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Racing the Tiger at Road America

Paul A

Alpine Registry Curator
Platinum Level Sponsor
I hope the thread title caught your attention. I will write up a short synopsis of my experience and post it soon. Suffice to say, running over 110 mph on the 4 mile Road America Track was a thrill! P
 

Paul A

Alpine Registry Curator
Platinum Level Sponsor
Here is a little summary of my experience at Road America. The track is open to interested (paying) persons with the following:

On-Track Car Touring Sessions: Available Saturday and Sunday during the scheduled lunch break. Individuals can sign up in advance or at Registration (inside Gate 6 off Hwy 67), but must attend a mandatory drivers meeting. Cost of track touring does not include your admission into the facility.

Road America is just over 4 miles long and, according to professional racers like Vic Skirmants (356 Racing), is one of the very best road courses in the USA. As you can see from the attached photo, it has long straights, multiple turns, and many hills and valleys. 1280px-Road_America.svg.png I went to the staging area and was met by the steward who checked my track sticker, my wristband and shared the following: "There are quite a few high performance cars today so it may be a quick ride. You should be okay, though, with the Tiger
." My impression, initially, was that it would be a leisurely ride around the track - sort of a Sunday afternoon drive. Wow, was I wrong! There were about 20 cars altogether, mostly late model Corvettes and Mustangs. I also saw a fairly new BMW and the car in front of me was a Nissan. The only other "small car" was an early Miata. I spoke to the Miata driver for a few minutes prior to getting out on the track and he told me he had driven the course about 150 times - via a video app. So he had some familiarity with it. Final instructions included, "stay with the group, no passing, enjoy the ride". Well, the ride was fast - much faster than I thought it might be. I was able to stay with the group on the straights but gave up some distance on the sharp corners which I then gained back on the straights and hills. Turn 5 at the bottom of the long downhill straight was really fun, especially climbing the hill between turns 5 & 6. The Tiger was awesome! I had to be careful on turn 8 going into the Carousel - really sharp left turn - the Tiger was really pushing into the corner and just did not want to turn - lots of brake, downshift into 2nd and power kept me off the grass and on the track. Speeds were very high along the Kettle Bottoms - I checked the speedometer a couple of times and the needle was south of 120 and climbing - accounting for error I figure I was at least at 110 mph before backing off going into the Canada Corner. We ran 5 laps (I think) before the checkered flag. The final lap, after the checkered flag was waved, was the fastest of all. Whoooeeee...... I got lots of nice comments from spectators about the nice looking car, "I love the color" and also about how strong the engine sounded.

What a great experience. One of the greatest thrills I have ever had driving - even better than when I beat a '65 Impala with my '65 Chevelle SS..... P
 

racerguy99

Donation Time
It IS a great track! I've raced there a few times in my Formula Continental. Take any chance you get, to drive the track!
 
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