Castrol track modifications/photos

Jefferson

EMRA Executive Member
Hey guys!

Exciting news, So after the last couple weeks fighting with the weather, Castrol has really gotten some great work done. The following changes have been made, and i may even be missing some.

-Turn 1/2 wall has been pushed back as far as possible, now with room for a gravel trap.
-Turn 3 wall has been pushed back, and bales are also being added prior to the wall
-Turn 14 to turn 1 wall has been moved back towards the drag strip making the straight wider, and we have special side impact air fence on the way to line the exit of turn 14
- the concrete blocks on the outside of turn 4 have been removed completely, and replaced by a light fence WAY back which will have bales/bottle bags lining it.

Pics as follows, more updates to come once the bails/bottles are placed, some lines get painted, and we place some more gravel.

PHOTO-2019-04-29-11-02-09 (2).jpg PHOTO-2019-04-29-11-02-12 (1).jpg
PHOTO-2019-04-29-11-02-12.jpg PHOTO-2019-04-29-11-02-13 (1).jpg PHOTO-2019-04-29-11-02-09.jpg
PHOTO-2019-04-29-11-02-08 (1).jpg PHOTO-2019-04-29-11-02-08.jpg
 
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Jefferson

EMRA Executive Member
Its crazy how small it seems at speed, when you walk up to it, its actually massive. There were no paving changes of any kind.
 

SetUpSixRR

EMRA Executive Member
now that changes has been made to #3... is that bus stop going away ?

I mean i guess that might be something a member can propose at the AGM, if they wanted it.

I can tell you that during a rainy day that dried up we were using a temporary chicane to enter T3 a bit slower than the bus stop (because it still had water pooled) and i was doing about 230 going into T3 in the dry. Even with the wall moved back, tucking the front at that speed would mean someone and/or someones bike would make it to the wall and right now we do not have enough air fence to cover it.
 

DEFBOY35

Well-Known Member
Nice to see. If they get the conveyor belts on the tires in 1 that will help
A lot as well. People not wedging ankles and shit in between tires if they make it under the airfence. I'm not exactly sold on the crushed asphalt vs gravel. But I'll wait till I see it in person to see what it's really like.
Thanks jeff for posting the update.

Dom. Even with the wall moved back I think we'd just be asking for trouble removing the bustop coming into 3. As much fun as it would be to hit it full out there is still a hazard present to take into consideration.
 

SetUpSixRR

EMRA Executive Member
Nice to see. If they get the conveyor belts on the tires in 1 that will help
A lot as well. People not wedging ankles and shit in between tires if they make it under the airfence. I'm not exactly sold on the crushed asphalt vs gravel. But I'll wait till I see it in person to see what it's really like.
Thanks jeff for posting the update.

Dom. Even with the wall moved back I think we'd just be asking for trouble removing the bustop coming into 3. As much fun as it would be to hit it full out there is still a hazard present to take into consideration.

Yeah crushed asphalt isn't ideal but I'm hoping to talk to Castrol tomorrow and see if we can substitute the crash gravel in there, even if we have to do the man labour ourselves. Sunday will be a lot of work out there for us regardless
 

DEFBOY35

Well-Known Member
Yeah crushed asphalt isn't ideal but I'm hoping to talk to Castrol tomorrow and see if we can substitute the crash gravel in there, even if we have to do the man labour ourselves. Sunday will be a lot of work out there for us regardless

Yeah if I recall the talk was to use the borderline useless gravel in turn 6 there to keep cost down.
 

SetUpSixRR

EMRA Executive Member
Yeah if I recall the talk was to use the borderline useless gravel in turn 6 there to keep cost down.
It was lol but then we got these pictures of rock crush... soooo I'm assuming the guys who physically made the changes didn't think there was a difference haha bit of a curve ball
 

DEFBOY35

Well-Known Member
It was lol but then we got these pictures of rock crush... soooo I'm assuming the guys who physically made the changes didn't think there was a difference haha bit of a curve ball
Yup. As you said. All you can do is bring it to their attention and hope something can be done about it.
 

SetUpSixRR

EMRA Executive Member
Yup. As you said. All you can do is bring it to their attention and hope something can be done about it.

Great news, i talked to Rob R from Castrol and we are going out there this weekend to help them move the rock crush and replace with crash gravel from T6. We are also installing the conveyor belt on the tire wall in T1, bagging bales of hay and then painting/repainting some curbing. Should be a good productive day... lets pray for good weather.
 

lukeduke

New Member
Thanks for posting these updates! Excited that the changes are happening. Race season is just around the corner. Cant wait!
 

Cinder

Active Member
Dom. Even with the wall moved back I think we'd just be asking for trouble removing the bustop coming into 3. As much fun as it would be to hit it full out there is still a hazard present to take into consideration.

the only thing in that track that i hate with a passion is that non-sense bus-stop... i get it, were cooking too hot for turn 3 and castrol wont fix it properly. That been said, i don't know who's bright idea to put speed bump on the exit of it make it even more dangerous. this should be changed/reviewed !
my 2 cents
 

roadrash

New Member
the only thing in that track that i hate with a passion is that non-sense bus-stop... i get it, were cooking too hot for turn 3 and castrol wont fix it properly. That been said, i don't know who's bright idea to put speed bump on the exit of it make it even more dangerous. this should be changed/reviewed !
my 2 cents

The curbing had to be put in because everybody kept short cutting the bus stop going through the gravel and grass. Being an acceleration zone, that spread gravel and grass back onto the race surface which as you could imagine would be retardo dangerous coming through there with gravel and shrapnel all over the place.
 

Cinder

Active Member
The curbing had to be put in because everybody kept short cutting the bus stop going through the gravel and grass. Being an acceleration zone, that spread gravel and grass back onto the race surface which as you could imagine would be retardo dangerous coming through there with gravel and shrapnel all over the place.
even with that we still found gravel and grass on the track from mistake been made entering that corner... it's dangerous and no room to play/mistake. i found it stupid but hey, that's just me
 

DEFBOY35

Well-Known Member
Dom it's unfortunate that too an extent they have now fixed turn 3 to the best they can with the way it's layed out with the trees down below. And we can't have bikes or cars making it to the trees. That would be a disaster as well. I'm happy that they have now pushed it as far back as possible.
If the speed bumps were not there you and many others would just make the bus stop longer through the dirt as mentioned to gain an advantage. You're not supposed to hit them. They are not supposed to be a set of doubles.
Sometimes they get hit on the odd lap. But if you hit them every lap that's a rider specific problem.

Perhaps an idea seeing as Castrol are in agreement on the turn 1 gravel trap, could we use some of that crushed asphalt in the area past the bustop? Part of the reason it had worried me in turn 1 was that it may pack in and not actually slow bikes all that well. That would be a good thing at the bus stop helping to stop rocks / dirt / grass from getting kicked up on accidental hops over the curbing?
 
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