I'd have to agree, the Point has come a long way in the past couple years. The new widened area down the chute, larger gravel traps and even improved facilities (for those who like to shower after a long hot day at the track).
BTW - NASA has the Shanandoah circuit on its HPDE schedule for July 19-20 (it says subject to change )

 

i didnt even mention the off-track facilities. the new bathrooms are sweet! your right Rxmidget. also, the new bridge. that old bridge was a POS everytime you went over it, it made a terrible noise from the boards. the new one is wider i believe (still not enuf for 2 cars), plus it has that traffic light hanging over the track. oh, and the reconstructed flagstation over start/finish.

one complaint and im sure im not alone on this.... by about mid summer, standing at the tower looking down toward turn 1, the WEEDS are insanely out of control. you cant see anything. but yes, summit has improved greatly. i CANT WAIT till marrs 1, i love racing season and watchin my dad race and working on the car and just the people. its like a little community on marrs weekends. cant even put it into words.

 

MADS '99 with MSCW.

 

It's actually the gravel traps that scare me. The only time I ran there an instructor in an Eagle Talon went off and the front of his car dug right into the gravel trap causing him to flip over multiple times, destroying the car. The driver and passenger got a helicopter ride to Inova Fairfax but were ok for the most part. I've heard of several other incidents like this and many have complained that the gravel traps make the track more dangerous for street cars than the it would be without them.

I much prefer VIR with it's ample runoff space and well designed, safer track layout.

 

whats crazy is when people take street cars to a FATT and run them full out with no cage. there was an incident a year or 2 ago a guy flipped him bimmer with no cage and the roof collapsed down to the head rests on the seat. i would never run with no cage.

 

I agree about th egravel traps. they are not well maintained and many cars flip in them. Really, during Bill's medical problems the track wasn't maintained well. Hoefully that will change now. Really, SP is a 'club' track and not in the rank of tracks like WGI, VIR or Road Atlanta. We deserve good safe places to run.

 

well if you drive in straight on the car will not flip. if you try to turn before it and go in sideways, your done. thats the same for all gravel traps. you have to accept that your going to go in, go STRAIGHT in, THEN turn. cuz if you go in sideways, you will flip for sure.

 

That is the trick.
I'd rather pick gravel out of the car for a few days then skim arcoss grass and into a tire/dirt wall.

 

exactly. they are supposed to be deep to serve their purpose.

 

ANY time you go off track you should go off straight. (duh). That why we instructor's say "Both feet in!"

Gravel traps are not really safe when they are not maintained properly. These days we are seeing many tracks going back to pavement in place of gravel.

Best solution is to stay on track of course... :-)

 

I'll be up at Summit Point on May 23 for a FATT session, anyone else gonna be there then? I'll be in the black Integra Type R, my brother will be there as well in his Jetta VR6.