HPT in Road Racing World

[extrakt0r]

I am sure the great majority get Road Racing World, but for those of you that do not, here is a review they had in there. While I do agree that at the time the Track Safety was a little low, I do remember Mike Casey telling me at the last HPT day that they have added over 3000 feet of Soft Barrier to nearly all the listed Areas...

I don't think it is a bad review or anything, but there should probably be a counter statement made by HPT to RRW in regards to the updated Safety, cause HPT does care, and did get it done...

Anyway here it is...

[Court Jester]

There's two sides to every story and good journalism always offers both sides of that story. You can't put much faith into trash talk unles you hear it both points of view.

[stk0308]

Well it is a letter to the editor, so it's an opinion piece.

[Super Dave]

Seems to claim that he was at the HPT races...and speculates how the pit out works...by assuming that racers go to turns four and five?  Maybe he's one of those webdesigner/IT guys that wants to be part of the track action.

I raced HPT before the changes.  It's better now.

[Jeff]

Overall, I really liked the track my first weekend out.  Unfortunately I was riding injured so I wasn't able to REALLY push the track.

The layout is awesome, the surface is great, the FIM rumble strips are the coolest thing ever, the bathrooms are the best I've seen at a track, the list goes on and on.

Things I would improve. 
RV power needs to be within reach of the RV parking.  100' is not within reach.  100' of 50A cord is +$200, and nobody carries it because it's too heavy.  I talked to Mike about this and mentioned a simple, real-world fix to it which I hope they take to heart.

Walls...  walls walls...  I don't know that they are all necessary!  The entire track is encased in concrete walls, and that (a) sucks and (b) is dangerous...  Yes, airfence is needed and will help, but unless they can line the entire track with it, there will still be walls exposed.  Granted, places like Road America have some frightening walls as well, but in the case of HPT, they were EVERYWHERE.

The scariest moment of my season was getting hooked up with Ryan Johnson on the start of a VERY full grid.  We were at the front and locked bikes right as the track narrowed down into basically a concrete chute.  If we would have fell, it would have been catastropic as nobody would have had anywhere to go but right into us...  Not something that would happen at most other tracks, including those with walls on both sides (i.e., Road America).

Ultimately, it is what it is.  It's a track, they all have dangerous areas. 

Personally, I thought the track rocked and would love to race there more frequently...

[Court Jester]

I got my race license there just before they repaved it. Loved the lay out but wasn't fond of all the cracks and bumps and the only place I really had an issue with the walls was on the front stretch and they had an air fence at the exit of the last turn which made me feel a little better. But I did think the front stretch was a little tight.
In the mock race a guy had a tank slapper on the front stretch right in front of me. He went down and the bike went flipping to one side and just as I shot to the other side, his body jetted the other direction and I was about 2 feet from hitting his head at 100+ mph and damn near scraping the wall. I know a few folks from here were there to see it.
But I'd just like to see something done with that. Though I know it would cost too much for them to consider. And now that it's repaved, it would freaken rock. The cracks in the pavement took chips out of my knee sliders the last time I was there. But I live about 3 hours closer so I do plan to be there at some point next year. I hope to race, but even if it's for a track day, I plan to go back.

[G 97]

Seems to claim that he was at the HPT races...and speculates how the pit out works...by assuming that racers go to turns four and five?  Maybe he's one of those webdesigner/IT guys that wants to be part of the track action.

I raced HPT before the changes.  It's better now.

I agree, better today then in the past  years.