Thunderhill Track Map (Page 1 of 2)

I hope not - I would have serious reservations of running turn 1 (and probably 8) at full speed without a chicane.

Team Formula BMW
Finishing order: 44th, 44th, 19th, 10th, 5th, 10th, 5th
We will win some day

We'll just have to agree to disagree. I feel that you are going to get hit with Lemons jackassery no matter what and I'd rather it happens in a slow chicane rather than a 90mph flat-out turn. My biggest concern is someone trying an overambitious divebomb going into 1 or 8 which could end up rolling multiple cars. Someone cutting the line at the entrance to a chicane is merely annoying.

Reno-Fernley and Buttonwillow had no on-the-limit super fast turns like turn1 at TH (except perhaps lost hill). TH 07 had a much tighter chicane than TH 08 and we still had 2 cars roll on the exit of 1.

Team Formula BMW
Finishing order: 44th, 44th, 19th, 10th, 5th, 10th, 5th
We will win some day

The chicanes dont stop accidents, they just reduce the speeds at which they happen. T1 with its deceptively late turn-in, high speed and limited exit kerb is always going to have issues - I'd just rather be involved in a 60mph accident that a 90mph one.

I think the esses at Reno were a perfect example of reduced speed safety - had we been running the full straight you would have been doing about 120 and been on the razors edge handling-wise. By running a reduced straight the speeds were down to 95-100 which gave you enough margin to react and allowed 3-wide entry to sort itself out without too much grief and was actually even more fun.

Team Formula BMW
Finishing order: 44th, 44th, 19th, 10th, 5th, 10th, 5th
We will win some day

Turn 1 at TH is significantly faster and tighter than BW. A well driven car at 10/10ths can take it at close to flat out at which point you have no margin left to react to the dive bombers and line changers at Lemons

Team Formula BMW
Finishing order: 44th, 44th, 19th, 10th, 5th, 10th, 5th
We will win some day

OK, keep the chicane in place to slow us down in turn one--- how about letting us use the rest of the track???

A few slow down areas, but more room to run would be much better... OR--- no chicane, and if you go off on turn one, make it a 3 hour penalty 8^0   

I think with a little bit of semi race speed track time most everyone will get the feel for turn one, and understand what the correct line is, and not get over their head.

I was upwards of 105 on the straight after the S's at BW... and learned right away how important braking and entry was into the main straight.   I've raced T-hill a few times now, and have hit turn 1 close to 95 and probably wouldn't attempt going over that even without chicanes. 

I thought people who dive bomb were suppose to get black flagged..

"6: LOUSY DRIVING

6.1: Individual Lousy-Driving Rule: Lousy driving--which includes, but is not limited to, unnecessary contact, overly aggressive driving, chopping off other cars, unsportsmanlike conduct, lack of car control, just generally being an idiot, and/or proving an undue pain in the butt to fellow competitors--will result in a black-flag penalty for Lousy Driving. These penalties will be punished as follows:
6.1.1: First Individual Lousy-Driving Offense: Mandatory driver change; offending driver can't return to the track for three hours.
6.1.2: Second Individual Lousy-Driving Offense: Driver loses his wristband for the rest of the day.
6.1.3: Third Individual Lousy-Driving Offense: Driver is out for the rest of the season, beginning immediately."

I think dive bombing falls into the overly aggressive driving catagory.

I only experienced a small amount of this at BW-- not even really worth mentioning.  T-Hill last year though-- a whole nother story.

"6.4: Touching a Temporary Barrier: Physically contacting a cone, tire barrier, or any other temporary structure placed on the track by the organizers is an automatic Lousy Driving Offense With Exteme Prejudice. (You don't even want to know what that means.)"

So when are they going to enforce hitting a 'cone' ?

After talking to some of our team members that made it to last year's T-hill race (we had a little accident on the way there unfortunately) and driving the Reno race I am of the opinion that tire-barrier chicanes are the wrong way to go for many of the reasons listed. What *did* work well IMHO were the cones at Reno that forced people to take a wide and slower line onto the straight.

If the powers that be decide that this year's T-hill event requires a chicane or chicanes I hope that they decide to make them out of cones and implement a mandatory driver change penalty for hitting one. That way if you absolutely have to you can avoid a collision and take out a cone or cones rather than being given the choice of either hitting another car or a tire barrier, something that I was told happened too often at last year's race.

BTW put me down for the full course too. Nothing was more fun than the 2-3 laps I had at Reno with no traffic and IMHO less traffic is more safe, not less.

Yeah, we know the track map is busted, but that's partially because we haven't decided what exactly we're doing yet. Stay tuned!

Haha, reverse!

It's definitely scarier with less room for error in reverse. T9->T6 is downhill and crazy, with none of the runoff you're used to. T1 backwards has the bonus of someone running wide and possibly flying into the hot pits. T5 backwards is ultra blind, bypass or not. It's lots of fun, but if you're selling safety, THill backwards isn't going to win over the normal direction without some track mods.

Your car is too slow if you can take T1 flat out Or maybe you have a lot more grip than my E30?

I'll agree to disagree, and further state that my views are probably more than a bit skewed by wheel to wheel racing outside of Lemons.

how many laps you thinking this go round?

Judge Eye View = all of you fit into one of two categories: the semi-talented and the semi-untalented.

Chicanes = X amount of black flags caused by one semi-talented driver dive-bombing several semi-untalented drivers into the small opening.

No Chicanes = the exact same amount of black flags racked up by the semi-talented and semi-untalented amongst you as your new found on-track freedom enables you to run off the track and lose control of your crap cans at speeds never before possible.

Conclusion: makes no difference to us.

Sounds like a great place for a tire barrier + cone lead into pit lane... forces the field outside the line, away from cars entering pit lane.   Just watched the video, and it would only move the line over a few feet, but give for a safe clean entry into pit lane/road/wheel of misfortune :^)