I found out at the last minute my friend was going to be racing
his Sprite at the new roadrace track in South Carolina this past weekend
and went along as part of the crew.
Carl won his class over a fast Spitfire, a Fiat 124 Spyder, and another
Spridget who fell out early. He had to work for this one too! The Spit and
Fiat kept up at the beginning, but the Fiat faded then spun and stalled,
forcing Carl into the dirt(sand!) to avoid him. (Fiat was being lapped late
in the race.)
The Spitfire was more tenacious and actually got ahead at one point when
Carl made a booboo. Carl was faster in a straight line but the Spitfire had
better brakes and could gain in a couple of the corners. (Looks like this
new track is gonna demand -good- brakes too.) Carl's experience helped in
this one.
To anyone thinking of going to this track, BYOS! (Bring Your Own Shade!)
The place is literally carved out of scrub woods and the trees they saved
have a while before they'll be making 'shade'. They did save a nice number
of trees; they're just all small yet.
Looks like it will be a nice facility too. Mostly very flat though, like
Roebling Road (Savannah GA) but without the trees, so you have to pay atten-
tion.
The long course (it can be divided into two shorter courses) is about 2.25
miles and has 12-14 turns (I forgot). Plan on a lot of late braking (from
what I heard drivers saying) and make sure your brakes are in GOOD shape.
If your race class rules allow it, 4-wheel-discs are a good idea. A disc/
drum Spridget can end up with the pedal going to the floor by the end of
the race and having to pump it to get pedal back.
I believe this was the first actual race at this track so there was no
rubber laid down yet. Made for kinda slippery conditions. The whole
landscape is -sand- too.
Don't figure on late-braking to get by someone going into Turn-1 either,
unless you've got a serious advantage on them. I saw several people try it
and don't think anyone made it stick who was only marginally faster than
the car they were trying to get by. They all had to slow down way too much
to stay on the inside of the corner and the other car just went wide and
took the spot back immediately.
Non-LBC side note: One guy was running a Legends car and was very fast.
Great fun to watch. Kept up with the Spec Racer Fords and outran them on
acceleration. He liked late-braking into turn-1 too. ;-)
Ed in NC
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