Caught me totally off guard.

There are many reasons that are possible, but I do not know for sure.

Electric vehicles are heavy for their size, and in some kinds of crashes could be a threat to the small, light cars that most of us still love.

A lot of newer electric vehicles have blistering speed and acceleration and could not fit into groups or classes easily.

The fact is that if there is a crash, battery fires are very hard to put out and require enormous quantities of water.

Could be all three things or something I haven't thought of. Totally took me by surprise.

I'm not prejudiced. My own everyday car is a little electric vehicle.

 

Would they even use water for the fires? I believe they need a D rated fire extinguisher.

 

Just reading this, and a quick elgoog search says it takes crazy loads of water to put a tesla out.
Some say 28,000 gallons, there a few saying 24,000-30,000 gallons and 42 mins or hours to put one out. Sorry to say if a tesla or similar car took that long to put out there goes everyone's day down the tubes.
What's a sanctioning body to do? Refund everyone's money for no track time? That's a lose lose scenario, so ya id say BANNED unless of course the Tesla or EV drivers paid a bond for loss of track time and resources to put the vehicle out?

 

It's not just the fires. It's also the safety issues related to unskilled newcomers in very heavy vehicles with very high performance.

But, sure, it's primarily the fire problem, and it's that the solution involves huge quantities of water.

The typical waiver covers damage to the track that is caused while trying to remove your vehicle from the track. But even if your waiver covers everybody's track time and fire damage, most insurance companies aren't going to cover all that and your typical first year student who's screwed up that badly is not going to have the resources for recompense.

I think it's a shame, but I understand. :-(

 

To some extent, I don't think EV manufacturers have found ways to handle properly the performance that their vehicles might be capable of.

When Munro Associates had a Lucid up in the air looking under it, I was very surprised to see a complicated front suspension with multiple ball joints. The points resembled what the front end of the last generation Legend looked like.

But then your eyes wander over to where a metal fastener is very obviously rubbing against a rubber hose, and if you're on the track bouncing over gates and making quick transitions, that rubbing is going to be much worse than what the manufacturer thought about. It's going to rub through even in normal driving, at some point, never mind track usage.

A 2022 Model 3 Performance has amazing front line acceleration, but the suspension doesn't handle bumps very well, especially if you're turning. I believe that your basic Tesla is safe and better thought out than a Lucid, but the suspension wasn't designed for track use and a crash into a much lighter car could lead to unexpected injuries and a battery fire in a car that'd be perfectly safe in other conditions.

It's just too bad.

The road courses having to decide how to improve the charging infrastructures around them might have rushed a decision that maybe they'd have considered putting off.

You don't really think about it much but you can't just install a bank of 200 kW, 400 volt or 800 volt charging stations. There might be some digging involved, storage batteries, maybe some solar, and they might have to pay for some expensive improvements to access the local power company grid because the track is located in agricultural or rural zoning where nobody ever thought they'd need this kind of power.

 

This post had me thinking about the m3p

aside from bigger brakes and wheels and tires, is there anything different in the suspension system compared to a base model? Or is it just all power?

 

GK is back!

i'm not surprised. they arent the first track do it. i'm sure there are a variety of reasons, but the nudge might have been the insurance companies

 

He never left

 

GK,

I found your post googling to see where the Summit Point ban news has spread, and the discussions surrounding it.

Great to see your post. You and I are OG Honda lovers... and, to your point now EV adopters / drivers. And, in my case, EV racer...

My other HT username was ppihctyper


Cliff notes from my side of this equation is that there are WAY too many assumptions and misrepresentations regarding EV safety, performance benefits and compromises. Hence, some decisions are made on the side of caution.

As a 25+ year battery designer, motorsports competitor and designer, my strong opinion is that education is the 1st step to making the correct decisions regarding new technologies.

Bottom line: Motorsports is dangerous. The degree of which is infinitely variable.

Banning EV's and Hybrids is akin to banning humans driving.
Instead, rules are developed to make the human safer... cages, seats, belts, hans, helmets, fire gear, fire suppression equipment on board... That protects the individual.
Then there are rules as to the education of the human for decision making as speeds increase.

The next step is to correctly define the dangers in levels/tiers, then refine the methods to respond to these tiers. Instances of this can be seen in the aforementioned existing safety equipment depending on the weight, speed of car, class of competition, etc..: cages, seats, belts, hans, helmets, fire gear, fire suppression equipment on board...

It is interesting that Summit Point bans EV's, but does allow certain types of training which, like EV's simply require special training, handling and procedures:

https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CO...D00000055_7014
https://summitpointtraining.com/about-sptf/

Disclaimer: Please don't assume that I disagree with the decision made, as I DO NOT have the full information, or influential basis of why this decision was made. While both the referenced documents for their decision had been provided, more context of which specific concerns could not be addressed would be very beneficial to know.
Hopefully we learn more as to "why" and see if there is a way these concerns can be safely and professionally addressed for a better result for all!

 

I remember you. Thank you for joining the discussion.

This ban is just a phase we have to go through, I guess.