OUT- Sonoma Raceway and Phoenix IN- Laguna Seca and Circuit of the Americas PLUS - 3 of the oval races will be primetime night races on Saturday nights Image Unavailable, Please Login
In one state I see a wonderful new, world class road course and one of the most dangerous he!! hole ovals in existence. Yeah . . . I'm talkin' about you, Texas. Pocono? Are you freakin' kidding me?? Dump that place NOW!
are they running the full, GP version of COTA? I saw rumors last week they would run either the short course, or put chicanes in somewhere, to keep F1 vs Indycar lap time comparisons from happening.
RACER reported that they are considering 3 options, one is keep the layout identical, second is to repeat the layout they used for Australian V8 Supercar event they held a few years back (whatever that is) and lastly another layout that would involve laying some more pavement. One thing is for sure, COTA said they don't want to get in the comparison game with F1, they want the Indycar event and experience to be different from what they do for F1 and that includes things beyond just the track. https://racer.com/2018/09/04/cota-evaluating-track-modifications-for-indycar/
Attendance figures killed it's return. Certainly they could with a better date and repeated date equity year after year, but with Indycar perceived on the upswing, I'm not sure if they want to play the "let's hope it works out this time" game. I'm sure Watkins Glen took a bath too so I'm not sure they're so willing either.
my assumption is that they will put in a chicane in the back straight and add some concrete towards the infield. personally I'd love to see them take out the "stadium" portion autocross track, and just have the end of the backstretch be a 4th gear double apex left hander leading into the triple apex right hander, but that's probably asking too much. the Aussie V8s used the "short course" that loops around at T6. it eliminates a lot of the track, and didn't make for a particularly good show Image Unavailable, Please Login
I wanna see some VP at GM crash the new Corvette Mid engine car at Detroit again. They should do this every year. Great PR!
Unless any layout changes add some significant new challenge or cool factor, I say just leave it as is. They should not make changes or slap in random chicanes just for the sole purpose of making the layout different. Everybody knows F1 will be faster....I mean Indy went and significantly decreased downforce this year on purpose. The general race fan won’t care, only us car nerds will really pay attention, and I think it will be cool to be able to compare times. Also even if the course is different, people are still going to compare sector times, speed traps, and speeds through a given corner, so extrapolating an Indycar lap time on the full F1 layout won’t be difficult and will happen regardless. On a side note, I really like the idea of opening it up to camping in the infield. The current COTA camping options suck big time, so I’m happy to see the management paying attention to this part of the race weekend experience.
