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Posted

I'm in Illinois so this weekend's F1/NASCAR double booking doesn't really affect me, but next year, IndyCar is at RoadAmerica the same weekend that NASCAR is at Chicago, so we're skipping NASCAR this year (at least in Chicago) because camping at RoadAmerica is one of the best things ever. 

In further stupidity, both races are on Father's Day - not sure how that's a winning idea for many families where not everyone is interested in motorsports... 

------

Jenny Butts and Honda in NASCAR?! 

https://www.motorsport.com/nascar-cup/news/tony-stewart-jenson-button-interest-honda/4590220/

Posted
When he gets bitchy, he finishes P1.


Is it that or does he say things like this when he knows he has the best car by far? You know, trying to make it seem like he had a tougher task than what he really had to endure.
Posted

COTA obviously must have done geological studies of the soil at the site, so the characteristics of that black clay can't have been a surprise. Was the subsurface soil stabilization and  track construction and engineering done properly, or did they skimp on it like SH130 did?

Why didn't they pick a site somewhere west of I-35, where there is actually bedrock?

 

Posted
4 hours ago, Paper_jam said:

COTA obviously must have done geological studies of the soil at the site, so the characteristics of that black clay can't have been a surprise. Was the subsurface soil stabilization and  track construction and engineering done properly, or did they skimp on it like SH130 did?

Why didn't they pick a site somewhere west of I-35, where there is actually bedrock?

 

130 is smooth as glass compared to COTA. Yep, they knew what the soil was like, and they created an engineering solution for it. It may not have been enough, and I've also heard there was some corner cutting, fwiw.

F1 had a mandate that new circuits be located within (iirc) 8 miles of an international airport, so no west side. And of course, land on the west side is more expensive. 

Posted
5 hours ago, Updawg said:

Out here right now. The hill for turn 1 is super bumpy, especially coming out of the pit. Sitting at 15 and it seems ok. Vintage cars were awesome

Yeah the stadium section seems to be just about the only part of the circuit that hasn't been affected much. And maybe T6-8.

Posted (edited)

At COTA todayI heard from Jennie Gow that George Russell said the track 'has moved as much as half a meter' since last year, and that the teams have personnel 'busy mapping the surface changes'.

The Sky guys are saying it's moved 1.5 M since 2012, and apparently it's moved a lot just in the last two months.

Edited by wood
  • Like 1
Posted
17 minutes ago, skittlebrau said:

Heard from the person who went on our tickets today that they weren’t checking tickets at all. Which seems typical. This may belong in the “COTA seems like it sucks” thread.

They never checked my 3-day wristband at all last year. I had it tucked into my sleeve on entry every day & was never once asked for a ticket. Walked right in. Heard lots of folks talking about the same thing. What I saw was that if they saw someone with a ticket or a lanyard pass, they'd make sure to scan that, but if they didn't see anything and the person didn't hand them a ticket, they didn't say shit. That made me suspect they were just counting all 3-day wristbands sold as 3 days of attendance, since a 3-day wristband is the cheapest way to see any of the concerts. Then I noticed that there's no chip or number or barcode or anything at all on the wristband to scan, count, identify, or timestamp it. So COTA actually has zero idea if, how many days, or at what times a large portion of their crowd (3-day GA) actually shows up at the track. I later confirmed by looking at their MERP papers that they are indeed counting each 3-day wristband as 3 days of attendance, regardless of the fact that they have no way of knowing how many days the bearers of those wristbands actually attend, or whether they ever attend during a race session at all.

Posted (edited)
Quote

A thing that has gotten worse over the years, according to Max: “The first corner is now a meter-and-a-half lower than when the track was built, so that’s an indication of how much movement there is. You see, I don’t think there is anything wrong having some bumps. That’s all in the game, especially on street circuits.” The situation is somewhat different this weekend: “You’re almost airborne when braking for Turn one. Turn two is flatout, but even there you’re also almost off the ground. Negotiating Turn nine there is also an enormous bump, where you will hit the limiter if you don’t shift gear on time. These are things we need to look at. It’s actually too extreme.”

My 15 y.o. and I were out at 9 yesterday shooting some pics and we saw exactly what Max was talking about out there. When they hit that  bump after T9, the bottoms of the cars were hitting hard and the rev limiter was kicking in. It sounded really nasty. This is similar to what the MotoGP guys have been complaining about on the back straight. The last time I drove out there, the T1 braking zone was jarring, at best, but it looks worse now. Coming down from T1 to T2 was a real test of commitment, as the bumps made the tail end step out repeatedly.

Judging from the onboards and video from practice, it's all worse. A lot worse.

Edited by wood
Posted (edited)

Lando sings his first report of the day: "I'm moving up and down side to side like a roller coaster" lol.

That side-to-side motion at COTA is notable. I think most get the impression that these are all just ripples that extend all the way across the track and you just feel a bump as you go over them. The bumps are actually in the middle, then on the left or right, or wherever, and they push the car left and right as you go along, esp heavily when you encounter them in braking and traction zones.

Edited by wood
  • Like 2
Posted

They checked ticket yesterday at the entrance by the go karts. If you are going to try just go to a busy entrance.

I wonder how cheap they are outside the gates or on StubHub /ticket city in the morning

Posted

Faster than they ever have which is proving the bumps aren’t a big deal.  They do have wider tires now though and I don’t recall the temperature last year but I bet it was warmer which would hurt the times.  But, in reality, yes, the track has bumps.  Almost all of them do.  You deal with it.  

Posted
6 hours ago, Hawndoh said:

The bumps are visibly bad on the onboard camera shots. 

It's like a Bourne movie shakey camera. 

Yeah, just watch the Grosjean streamable leading up to his crash. Unreal. No wonder he lost it.

Posted (edited)
5 hours ago, Atxracer said:

Faster than they ever have which is proving the bumps aren’t a big deal.  They do have wider tires now though and I don’t recall the temperature last year but I bet it was warmer which would hurt the times.  But, in reality, yes, the track has bumps.  Almost all of them do.  You deal with it.  

Except here we have multiple drivers saying this is the bumpiest track they've ever experienced. I remember a couple years ago when you tried to rubbish my bump talk then, saying iirc that it wasn't even bumpy, which it was. Like many of them have said, some bumps on a track doesn't make a bad track. Bumps everywhere, and massive bumps like these ... are bad.

Re: setting a lap record ... So what? It doesn't prove shit except this year they went quicker on a bumpy AF track than they did last year on a somewhat less bumpy AF track. They set lap records almost every year, and the track was bumpy as hell last year too. It got bumpier since then, but the cars also got faster since then. Oh, and pretty much not enforcing track limits at all probably helps the time a bit as well.

Edited by wood
  • Like 2
Posted
3 hours ago, The Tres Leches said:

COTA announced that they are sold out for tomorrow.

Cheapest GA wristbands on stubhub are $246 before fees.

Wait ... so they're saying they 'sold out' of GA wristbands? LOL. They could put half a million people in there if they utilized their GA space.

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