I've been given a late invite to drive a Lemons race at this track. The price is reasonable but I'll have to take several days off work and spend money on gas or plane tickets. If this was VIR or Laguna Seca, I wouldn't be making this post. But I'm not so sure about NCM track. Anybody have some good input?
It’s a fun track to drive. It doubles back on itself quite a bit, so you are almost constantly in a turn. I would race there again, given a chance. We wore out a left front (Bridgestone Rival) in 8 hours on Saturday, but we won our class.
I was this close but it was rented for the day:
I think it was $45 for 3 or 5 "faster than highway speed" laps. I probably would have been black flagged at lap 2 for going faster than faster than highway speeds. Did not get the chance sadly.
I raced it in a Formula Ford at the first (and possibly only) SCCA race there several years ago. I really enjoyed the track itself. We ran the longest configuration, and it was cool. When I saw how the track is stuffed into a relatively small rectangular space, I was prepared to be unimpressed. It was way better than I expected, and while it isn't my favorite track (that's Grattan), I wouldn't hesitate to race there again given the opportunity. If I remember correctly, there were three top gear at-the-limit corners which is pretty unusual today.
I'm out of touch on Lemons, but if there is any running in the dark, I'd be a little concerned that headlights coming at you from all directions could be disconcerting. Maybe the barriers between the different parts of the track are high enough that it's not a problem.
One other benefit to the compact layout is really good spectating from the top of the garages. You can actually see pretty much all the track reasonably well. I assume that also translates to good in-car radio coverage, too.
It's an absolutely amazing time trial track. As a wheel-to-wheel facility, though, there's limited "classic" passing opportunities for cars of similar speed. For cars of varying speeds, you'll be making and taking a lot of passes off-line, so spend some time in practice driving off line and find comfortable places to pass and be passed.
There's also a lot of "re-pass" opportunities, where you can easily give up a braking pass to someone, only to drive by them and wave after you get a superior exit (like T3-4).
So, yeah, tons of fun, but it's also going to take some willingness to operate outside the comfort envelope to actually go wheel-to-wheel there.
In reply to JG Pasterjak :
I'm pretty sure there won't be any practicing opportunities. I'd be jumping straight onto the new track in a new car in green flag racing conditions. Lol!
and the closest airport is an hour away in Nashville. Costs are stacking up quickly.
I raced the first lemons event there in this config
Not sure what layout this race will have. I really enjoyed how it felt like more of a technical track than an all out power track. Our lower powered car made the climb from 3 to 5 a chore. Fun figuring out the line through the elevation changes turns 5-12.
I raced it this year in champcar. That track took me about 2 practice sessions t9 remember what corner I was in and not be scared E36 M3less. It has some very fast corners that look very similar. However, you do very different things to get through them.
Deception and the "middle straightaway" are easy places to be a bit too aggressive and find some armco.
I guess what im saying is that I normally learn track very fast. This one I did not learn quickly and I thought it was a bit scary until I was a few sessions in.
Whatch a bunch of videos at the very least.
JG Pasterjak said:So, yeah, tons of fun, but it's also going to take some willingness to operate outside the comfort envelope to actually go wheel-to-wheel there.
I've only walked the track and had this feeling...
there's lots of expensive barriers to hit as well... I don't know what lemons policy is if you hit a barrier... as far as if you're stuck paying for the new one out of pocket or not.... something else to look into.
I hate turn 10. It's so much slower than everything else. It's like 13 at Nelson Ledges but without the setup turn. It's just go in, park it, do a 3 point turn, wait for your lunch to be delivered, then go.
Deception is easy to overcook on entry speed, but it's not that bad otherwise.
It is a fun track. Going into the sinkhole at speed is cool.
Corner 11 (deception) is neat but not as bad as people make it out to be. It's 5 and 16 that give me the puckers. 23 spits you at the pit wall if you aren't careful, lot of cars have eaten it right there.
Louisville airport isn't much further away to the north.
Did Lemons there a few years ago in our 325e, in the short configuration. It's a great track, and as others have said, didn't seem like it penalized low power cars as much as some others out there. We did a lot of damage to left front tires; keep an eye on tire wear. Our car don't have much power and some of our drivers were less careful than others about pushing the front through corners trying to be fast. Most passing happens in corners, which can be interesting in Lemons...
Me driving:
KyAllroad said:It's 5 and 16 that give me the puckers. 23 spits you at the pit wall if you aren't careful, lot of cars have eaten it right there.
This^
Did a HPDE there eariler in April and besides what is mentioned above, it's got it all. Speed, curves and some elevation!
I was there Sunday, I'll be there again on Friday. Great track assuming they run grand-full not east/west. I like east and west for variety, but they're not nearly as cool as grand full. A really hard track to put together a fast lap, small mistakes expound massively and there are a lot of places to make mistakes.
"didn't seem like it penalized low power cars as much as some others out there. "
It's definitely a power track in grandfull configuration (what 90% of the HPDE/races/TTs run) - the middle and back straights are massive. For a car with the power to weight of a miata it's a straightaway from turn 10->15, no brakes just a lift required at 15 even on street tires (200tw streets).
lol sounds like you were having fun! I see what you mean, full course is definitely a lot more time spent accelerating from 10-15 and 20 to 1A.
In reply to gearheadE30 :
Hahaha, yeah 22's was my goal for the season so I was stoked!
And quick and dirty example:
https://youtu.be/A4p339Xbj48
In my above video despite having min-apex speeds between 5-15MPH faster in EVERY corner compared to this camaro - the camaro turned a 2:15. It's a pretty demoralizing track if you're the power-deficient car in a group of poorly driven power cars (not saying the one in the video is poorly driven). I'm going to go K-swap next year, which should put me in the realm of 17's->19's on street tires with just that change. It really makes me miss Sonoma. I need to get down to AMP and Barber again, they don't have nearly the level of straight-aways as NCM.
Anywho, go to it if you can, it's a lot of fun to drive - Even experienced drivers new to the track that I've talked to are surprised by how technical it is in the GF configuration in addition to the "bravery" corners of 5/15-16 - 10's only bad if you decide to lift mid-corner and make your car change direction - there's plenty of road to go wide onto to the left.
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