Who was there last weekend? We noticed a lot of activity on the way back from Barber on Sunday and stopped and watched for a while. Saw a couple racers that were at Barber earlier in the weekend. SCCA autocross in the east lot and a shitload of bikes on the track. Not very spectator friendly, but track looks pretty fast and flowy from what we could see. Grassy hills west of track would be great for viewing but appeared to be inaccessable.
NCM I went and the track was outstanding! there are few spot that could cause issues, but over all very fun track. tire wwear was great, downfall no power and restrooms. They did have a food vendor. we did share the paddock with the auto-crossfolks but they was over seeing what we had going on. The staff was very nice as well as MCRA good crew.
I was there Sunday. Track is a lot of fun. Pavement is great. There are a lot of walls. They ran a modified grand full. They basically cut out the big dip at the end of the lap and ran you right back onto the main straight. So they cut out 19,20,21,22 and 23. I think they made the right decision in track layout. There are a lot of high speed corners and some fun elevation changes. The kink at 1A is a little dangerous. If you tuck the front it is a very good possibility that you or the bike are going to go sliding back into traffic on the back side of the kink. Turn 15 is a little kink over a rise. At full throttle the front end comes up pretty good and you end up carrying it a long way. Good photo op and lots of fun! 2,6, and 10 are very slow corners, think bus stop. Turn 7 is a fun little downhill corner which is easy to carry a little extra speed into making you run wide on the exit of 8. Turn 12 to 16 is a blast. Super fast and a couple elevation changes. Going down the front stretch the race line is about 3 feet off the wall. That is a little spooky but maybe it's just me. I have some video I took during one of the races. Click the photo for the video:
we stood behind that wall and watched for a bit- cool for spectators to get a sense of the speed being that close. As a racer, the wall bothers me much less than armco lining a track. What I couldn't see from where we were is the potential to hit the wall at a more perpendicular angle (like coming onto straight). The tire pile "chicane" that you would go thru if you blew T1 looked a bit dogdy- plenty of room to slow down if you overshot, but if 2 or more bikes got together I could see bikes sliding into the tires.
There is a LOT of armco. I basically lines the whole track. I would have to walk it to get a really good feel for how much run off there really is.
I think airfence takes care of any areas where you have an incident on track and slide off of it. What would be dangerous are those times where someone gets spooked and goes flying off the track still on 2 wheels. Missing braking zones seemed like it would be ok with the gravel traps, but mid-corner you do have some very close wall. I liked the chicane at the end of the straight. The tire walls inside the chicane probably need to come out further though to stop bikes crossing back onto track as mentioned earlier. Turns 2 - 9 are super fun, I loved that part and got comfortable there pretty quick. Turn 10 is slow and awkward. I never really felt happy going through there. I think there could be some accidents there as people try to make passes. You can get ahead of someone easily enough taking an inside line but then you'll be going 5mph trying to make it around the inside. I had a few near t-bones navigating through there as people took different lines. Turn 12 got a few people, the air-fence saved them. It's tighter than it looks, and should be fine for racers, but a novice can get spooked and ride straight into the air fence there. Turn 15, definitely makes the bike light. I wonder if this might turn into a jump given a proper Superbike and the insanity to use it. I always eased off the throttle there, deep into 5th gear on my ZX-10R. Turns 16 - end, flow pretty well. The walls are closer there, but speeds are slower as well. I think air-fence and tire walls are sufficient for there. Finally, the straight is spectacular. I love the long straights like this, gives the ZX-10R some road to eat Definitely needed some closer to stock gearing for this. Hit 165mph on the ZX-10R with plenty more to go, had I not had the gearing setup for Barber. I got some tearing on my rear tire, so it's different than Barber somehow. I was so tired I didn't even look into it, but what was working perfectly at Barber was not at this track. Of course, it could just be the sheer speed difference. A lot more time spent at full throttle here. All in all, I love it. If WERA hosts an event here, I'll be signing up. I think they'll be improving it, it seems like they had good funding and plenty of people renting the track.
I rode there all day yesterday.... I have to say this will be one the best tracks the East when complete.. The Armco will be moved this winter per Management.. Also hay bails and Airfence doubled.. They plan on a full Kart schedule in 2015 so the full course will need to be good for them as well.. The track is simply bad ass and smooth as a baby's ass... I had a new set of slicks on in the AM (Monday) and after 12-30 min sessions (shared my bike) my tires look hardly used... Pulling in there Sunday afternoon made me think of what every track should have..... A shit ton of people....The Autocross was packed.. they had Legends cars, shifter Karts to friggin Pick up trucks.. There were tons of people there and people were coming and going all day. The bikes were partioned off in the Pits and the Car guys had ther back lot behind the start of the Auto Cross... Speaking with Management there yesterday they mentioned that the Tower will be done by June as well as garages to rent for storage of vehicles. Power which already had conduit layed and Armco modifications will be done between December and Feb since that will be the down time for the track.. KMAN above described it to the T track wise...With the exception of Pit in..... Its kind like Pit out at CMP.... Just screwed up.... I would like to see that changed.... its definietly possible...
In my speaking with track management last Monday, armco WILL be moved over the winter and they are trying to get a handle on how to budget for soft barriers where armco can't be moved, or not moved enough. After we were done on Monday I spent a good bit of time on the scooter with a clipboard and trackmap going from turn to turn making my wish list. It's going to take a bit of time for them to get it sorted (and build some bathrooms in the paddock!!!) but I am confident they will do it. t
Personally, I loved the track. With some work on safety and completion of paddock and spectator accommodations, it will definitely be a favorite. The track is described pretty well above so I'll touch on some other topics. There is some "safe" run off, I tested the run-off 4 times in 2 races which is probably more times off track that weekend than in my last 2 years combined. Curbing is not real slick...thankfully! Pavement was so smooth I initially thought I had lost a knee slider. Tires looked great, but my right sides show significantly more wear than the lefts after 2 days of track sessions and 2 GT races. Also, most of the fast guys showed evidence of light hot tear on the right side front only regardless of tire brand. It was weird becauase I never show tearing like that. You do spend a lot of time on the right side in sweepers at 100-135 mph. The concession vendor had great pulled pork. Oh and they had reasonably priced 93 octane on site. There were some complaints from the neighbors about high pitched motorcycle noises. I took my trusty SPL meter I had brought along for generator testing and measured only 68db max at the nearest house off property. Passing trucks pegged the meter at close to 80db. Only mention that because it's possible some kind of noise restrictions could be implemented.
