Bucket list track complete: Road America

[dparm]

I have spectated various races at Road America for years, but was apprehensive about actually driving on it for a full track day/HPDE. I finally sucked it up took my Corvette out yesterday! What a track...it's extremely fast and definitely has some areas where you have no room for error, but I slowly worked my way up to being able to drive at 8/10 or 9/10ths. Not sure I would ever feel comfortable going at 10/10ths there given the history it has.


Final session of the day, where I turned my PB of 2:36.71:





Earlier session with my GoPro and an external mic that conveys the sense of speed a lot better:

 

[Recalculating]

Thanks for the look. Car vettes up to 150 easily and your tracking in the curves spot on.

Nice job at 9/10.

Add 10/10 to your bucket list. Your good enough for sure.

 

[Inked]

Thanks for posting them. What tires were you running?

 

[Eddie]

That was great deparm. I did the same run in 1968 with my Porsche 1956 1600 S coupe. I forgot the exact time but, it was fun. I had my dad and two days worth of luggage with me. I just loved the June Sprints and the Fall 500 races. Ed

 

[dparm]

Originally Posted By: Inked
Thanks for posting them. What tires were you running?


OEM tire which is a Michelin Pilot Super Sport ZP.


Originally Posted By: Eddie
That was great deparm. I did the same run in 1968 with my Porsche 1956 1600 S coupe. I forgot the exact time but, it was fun. I had my dad and two days worth of luggage with me. I just loved the June Sprints and the Fall 500 races. Ed


That must have been a blast. I have spectated at June Sprints but am always up there for the IMSA WeatherTech stuff (formerly known as ALMS). It's such a spectator-friendly facility with a lot of history.

 

[A_Harman]

I divide Road America into two parts: the upper, which contains the long straights, and the lower, which contains the technical part. I think the track is pretty straightforward gas-brake-turn through textbook 90-degree turns until turn 5. Then it becomes interesting. I hate turn 6, blind entry and off-camber, there never seems to be a lot of potential for lateral G's, but it's not a very important turn. But after that, driving the course right gives you a feeling of satisfaction. I never have gotten all the speed out of 7 that I think is possible. I really like the run through the Carousel, Kink, and the meandering straight to Canada corner. I seemed to do most of my closing on other cars going into Canada Corner. I never tried to maximize speed through the Kink. Floating through there at 110-115 mph under gentle acceleration was good enough for me. Never go through the Kink on trailing throttle.

 

[dparm]

Originally Posted By: A_Harman
I divide Road America into two parts: the upper, which contains the long straights, and the lower, which contains the technical part. I think the track is pretty straightforward gas-brake-turn through textbook 90-degree turns until turn 5. Then it becomes interesting. I hate turn 6, blind entry and off-camber, there never seems to be a lot of potential for lateral G's, but it's not a very important turn. But after that, driving the course right gives you a feeling of satisfaction. I never have gotten all the speed out of 7 that I think is possible. I really like the run through the Carousel, Kink, and the meandering straight to Canada corner. I seemed to do most of my closing on other cars going into Canada Corner. I never tried to maximize speed through the Kink. Floating through there at 110-115 mph under gentle acceleration was good enough for me. Never go through the Kink on trailing throttle.


I would suggest buying the virtual track walk from Ross Bentley of Speed Secrets. There are some interesting quirks that you will learn about! It certainly helped me prepare.

 

[A_Harman]

Originally Posted By: dparm
I have spectated various races at Road America for years, but was apprehensive about actually driving on it for a full track day/HPDE. I finally sucked it up took my Corvette out yesterday! What a track...it's extremely fast and definitely has some areas where you have no room for error, but I slowly worked my way up to being able to drive at 8/10 or 9/10ths. Not sure I would ever feel comfortable going at 10/10ths there given the history it has.


Final session of the day, where I turned my PB of 2:36.71:




How many track days have you had a Road America? From the video, I would guess at least 3. You've got the nuances on the upper part of the course, straightening out the gradual bends before turns 3 and 5. A couple of times it looked to me like those lines caused shallow entries, though. Aim for the 300 brake marker to get to the right edge of the track going into 5. It will decrease the amount of turning the car has to do to get through there. You get a really nice steady pull of G's going around the Carousel, and are up around 1.2 G's lateral in a lot of turns. You passed some cars that should have been capable of comparable times, and they never appeared again.

Aren't those Miatas amusing? You went through them like a shark going through a school of guppies.

 

[dparm]

Originally Posted By: A_Harman

How many track days have you had a Road America? From the video, I would guess at least 3. You've got the nuances on the upper part of the course, straightening out the gradual bends before turns 3 and 5. A couple of times it looked to me like those lines caused shallow entries, though. Aim for the 300 brake marker to get to the right edge of the track going into 5. It will decrease the amount of turning the car has to do to get through there. You get a really nice steady pull of G's going around the Carousel, and are up around 1.2 G's lateral in a lot of turns. You passed some cars that should have been capable of comparable times, and they never appeared again.

Aren't those Miatas amusing? You went through them like a shark going through a school of guppies.



That was my first time at Road America. Plenty of experience with other tracks.

Staying left and maintaining a straight line into 5 felt a bit safer. I was doing 140+ coming into there and actually lifted to coast for a few seconds because the car started to feel light, despite all of the aero bits. I know that line isn't optimal but I was happy to sacrifice a bit in the interest of keeping the car in one piece. It's worth noting they told us NOT to use the curbing since it is known to set off airbags and rollover protection on street cars. There were definitely a few times where I had to correct my line at the last second to not instinctively track out as wide.

