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CoTA sounds like it sucks


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LOL. Now Bobby is talking about mods specifically for IndyCar. Shouldn't they concentrate on fixing the track they have before making any new additions to it?

COTA evaluating track modifications for IndyCar https://racer.com/2018/09/04/cota-evaluating-track-modifications-for-indycar/

 

Edited by wood
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4 minutes ago, Atxracer said:

I don't feel it's that bad unless you are on a Moto GP.  There is definitely an unsettling bump at the apex of 18 but besides that, I have never noticed much.   

I drove around it earlier this year and the bumps were throwing me all over the place in several places all around the track and at speeds way slower than MotoGP goes. Hell, bumps there were causing problems for F1 cars 2 or 3 years ago.

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I thought they fixed the areas F1 complained about but could be wrong.   Raced there in February/March and seemed pretty good.  But, then again, literally half of us broke a transmission (which can be related to hitting bumps while loaded or shifting gears) that weekend so could have just been pre-occupied and not noticed.  Will be there this weekend in a street car and see how that feels.  

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2 minutes ago, Atxracer said:

I thought they fixed the areas F1 complained about but could be wrong.   Raced there in February/March and seemed pretty good.  But, then again, literally half of us broke a transmission (which can be related to hitting bumps while loaded or shifting gears) that weekend so could have just been pre-occupied and not noticed.  Will be there this weekend in a street car and see how that feels.  

They did some superficial bump grinding in several areas, but it didn't seem to do much good. F1 mostly complained about the big bump in the T11 braking zone, where iirc Williams & maybe someone else had some electrical and mechanical issues a couple years in a row. Some of the MotoGP guys said it was much worse than last year even after the grinding. Some even said they think the grinding made it worse (which it probably will in the long run).

Edited by wood
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Re: the COTA IndyCar layout, I was thinking about the 'small modification' Epstein's talking about. He says they're gonna run the whole circuit, too. That has me thinking he's talking about ... wait for it ... a chicane. Maybe along the back stretch. Hope I'm wrong. If I'm right, sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

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3 hours ago, wood said:

Re: the COTA IndyCar layout, I was thinking about the 'small modification' Epstein's talking about. He says they're gonna run the whole circuit, too. That has me thinking he's talking about ... wait for it ... a chicane. Maybe along the back stretch. Hope I'm wrong. If I'm right, sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

I thought about that but I don't know how it would fit without bringing it down to 1 or 1 1/2 lanes which would seem to create a bottleneck. My bet is on different configuration.  

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3 minutes ago, Atxracer said:

I thought about that but I don't know how it would fit without bringing it down to 1 or 1 1/2 lanes which would seem to create a bottleneck. My bet is on different configuration.  

They'd have to remove some fencing just about anywhere they'd want to change anything up.  What got me thinking chicane is 1) it's Epstein, so he isn't gonna do anything even moderately expensive unless it's with other people's money, 2) Epstein described it as a small change, and 3) Epstein said they'd likely use the whole circuit. 

The most likely mods people are bringing up seem to involve shortcutting from somewhere along the east side to the back straight. That's not gonna be easy or cheap ...  or a small mod.

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On 9/5/2018 at 3:03 PM, elfenix said:

assuming the track isn't modified: 1:45?

A guy on Autosport said just now that IndyCars should be about 9% quicker than LMP2 and so IndyCar times should be around 1:44. Dunno where he gets the 9%, but if he's right, then your estimate was pretty nice.

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  • 2 weeks later...
3 hours ago, utee94 said:

Didn't make Rallycross, I'd like to one day if it comes back.

 

Schedule out for USGP, the two support races are F3 Americas Series, and  FIA Formula 4.

 

http://www.circuitoftheamericas.com/f1/schedule

so much dead time.

 

even relatively packed weekends like silverstone have a lot of dead time.  will be interesting to see how many support races indycar brings along with them.  iirc at mid ohio last year there were 2 sports car races and then all 3 rungs of the road to indy on sunday alone. 

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9 hours ago, utee94 said:

Didn't make Rallycross, I'd like to one day if it comes back.

I posted a couple galleries of  pics on our Facebook page ... They're saying there were 18500 people there, which is patently absurd lol.

Saturday: https://www.facebook.com/157330087614878/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2236884462992753

42778458_2236884519659414_66259652199967

42867054_2236888899658976_43710083218811

Sunday: https://www.facebook.com/157330087614878/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2238798336134699

42889870_2238858602795339_48308976015722

42852511_2238854982795701_14513786273870

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
2 hours ago, utee94 said:

Very cool.  Here's some video:

 

Also, apparently Indycar isn't releasing the lap times... I wonder why! ;)

The Racer.com article says Rossi ran an unoffical 1:47.8, without option tires or any boost, and very little setup work. They think they can get at least a couple more seconds. Idk if they're worried about the lap time disparity, but they really shouldn't be that worried imho. I don't think it's bad for the brand. No reasonable fan expects IndyCar to be very close to F1 times given the vast difference in team budgets. In fact, to me it looks like IndyCar is getting a much bigger bang for the buck than F1. F1 is in the low 1:32s in Q spec.

BTW, you shoulda seen how loose he was getting coming off the bump at the T10 apex. It was scary.

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Only F1 snobs are going to disparage the lap times.  And F1 snobs in the USA aren't really the target demo of an Indycar GP at COTA, so I'm not too worried there.  Regardless of lap times, I expect more passing and more lead changes, and some fun racing at COTA.

Will it be enough to get me back into Indycar the way I was in the 80s and early 90s, before the stupid split?  I guess we'll see.  I kinda wish this race were a little later in the season, so I'd have more time to watch and bone up on the drivers/teams in Indycar.  Looks like there's only one race in St. Petersburg before they get to Austin.  

 

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1 hour ago, utee94 said:

So based on the timing on that video, the second lap (the almost full one) was just about 2:00.  Not that anyone's concerned about lap times for Indycar at COTA, of course... ;)

 

See above ... the racer.com article from Pruett said Rossi unofficially ran a very LMP1-ish 1:47.8. No boost. No option tires. Right off the truck with very limited setup changes. They'll get quicker for sure. From Vance's video I was getting 1:52s.

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