Heartland Park Topeka

[Super Dave]

Ok, here you go...

Pictures of the changes.

http://www.kcrscca.org/hpt_const.htm

[Woofentino Pugrossi]

MAybe it might be worth driving 8.5 hrs there next season. ;D ;D

[Woofentino Pugrossi]

So which course does CCS use? Napcar 1.8mile, Napcar 2.1 mile, 2.2 mile or the GP course?

[K3 Chris Onwiler]

I don't get it.  Do we race down the pit lane and do a kink before turn one?

[Burt Munro]

Rob...  for the F-USA race last August they used the 1.8 mile layout.  Havn't heard for sure if the '04 races will do the same.  Some of that probably depends on how soon they are able to put down a new surface.  I believe that the current condition of the track dictates which layout is used for bikes.

Chris...  I was thinking the same thing.  Wonder if there is more earth moving in the works before they start putting down asphalt.  Hard to visualize what they will end up with from the photos.

Only thing I heard for sure was that the former hot pit surface was going to become the new front straight.  Not sure how that plays into the location of pit in and pit out access.

Rick

[Super Dave]

Yeah, the back section is just shot.

Will be interesting with a 130MPH little kinky thing there going down the straight.  Might make starts real interesting.

As for "Napcar"...Cambridge, Wisconsin's Matt Kenseth got his bonus check from the series for winning the championship....6.5 million.  Doesn't have anything to do with his salary or bonuses or anything else from the season.  

[GSXR RACER MIKE]

I don't get it.  Do we race down the pit lane and do a kink before turn one?

     I am somewhat confused on which side of the pit wall we are going to be racing down? The approach to the current hot pit lane (soon to be racing surface) puts us on the right side of the hot pit wall, but at the end of the current pit lanes the approach to the slight chicane leading to turn 1 is lined up more with the pavement on the left side of the wall. It would make sense that the left side of the hot pit wall will now be hot pit lane (so as to provide access for crew during the race), and the right side would now be racing surface, but the end of the pit lanes doesn't line up that way. I'm guessing that if we are using the right side as the racing surface that they are going to remove that last section of wall dividing the 2 pit lanes so as to provide a better approach toward the chicane.

     It also looks like that turn at the end of it all blending onto the original turn 1 is going to be a bit slower than the original design, possibly a new passing area between that new chicane and the turn onto the original turn 1. I am also wondering about that chicane on the starts, might be kinda interesting.

     Any bets this is going to be the location of our 1st event for 2004 like CCS use to do? I bet it is, which is ok in my book (even though it will probably be one of the furthest drives for me during the season). I like Heartland Park and prefer the weather there at that time as opposed to Northern weather at the end of May/start of April (though I don't want to lose any events at BHF because of it).

[Super Dave]

I think you have to have the hot pit lane on the left...unless you're gonna move the whole pit area to the other side, but I do see what you're saying about how it all lines up.

Topeka at the end of March....

And the weather is probably more likely to swing that it would in a more northern area like Blackhawk.  The Gulf of Mexico moisture can do funny things.  It might rain, it might snow.  You can bet that it will probably be windy though.  Regardless, it will be "humid" cold or hot.  And neither is preferable.

I taught schools there with ice on the track early in the racing season before.

[motomadness]

Looks like fun, but 15 hours!  Are they at least adding showers and more electricity?  More shade would be nice too.

I also agree that kink in the straight is going to be quite interesting at the start.

[GSXR RACER MIKE]

     I see your point about the Gulf influencing the weather there. I was pretty lucky the 3 times I went there at the end of March, the weather was pretty tolerable. The worst was when it was 35* at the start of practice one morning, but it warmed into the 60's by race time so it was all good. Never have been there in the rain before, but I would imagine it would be treacherous on the dragway!

[Super_KC124]

I think the pit out is wide enough to have both a race line and a way to enter the track. Just my opinion. ;)

[Super Dave]

I think that turning at 120 to 130...it will be really interesting.  I'm not even thinking about pit out traffic.  I'd bet that it feels like the kink at Road America...probably a bit more room, but you get the picture.