New chicane @ Road America

[RP-Motorsports]

Due to the Superbikes drifting both wheels out to the edge of the track into the grass @ over 150 mph through the kink, Road America added an optional chicane before the kink. It was built mostly for the bikes, but will be optional for club racing events. One of the first clubs to use it was the Windy City BMWCCA this weekend. It adds about 10 seconds to the lap times, and reduces turn 12 speeds by only about 5 mph, or none at all.

I asked many students with past kink experience if they liked it, and it was about 50/50. I personally like the kink, cause I am a risk/speed freek! I do think the chicane will "grow" on people including myself through time. I am glad it is only an option for clubs. Many still use the traditional kink. For those of you that have driven the kink at 115 mph understand!! It seperates the men from the alter boys.

Ken Sax said (smile) "I kinda like it...it's fun" I agree it does look like fun. You need to brake quite hard, entering the left turn, but then you can almost go the rest of the way full throttle to turn 12. Some of the faster guys managed to carry so much speed into the right hander in the chicane to actually go into the tire wall, or even drift around it out to the edge on the left!!

 

[nsxtasy]

This is the first time that there are two connected turns at Road America, without a straight in between, so you have to deal with a left-to-right transition and side-to-side weight transfer.

Road America is basically a high-speed track without such transition issues, with a straight separating every pair of turns. Compare with many other tracks where you have sequences of turns that lead into each other, so that, driven on the proper line, the exit of one turn sets you up for the entrance to the next one.

 

[MarkB]

Most of the tracks on which I have driven (see My past events) have multiple connecting turns. Some of the turns allow setup for the next and some are trhough aways to setup for the next.

Road America had to have been designed for my car. The limited number of turns and longish straights allowed me to hang in there with the advanced group. On most tracks, the intermediate group is where I drive dur to my lack of confidence on turns.

 

[1BADNSX]

This is the first time that there are two connected turns at Road America, without a straight in between, so you have to deal with a left-to-right transition and side-to-side weight transfer.

Road America is basically a high-speed track without such transition issues, with a straight separating every pair of turns. Compare with many other tracks where you have sequences of turns that lead into each other, so that, driven on the proper line, the exit of one turn sets you up for the entrance to the next one.

In this sense, the chicane should improve Road America. Of the tracks I have driven, I least enjoyed Road America because of this feature.

Bob