Going to FCA Nat'l Meet at Road America...Questions about the track.

Marc, I put Road America in the same category at the Glen and full course VIR in terms of braking brutality.

The two hardest spots on brakes are the downhill (after a long run and fast exit from T3) Turn 5 and Canada Corner (Turn 12), another "haulin' it down" zone after going fast out of the Carousel and negotiating the Kink. That said, the subsequent T6-Carousel run is a reasonable cooling off zone (except for T8) and the area following Canada allows for some brake cooling. Turn 13 (the former bridge, it's gone now, replaced by a tunnel) is one of the most awesome corners around, think South Bend or T10 at the Glen!

You'll get a lot of opinions, but since you're driving to the event (plan on 18-20 hours), I'd run the OEM pads and take a spare set rather than run the Porterfields.

This is for fun, remember?

 

If you have a chance, look up Duck Waddle (no lie, that's his name) at the track. He's semi-retired from Skippy but still hangs around. If he's there, he'll give you the best advice about getting around that track, period. I won my first race there after riding with him when he was placing the cones... Give him and his wife my best.

If you want, we can make a date for you to come by and we'll do some laps in the simulator to get the "muscle memory" going.

 

If you like thrilling threshold braking you'll love T5 and Canada. There are several other hard braking spots. This track is VERY fast and will be hard on brakes, but there are nice long straights between very harsh brake zones. It is a fantastic track. It is shocking how narrow the track is, especially at speed.

Here's a GT3 cup going 2:15.6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNzQgAXsr_o

 

Cory Friedman, Autometrics, great Porsche shop in SC and a great kid. His dad and I taught schools together for a long time.

This ain't no standard GT3 cup car. This is the Grand Am GT class winning car and driver, Daytona 24 Hours, 2005.