13Jan2018 Race Report
The years have stacked up, and I've had a hand in many track layouts. The good ones fall on a spectrum which ends are “tight and technical” and “open and flowing.” Right now, the club is in an interesting place where we have great examples of each on offer at our two race venues. I feel comfortable describing the hangar as tight and technical. It has narrow lanes, tight turn radii, and hard cutbacks. It's ideal for 1/12th Stock. The new gym track is more open, with a large carousel on one end, and a deep ess on the other. The chicane dead center is proving to be a flick and a real pleasure to get right. The track overall is a gem for hard racing modified touring cars. Another way to define the spectrum is as a “qualifier's” layout versus a “racer's” layout. I think a person could lay those terms over tight and technical and open and flowing, respectively, and perceive that they are different expressions of the same idea. As to whether I prefer one over the other, I can't say I do. Or rather, it's one of those happy times in life when one doesn't have to choose, as both are available for fun on a regular schedule. [There is a third kind of track, deserving of neither the tight and technical, nor the open and flowing labels. I'll call it “broken.” A good example of broken is the last 1/12th worlds track. I don't like to disparage others' efforts, as I know hosting worlds is a major undertaking with little prospect of recovering the required outlay of time, money, and energy, but to my eye, with its hard apexes jutting into open space, it was a terror that dared racers to drive hard and punished with terrible hard impacts. It was not an engaging circuit.]
With our second night on the new gym layout behind us, and one where I wasn't willing myself forward despite exhaustion from a track build and a nagging headache behind the eyes, the year of racing ahead is taking shape. This is a track where a train can stack up, and if the proper respectful care is taken, the tension builds as the laps tick by and the drivers maintain a nose to tail contest, applying pressure, waiting for a mistake, despairing that it may never come. 1/12th Stock yielded a thrilling race with several lead changes between multiple drivers; the top five drivers finished on the same lap. Modified Touring as well provided a show as positions 2 through 8 bounced around, with racers rising and falling as the mistakes and passes piled on. The videos are up, and the sheets are posted, so I won't contribute a superfluous narrative. Suffice to say, I think 2018 at the gym, by virtue of an open and flowing layout, will give us a many electrifying moments for racers.
Results attached.