Cosworth's telemetry software, Pi Toolbox, indicated a constant 1.0g through the carousel. My peak lateral G was 1.46 and there were numerous spots I was in the 1.2-1.3g range, like you said.

Theoretical fastest was about 1.5s less, so a few more outings there and I should be able to consistently chain together those sectors. Honestly, my times were way better than I expected given the track's reputation and my lack of experience with its nuances. As you said, I was getting the point by from some pretty fast cars (GT3s, Vipers).

 

[bdcardinal]

I know it isn't anywhere close to actually driving the track, but they have Road America in Project Cars and Project Cars 2 and I can drive it for hours and not get bored. It is one of those circuits where I make a little mistake and the lap is so long I spend the rest of the lap cursing myself and just hoping my run through Billy Mitchell to Turn 14 lets me have a good run to the start of the next lap.

 

[dparm]

Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
I know it isn't anywhere close to actually driving the track, but they have Road America in Project Cars and Project Cars 2 and I can drive it for hours and not get bored. It is one of those circuits where I make a little mistake and the lap is so long I spend the rest of the lap cursing myself and just hoping my run through Billy Mitchell to Turn 14 lets me have a good run to the start of the next lap.


Do you take the kink flat-out?

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: dparm
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
I know it isn't anywhere close to actually driving the track, but they have Road America in Project Cars and Project Cars 2 and I can drive it for hours and not get bored. It is one of those circuits where I make a little mistake and the lap is so long I spend the rest of the lap cursing myself and just hoping my run through Billy Mitchell to Turn 14 lets me have a good run to the start of the next lap.


Do you take the kink flat-out?

When I tried an IndyCar, yes. I usually drive their version of a Cup car and the car gets super unsettled and flies off to the wall to the left of the Kink. The way the gearing is done, or at least how I have it I have to either stay in 4th and bog to the run to Canada Corner, or drop it to 3rd and then immediately put it in 4th after the Kink. BTW I haven't played it since May so I am going off of memory.

 

[dparm]

Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
Originally Posted By: dparm
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
I know it isn't anywhere close to actually driving the track, but they have Road America in Project Cars and Project Cars 2 and I can drive it for hours and not get bored. It is one of those circuits where I make a little mistake and the lap is so long I spend the rest of the lap cursing myself and just hoping my run through Billy Mitchell to Turn 14 lets me have a good run to the start of the next lap.


Do you take the kink flat-out?

When I tried an IndyCar, yes. I usually drive their version of a Cup car and the car gets super unsettled and flies off to the wall to the left of the Kink.



You mean like this?

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: dparm

You mean like this?



Pretty much ya, except I can just hit restart and the car is well again.

 

[Garak]

Nice fun!

 

[dparm]

Originally Posted By: A_Harman
I divide Road America into two parts: the upper, which contains the long straights, and the lower, which contains the technical part. I think the track is pretty straightforward gas-brake-turn through textbook 90-degree turns until turn 5. Then it becomes interesting. I hate turn 6, blind entry and off-camber, there never seems to be a lot of potential for lateral G's, but it's not a very important turn. But after that, driving the course right gives you a feeling of satisfaction. I never have gotten all the speed out of 7 that I think is possible. I really like the run through the Carousel, Kink, and the meandering straight to Canada corner. I seemed to do most of my closing on other cars going into Canada Corner. I never tried to maximize speed through the Kink. Floating through there at 110-115 mph under gentle acceleration was good enough for me. Never go through the Kink on trailing throttle.



That's because turn 7 is kind of weird when it comes to the optimal line and throttle/brake application:
https://www.raceoptimal.com/RoadAmerica

(click play next to the Miata or Porsche text)

 

[A_Harman]

Originally Posted By: dparm
Originally Posted By: A_Harman
I divide Road America into two parts: the upper, which contains the long straights, and the lower, which contains the technical part. I think the track is pretty straightforward gas-brake-turn through textbook 90-degree turns until turn 5. Then it becomes interesting. I hate turn 6, blind entry and off-camber, there never seems to be a lot of potential for lateral G's, but it's not a very important turn. But after that, driving the course right gives you a feeling of satisfaction. I never have gotten all the speed out of 7 that I think is possible. I really like the run through the Carousel, Kink, and the meandering straight to Canada corner. I seemed to do most of my closing on other cars going into Canada Corner. I never tried to maximize speed through the Kink. Floating through there at 110-115 mph under gentle acceleration was good enough for me. Never go through the Kink on trailing throttle.



That's because turn 7 is kind of weird when it comes to the optimal line and throttle/brake application:
https://www.raceoptimal.com/RoadAmerica

(click play next to the Miata or Porsche text)


When I was taking Track Time schools at RA back in the 90's, the classroom instructor had us do an exercise, to draw the track from memory. I drew turn 7 as a right angle bend, and if you look at the actual map, it is not even close to that. But I was driving it using gas-brake-turn technique like in a 90. If I ever go back there, increasing speed in 7 would be my major goal. I think getting a clean exit out of 6, and just using a brush of the brake to set the front end for initial turn-in to 7 would be the way to build speed. Late entry of course, so I have plenty of track left on exit.