I was there... I’m pretty sure during that twilight session at least 3 people out of 12 total got caught out... Mark was very clear about being careful around those wet spots... My concern is that usually when you go out on a new hot rubber you can scrub it within a few corners and be good to go... I learned that new tires at Mid-o in less than perfect condition is a suicide.
For sure. However, doing that sh!t for years and then showing up to Road Atlanta and going 100% in the first session without any of that sh!t, is downright invigorating. It's not throwback Thursday yet, but I remember doing 34's in the first morning session at Mid-O back in the day and thinking how stupid I was. But hey, the other top guys were doing it. No other choice.
Yep. Grip was garbage on Friday until the afternoon and it was hot as balls and sunny. It took hours to cook that track enough to bite down. Session 2 I was still sliding around the joint at 11am. I guess I've been spoiled by the southern tracks now, once I realized Mid-O wasn't the norm, I don't like it anymore. I can get up and do an 8:30 session at Road Atlanta and go 100%, no problem. Seems like a pretty reasonable expectation.
Right - you could substitute "basically any other track in the country" for "southern tracks" and the statement holds up. I haven't been to Pitt since 2017 so it wasn't in my mind's shortlist. Back then it had the opposite problem... which was just fine by me.
They bought it as part of the entire deal getting ALMS along with Sebring from Doc Panoz. With the money they're investing in the new tower they have no intention of it being bulldozed any time soon.
Just hold on for a bit - probably until next week (Emily is doing Roebling and we are taking the weekend off). We'll be handling the processing, if we need emails or the like I'll post up about it but for now no need.
Repave happened not too long ago. Issue is partially aggregate (think old Summit) and mostly the sealer.
All of us should make a call to these tracks with poor surfaces and complain. May not help, but can`t hurt. Sean and Evelyne are in the middle trying to give us a quality race, and we should support them. Give them a break about the refunds, they have already lost money. They always look out for us and do a great job. My .02.
It does help having Mark there working for the car and bike schools. Not sure how much but yeah, they absolutely know they have major surface issues. Supposedly a repave is in the works but no clue on seriousness or time frame.
The slick surface in all but ideal weather is not a fabrication. I did a TD there and literally 1 rider went out in the first session, because it was raining. He spun the rear badly on the front straight on his first lap. I heard him short-shift on the next lap, and he still spun the rear and almost crashed on his second pass down the start/finish straight. He crashed at the end of the back straight on that lap. One coach (Eric Monger?) went out on a supermoto with street tires, to prove it could be done. I don’t think he had any fun though. The rumor used to be that the slick sealer was intentional, to prevent the Le Mons style cars with crazy downforce from pulling the pavement. If that’s true, it seems to have worked, but at what cost?
My uncle was part of the crew that resurfaced the place back in 1990. He told me the compound they used was slicker than they have used anywhere else and they were testing it at Mid-O. And yes, their intentions were to prevent the downforce of the cars from pulling around the pavement.