I agree! Take it up with Alan Wilson, the designer of the vast majority of new
road courses. Cant help but wonder what he has as his design criteria.
Mike Jackson
-----Original Message-----
>From: "Jack W. Drews" <vinttr4@geneseo.net>
>Sent: Jul 11, 2006 9:49 AM
>To: fot@autox.team.net
>Subject: [FOT] new race track design
>
>Some personal musings, just for a discussion starter:
>
>I am really pleased to see the number of new tracks that have opened
>in the USA in the last couple of years.
>
>At the same time, I am genuinely disappointed at the layout of most
>of them. From a driver's standpoint, a good track needs several
>things to be fun and challenging. These include straights where you
>can go fast plus corners that are challenging. But a road course also
>needs to have more than one place in its two mile length where safe
>passing is possible.
>
>It seems to me that in our racing, almost no passing occurs in a
>stretch of road that is a continuous sequence of relatively tight
>connected corners. Fun to drive, but not fun to race. There is a
>distinction between the two. Most of these new tracks have one
>straight and then the rest of the real estate is filled with
>continuously connected corners. Examples are Mid America at Council
>Bluffs, Gingerman to a degree, and nearly all of the private club tracks.
>
>Most older tracks that I can think of had multiple passing
>opportunities. Think of Road America, Watkins Glen, and VIR as
>examples. Granted, these are all bigger tracks where it is easier to
>design what I'm talking about, and the new ones are much shorter.
>However, most of the older shorter tracks, that are about two miles
>in length, have multiple passing opportunities too -- like Mosport,
>Grattan, Lime Rock, Willow Springs, Portland, Blackhawk, and more.
>
>Not that we can do anything about it. Just an observation.
>
>
>uncle jack
>
>
>
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