For those who haven't been there, here's a quick and dirty turn-by-turn (all from memory but it's a start) (remember, this is in a LOW horsepower car):
- Fast turn. Brake but turn in fast, using ALL the track on track-out which includes a little of the access road on your right. Don't forget to downshift if your car needs that. I'll post video with but one major problem where I forgot to downshift for this turn at the start and a bunch of other cars kept passing me...
- Kink - flat out!
- There are 2 ways to take this: maintaining speed on the straight, which will mess up turn 4, or setting up for turn 4 by braking a bit sooner. Turn 4 leads to a STEEP downhill, so acceleration comes quickly and I generally opted to brake a bit later and take 4 from the inside.
- This is a good place to remember that shifting slows your car down - I generally stayed in 4th in the Miata because I had gravity-power at that point.
- You want to line up correctly for this, taking a straight line to the outside and not turning-in as late as you would if this were flat, because unless you have a Turbo you'll need to maintain as much momentum as you can leading to the steep uphill.
- Already on the steep uphill, maintain momentum but remember it's easy to drop 2 wheels off on the left doing that, which kind of defeats the purpose. Ask me how I know... Leads to a STEEP uphill that makes any car wish for more power.
- This leads to a series of turns that are too close to be separate but too far to be "esses." This section reminds me a LOT of Mid-Ohio, and at least one of these turns is blind (I believe that's 10). Your line through the turns will depend a lot on tires - street tires take the turns late and get to turn-in on the outside of the track esp. for 7 and 8 as they are pretty sharp turns. Hoosiers can take this faster and probably don't need to get all the way to the outside except for possibly turn 8.
- See "Turn 7" above.
- Higher-speed than 7 or 8, but as 10 and 11 are less-sharp turns, a good turn-in and on the accelerator may pay back for 3 turns in a row.
- I think this one is blind, but much easier than 14 (see below)
- More of a kink, but get to the outside for the 90-degree turn 12 coming up. You should now be on the newly-repaved part of the track again (you left it right after Turn 1) so things might have changed.
- Uphill, 90-degrees. You'll need to brake, even in a Miata
- Kink
- BLIND! This is a good place to teach your student "eyes up" because you can't see track out. I picked a particular tree, and nailed this almost every time allowing me to gain on other cars through the upcoming straight (not that I could always pass them...).
- Kink. I took this flat out.
- Another kink, but you'll be getting on the brakes soon. [note: if racing and in traffic, this is where you need to pick your line for 17-18 to decide on speed with the "ideal" line or passing around the inside. This was the best place for me to pass on the track]
- Very much like Turn 1-2 at Summit Point. Not sure how it will feel with new, hopefully-grippier surface.
- See 17
- Kink into the pit straight.
Here's a video of racing at Pitt Race. As mentioned above, I forgot to downshift for Turn 1 and paid dearly for it (but did okay after that). I'll let him post himself, but one of these cars is Kahlil, who did amazingly well that weekend, especially for a novice racer (cheater car! :twisted:).
This is now one of my favorite tracks. Unfortunately, I won't be there for the DE as I'll be racing at VIR that weekend.
Peter |
