ghoffman

Why does the Armco have to be so darn close? OMG. did Jeff Gordon take a hit today. They seem to have lots of real estate to move it out.

Everett Ogilvie

I agree - this is basically what I said in the thread about Nascar racing in the rain (today's crash vid is posted there). Sure seems like they could improve it, now that two identical crashes happened precisely there in the last 3 days.

LilR3dCorvette

I have run there before and there is little to no room for error, literally. A car in the run group ahead of me was totalled in the esses.

Wonder if WGI will ever make any changes in the Armco positioning...

mgarfias

To the outside they'd have to cut down some trees, move the wall back. There should be a gravel pit there too. On the inside, they could easily move the armco 10 feet and add a tire barrier. But with a moved wall on the outside and a gravel pit you wouldnt see cars hitting the inside anymore.

But damn what a hit. Bet Gordon is happy he had a hans on.

95jersey

It's been that way since the 70's. It is literally less than 1/2 foot from the track. This is why everytime I go to the Glen, I respect it, and just have fun and never focus on lap times. Some are very agressive, and try to run full throttle through the esses to prove to themselves, and while this is possible, and I have done it in my C5Z, the consequences are not worth it for HPDE. It's almost street course tight in some sections.

The last turn is coming onto the main strait is hairy. You are going very fast and again Armco is 1/2' from the edge of the track. You just have the pick the areas you choose to push and excercise a bit of restraint in other, that is unless you have very deep wallets, a cage, and a HANS device.

ghoffman

It seems like the saftey could be improved rather easily. OK, why is Tony Stewart so dominant there?

drivinhard

When I lived in NY we always ran the glen with the boot, but I think it would be fun to run the NASCAR config just to mix it up.

z060ntrack

Very little changes are made to race track run off areas until something bad usually happens. That spot at the exit of turn 9 (NASCAR configuration) has always been an accident waiting to happen and it did twice, once in the Nationwide race Saturday and again today. Luckily today, so many advances have been made within the car, and the drivers equipment, that evryone walked away.I just had this same conversation with some course workers at Mid Ohio this weekend about the entrance of the Carosel.

Race cars don't kill drivers, tracks do.

mikahb

For those (like me) who missed it, here's a link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZgdXwPk96E

Hard hit that one - a sand trap before that ARMCO on the right would have taken most of the pain out of that one... Or flipped the car.

John Shiels

men from boys

ghoffman

If Massa had hit without any tires, and directly into the Armco, he would be dead now. After Carl Edwards hit so hard at Talledega, they upgraded the fence at Loudon. WGI desperately needs some safety changes. We are not going much slower than the Cup cars.

Everett Ogilvie

Gary, they mentioned today that Kyle was hitting 176 on the straight after the S's (esses?). I am guessing that a Z06 might be able to roll through the center of a turn as fast or faster than the COT, but it sure won't pull off the exit like a 850 HP car will! With that said, and just out of curiosity I wonder if anyone here can tell us what speeds they make in a C6Z at Watkins Glen.

John Shiels

Discretion is the better part of valor at the Glens armco Heard of it eating plenty of cars even on this forum. I was there once and did what I was comfortable with. Weather was bad and it ate a few cars that day also.

NASCAR drivers need a Drivers Association like F-1 but then they would panick that a union was forming. So they will continue to run at unsafe tracks where dollar is king like no safer barrier on the infeild walls till someone hits it or gets injured.

Wicked Weasel

With my ls7 (and Gary's coilover setup) in my 3500 lb c5 I can hit low 160s on the back straight without pushing too far into the braking zone. I am sure I could get more out of it but that is good enough for me. I figure I am tracking out of the esses in the 140s and know one screw up and its over.

This year I was able to run the NASCAR course. Pretty fun for a day. The sick part about it was coming into turn 10 with speeds much much higher than when doing the full course. Where I use to lift I now had to get on the brakes pretty hard. It was fun and will do it again when given the chance.

drivinhard

lap times?

I would suspect a properly set up mostly stock C6Z06 on sticker A6's would not be TOO far behind a cup car on lap time.

ghoffman

Back a long time ago, about 1992, I was part of a IMSA team and we were there when the T/A and Cup cars were there. I remember that the Duracell Camaro T/A car driven by Scott Sharp was about 7 seconds quicker than the Cup cars. So, how far behind a GT-1 car are your times?

z060ntrack

Funny!

We go through the inner loop at 80/85 mph and the Cup cars go through at 100 mph weighing 3450 lbs with a 1950's truck trailing arm rear suspension on 15" wheels.

ghoffman

Andy Lally is a GREAT sports car driver, and we think he did great, but he started right behind Stewart and he got "Smoked" big time. Don't kid yourself, the Cup car drivers are great and those monster cars are very fast.

BrianCunningham

It's not the proximity to the track so much as the angle.

Why did the car hook it?

Which is why the car was thrown back out into traffic.

ghoffman

See the Max Papis interview:
http://www.nascar.com/video/cup/2009...ml?MostPopular