Abandoned Race Track in Savannah

whenry wrote: bringing other series in was the justification for filling in the Dip and turning RA into a street course yrs ago. How did that work out?

Well, it depends. One one hand, the place is still a race track. On the other, it's a race track that can be hazardous to club racers.

I don't like the concrete & wire anymore than anyone else, but I ask you to notice that Mid Ohio and Road America have erected similar barriers. I have no cites to real research on the subject, and I don't even know if anyone has seriously tried to study it. What I hear from folks at the race track is that the concrete actually helps keep IMSA/ALMS races, because the cars are largely carbon fiber, and the energy required to snap the stuff when one of those cars crashes actually keeps the thing from bouncing back into the road, or transferring the physical force through the car's tub into the driver's body.

When I revisit Scott Sharp's 2009 accident in practice, I can't quite say that the folks who told me that are entirely wrong.

whenry wrote: Looking around the track now you can see deferred maintenance. AMP will probably be the nail in the coffin once everyone accepts that the west coasters have been dealing with strict noise limits for years.

Eh, the place has always been like that (says someone who has had a cold shower in the T4 bathroom in 2010..not much different than my first one there in 1986). I disagree about AMP, though. There are still tracks in the Southeast that allow much more than 98db. If I were contending for the points championship and had to skip a race, a place like that is what I'd skip.

And please don't forget the impact of hosting a major series as well!

Dude, you asked, "How did that work out?"

It worked out like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXq8rkf9HKI

Hmmm, I've been attending Rd Atl for 40yrs and never heard eliminating the gravity cavity and adding T10A/B was to accomodate "new" series.

Rather, I believe the cars were getting too fast for the relative safety provided by the old configuration; hence the changes that make TV a viable alternative now.

So I went the track last weekend and did a few laps. I wasnt going fast but my car was rather loud but I tried to be quite near the golfers. After about 4 laps of cruising I got pulled over. He asked what I was doing and I told him that I had heard there was an abandoned racetrack in savannah and I was checking it out. I also told him I wasnt going fast and he said he was watching me so I repeated that I wasnt going fast. Then he told me that the track was private property and the only reason the gates were open is because some company was doing work somewhere around there. I think he was just saying stuff to get me to go away or is it really private property?

It's technically a public road, but with very rich neighbors. The hotel and the golf course watch it like a hawk. And the cop probably saw you going slowly, or he sure would have written you up. I know they've got another vintage race coming in October.

http://www.hhiconcours.com/

Had a chance to drive this track two weekends ago. Whoa! What a blast. I highly recommend it for anyone that hasn't driven this track before. The walls that line the track aren't quite as imposing in real life as they seemed in the videos I watched beforehand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UomO8K2GL5Y

Just drove around what I could get to of the track. It's still there but they've got gates up blocking you from roughly turn 2 to 1/2 way down the back stretch around the golf course area.

Holy zombie thread. On a related note, once again the Hilton Head Island Motoring Festival will feature HSR racing at the Savannah track.

David S. Wallens wrote: Holy zombie thread. On a related note, once again the Hilton Head Island Motoring Festival will feature HSR racing at the Savannah track.

I'd love to attend that weekend so I could sport my NATCC t-shirt that I bought at the original event. Indy Lights were the advertised stars but I was there for the touring cars; the PacWest Champ Car demo laps with Blundell and Gugelmin in Reynards was pretty cool, too.