Changes to Heartland Park at Topeka

[Bruce Lind]

Back in the 90's, it was determined that Heartland Park at Topeka was not raceable for motorcycles.
Mostly because of the ARMCO.

Does anyone actually know first hand that they have made sufficient changes to the layout so we can feel good about going fast there?

Bruce Lind
44th season on the pavement

[benprobst]

i felt ok going fast there last year. The problem for me was, In the places where you should crash/most likely to crash it is somewhat safe, however everywhere else it is stupid dangerous. When i was there with ccs/asra last year, two guys got hurt bad, if im not mistake they were both kind of weird crashes, the type where the accident is a freak accurance, and norammly you would just slide off into the grass, however these guys slid off into very dangerous situations. So whn a something freak happens, like a locked rear wheel or a collision on the track you are put in a very dangerous spot considering basically the entire track is lined with concrete.

[Super Dave]

Hey, Bruce...

AMA stopped racing there because of the promoter.  They wanted to cancel the whole 1991 event three weeks before the race.

Last corner is a lot different now.  Old T1/T2 is very different.  Where 1/4ley fell over trying to catch Renfrow has all been moved around.

Jeff Wood liked the track.

[Jeff]

1 of the guys at HPT last year hit the wall in a freak location.  The other was a high-side which had nothing to do with the walls...

The track is awesome, no doubt about that, but the walls still up the ante a bit...

The start is like launching 30+ bikes through a concrete funnel...  Pretty scary.  Then again, what track DOESN'T have some scary spots?

[tstruyk]

Brad Neff (sp) hit something... I dont know the details but from here say it sounds kinda like if you where to blow T6 at GIR and hit the wall there... not likely but possible.  I do NOT have all the info first hand, someone else can chime in on that one

Jason Thorson got tangled with his bike in a highside...had nothing to do with the track safety/armco/walls/lack of air fence... where he crashed would be comparable to T4 at MAM

I felt safe there... just like most tracks there are places you dont want to crash (not that anyone WANTS to crash) Air fence seemed to be in appropriate places, i dont recall seeing anywhere that SHOULD have had airfence that didnt

[Grashopr]

I had no idea I might have been doing a trackday on a 'dangerous track'.   Didn't even consider it.   Of course, what do I know?

[Spooner]

Like others said, at the places where its 'normal' to crash its not too bad.  But, have something go wrong (ie can't stop) and there are a number of places that would be VERY bad to run off at. 

Yeah, its safer than before, but I think they can go a LONG LONG LONG ways to being safer.  There is absolutely no reason that they need to ring the track in wall like it is now. 

[funsizeracing]

It's one of my favorite tracks.  I'm going through all the corners and don't remember seeing too much concrete that you would be likely to hit.  Since they repaved it the surface is really nice.  I don't think it's anymore dangerous than any other track.

[Scotty Ryan]

Heartland is one of my favorites. The track is not anymore dangerous then other tracks. Infact I just back from Fontana - and that place has more concrete and problem areas then just about any other track i've been to.

[bigreid]

I really don't like T2 where is crosses the drag strip.  Had a little bobble there and got closer to the wall than I would have liked to be.  Other than that, I've crash tested two other spots on the track (T8 and T9) and I'd say that those spots are safe.  I think there is no room to do something incredibly stupid, so unless you do those type of things on a regular basis you should be fine.

From what I've heard about Gateway, HPT is like a room with padded walls safe.

[Spooner]

Yeah coming out of T2 the wall is pretty close there, not to mention crossing the dragstrip you can get tangled in a wall there pretty easily.  I remember from the races last year that T1/2 was a mess most every start.

Also tipping into T5 the wall is pretty close there (thats where the one guy hit it and broke a million bones). 

Those are the worst sections I feel, but I would be happy if there was NO armco left other than leading into the bridge section and the last couple corners going under the bridge, but at least those are fairly slow corners.

I just can't believe that they spent so much money and still have glaring safety issues.  Don't get me wrong-the surface is killer and the garages are VERY nice to have, but none of that matters when your in the back of an ambulance..

[cold]

speaking of jason, has anyone heard how he's doing?