY good shape. No weird transitions (that I can tell). Could use Eddie helping with air fence in last turn and covering culvert in back....I'm thinking THIS MI track management would be receptive to the idea. I suggest getting there to ride....all ok now (no seams or bumps).

 

Someone posted drone footage on FB. it looks good. I did see a section that still had seams, but that might be pit enterance

 

Hopefully it's all like the section that was added a few years ago, that stuff was awesome! Hope they continue the plan to make it safe backwards as well I had a picture of the layout for that but cant find it. They have a video on FB...

 

The stop and go sections are my least favorite on the TZ, but the back section that includes the newest turn is pretty sweet. New pavement will be nice.

 

The only section I see that still has seams is the short course crossover. The last time I did a track day there we used the full course and I would hope a WERA event would do the same.

I thought I heard here, they were going to move that guard rail back at the last turn, by moving the pit-in road back a bit. That seems like a relatively easy fix, but I'm not the one paying for it.

Now let me make my case for why WERA has to make this part of the 2016 NC region schedule.

1. We lost Nelson this year
Most of us talked about how that track would be great if only the ownership could afford to put money into a repave and pushing back the tire barriers in spots (not a small cost). Now we have a local track with a good layout and plenty of runoff (in most spots) that has put money into the track to deal with the only complaint I could find (the seams). We, through WERA, should support that type of behavior

2. May 2015 Grattan race showed what attendance could be like given good weather conditions
Sean has stated that attendance the last time was too low. As Eddie mentioned, it might take a few events to build the attendance. In this case I would think the publicity from the repave might offset some of the initial event building whoas. Everyone wants to ride a newly paved track right? This probability, along with the showing at Grattan earlier this year, IMHO, makes the time right for a retry

3. Opportunity to build WERA participation from another population dense area (Chicago)
With 2 rounds at Grattan. This gives an additional track in close proximity to Chicago to build the NC region from. It's been a while, but the last time I went to Gingerman, there seemed to be more Illinois than Michigan plates. I don't think Grattan, which isn't all that much further, gets nearly as much as Gingerman. Adding Gingerman as a round could help bring those people a bit further out to Grattan. Who knows, stack Gingerman with enough normal NC Grattan people to make it profitable early, then add Blackhawk back and maybe you get a legitimate reason for those people to decide to run WERA. Add in the possibility of NCM in future years, which could be the Barber of the NC region and the 2 farthest NC tracks (NCM & PIRC) would be the ones that are worth driving long distances for.

4. Most importantly because Eddie said so

5. And lastly pretty please with sugar on top

 

They have drone footage of the repave on their facebook (gingerman raceway)... looks pretty good.

 

Mongo hates BHF, claims not enough people show up.

 

BHF isn't worth going to again, IMO.

 

Can't wait to ride it. The soonest I will be able to get there is the end of July on that Friday night STT has open track.

 

Love that track. Even when it had all its "bumps and seams"
I'll do whatever it takes to get to a race there next year

 

So it's a go then right?

Oh and you can add this new track to the mix

 

Layout may be a bit wonky. However a 600sf unit is only 125k. Its 15x38 so we can easily fit 12 bikes in there... 10k each

Edit:

Better yet, we get 24 guys, form a corporation and purchase the garage through that.. we can have our own race 5k each and ride when we want.

 

A car guy who's involved in the development called and wanted us to come check it out. His first words were, "there isn't enough runoff for bikes" ..

 

Perhaps we can have the "Detroit Grom Prix" there

 

Now that's an idea .. lol.

 

Maybe I imagined it, but did anyone else see on the facttoobs that Gingerman was moving the guardrail back in the last turn?

Seems like all possible gripes are gone.

Book it Mongo

 

The pics on FB did show it being moving. I couldn't tell by how much though. Love that track!