So I have been looking at a track map of Mid Ohio. The first thing I try to do is name the corners. How many turns are there and do they have names or just Turn 1, Turn 2 etc?

Will the event in august have the kink on the straight after turn 1 (assumed clockwise direction)?

I'd like to hear about each turn and what they are like, high speed, low speed, off camber, blah blah blah.

Were the cars in World Challenge running lap times of about 1:34?

Whats the length of the track? Average speed?


Thanks!

 

They used to have vids of Mid Ohio at the NASA Ohio-Indiana Chapter website. They took them down.

Matt Dudette posted this thread earlier this year with a vid of him driving around the track:

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=868963

Hope that helps.

 

The "club" course is the track in the normal 2.5 mile set-up with 15 turns and the normal "keyhole". To call it a chicane is not doing it justice for what a great turn sequence it is. Unless you have a big horsepower car that doesn't like tight stuff, I really prefer the club course.

The "pro" course is shorter slightly and does not use the Turns2 &3 combination or chicane so I think they call it 13 turns and around 2.4 miles.

Very good ITA times on the club course is the 1:44s and 1:45s at around 80ish mph average. SWC Touring cars were in the 1:34-1:40 range in practice on the pro course.

It is a great track and nice and technical. Lots of lines that aren't necessarily intuitive that take a lot of finesse. It has a good mix of tight and technical stuff from about T6 to T15 then T1 to T6 is really petty fast. This as opposed to Road Atlanta in my opinion where the lines generally come to you pretty quickly and the issue is more getting up the courage/***** to go so fast. RA has quite a few higher speed, "hang it out" corners than M-O.

I intend to be there at M-O during that weekend as an official Koni trip talking with folks and I'd be happy to help anyone with some pointers are I have a lot of M-O seat time and a few trick up the sleeve.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I intend to be there at M-O during that weekend as an official Koni trip talking with folks and I'd be happy to help anyone with some pointers are I have a lot of M-O seat time and a few trick up the sleeve.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Would you like to go for a ride in a honda prelude?

 

There is an instructional video available from the Mid Ohio School. I have it, and I reccomend it.
https://www.midohio.com/secure...46725

 

Unknown car, 7 mb
http://www.midohio.com/school/...0.wmv

Lotus 7 or similar, 9 mb
http://www.madmotors.com/media/video/midlap.avi

Historic, 10 mb
http://www.gogoracing.com/vide...o.mpg

Alternate Map
http://www.morpca.org/downloads/CR_Trackmap.pdf

It looks like the last part of the track will be a little tricky overtaking the slower cars - better send out Andy first to clear all the Mazdas out of the way.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rubber chicken &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Unknown car, 7 mb
http://www.midohio.com/school/...0.wmv</TD></TR></TABLE>

That is the NSX from the Mid-Ohio School video. You can't go wrong watching that time after time. A few this will change with traffic or strategy to get around folks but that is very clean for a clear track.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CRX Lee &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The "club" course is the track in the normal 2.5 mile set-up with 15 turns and the normal "keyhole". To call it a chicane is not doing it justice for what a great turn sequence it is. Unless you have a big horsepower car that doesn't like tight stuff, I really prefer the club course.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

that "keyhole" reminds me of the "bus stop" into turn 5 @ the glen

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BlueR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
that "keyhole" reminds me of the "bus stop" into turn 5 @ the glen</TD></TR></TABLE>

The difference to me at least is that the Watkins Glen "Bus Stop" was a later addition to the existing Watkins Glen straight track to slow cars down, primarily after the crash death of J.D. McDuffy. Tommy Kendall's big career effecting crash from augering-in a GTP Intrepid happened at the same spot pre-chicane.

Mid-Ohio's Turn 2 & 3 were part of the original configuration of the track and the straight section was added later to help the IndyCars and to court (unsuccessfully) NASCAR. Story has it that Teo Fabi went off in Turn 2 in the Porsche IndyCar and actually crossed over the striaght away against traffic flow before he could get the car shut down. That would be an eye opening "oops".

Maybe this is a purist point of view but to me the M-O straight takes away some original charachter that was part of the track. Probably worth nothing really in teh grand scheme.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rubber chicken &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
It looks like the last part of the track will be a little tricky overtaking the slower cars - better send out Andy first to clear all the Mazdas out of the way.</TD></TR></TABLE>


hahahah that was actually kinda funny. I wonder if there will be a bunch of little miatas buzzing around there as well?

I hope Hope doesnt take offense to that comment and still trys to make it out to this event!!!

 

Not to worry. I'll be there. Not with fiberglass bumpers though.
I don't think the miatas will be a problem anyway. Rumor has it that over sized mirrors are going to be required on all spec miatas as a result of last weekends unfortunate incident at Willow Springs.

 

SM have the mirrors positioned so the driver can see themselves (reference 'hairdresser car').

There is no doubt in my mind that some of the slower cars do not have mirrors or do not use them. The reason I believe this is that they will move across the track in the middle of a straight, forcing me right to the edge of the track until they either see me along side or hear my engine. I have examples of this on video. As overtaking car, it's our responsibility, but what can you do? I don't want to be biased, but I have never had a problem passing Hondas, and the 944 guys are pretty good. It did not help during the drivers meeting telling the slower cars to 'drive their line' - that means driving predictably, not drive to block the faster cars.