Spokane County Raceways

Ken

Test and tune on thursday the 14th. Racing Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Special race for all classes (ow and cw sprints) on Saturday to determine who the best drivers in ICSCC really are......

E-mail me for more info if you need it via NWMS

Greg Coffin
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nil0Nu87JA4

Ignore the fake "chicane." From my close up view point, there need to be a tirewall at the first part of the "s" in the new section and that building NEEDS to go.

Heading onto the drag straight, they should have opened it up more on the left to make it more of a straight away instead of a bending-left onto the strip with the wall 20ft from you on the you're right.

Other than that, it's nice and smooth and the curbs look nice as well, might be able to do a little jumping :D
 
Hmmm...

I like (old) T1-T6....

Seems very unfinished - my thoughts tend to mirror those of jrhaile's, above.

The area where we will re-enter the front straight is very sketchy as you look at driver's left. A mildly turned out concrete wall with a tree directly behind it.

And, do we paddock in the unprotected area off to driver's right as we come through the new esses?

And the building - fronted by hay bales?

Am I missing something?

I'm not a granny, however I'm not seeing things that get me feeling at ease here.

I guess we'll see it in July...

Thank you for posting the video.
 
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Oh ya! love the video! GSXR? I had to go fire up the R1 and take it for a run after watching that. It looks like a lot more fun from that video than it does from the air.
 
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Work is still in progress out there, We had a late Spring around here and there were people working out there today. The new portable work stations were delivered and put in place for the SOVREN races. They finally widened the exit to five and added the much needed curbing . The entry road off of Sprague to the entrance to track has been repaved to so no more pot holes coming in.

There is a fenced in area that runs from the old picnic area across to the dirt bank just prior to the old turn 8. All the area behind it toward the access gate is now free for paddock area. I think we will know more of what the place will look like closer to the event. The tree behind the concrete wall as you re enter the old track would be a place on interest if it remains like that. I understood one of the issues was opposing cars would be approaching each other without enough gap
if they didn't re enter the track there. Cars heading from turn 3 into turn 4 would be heading toward the cars entering the end of the drag strip just past the lights. In order to put the re entry there they had to do a lot of work relocating he old electrical utility building.

Here is a video from Jeff Seehorn's STI taken today. He is also the guy on the motorcycle that took the video above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoGZ6_iaNIM

The track has really come a long way since the goat farm days and really is starting to look good.
 
Work is still in progress out there, We had a late Spring around here and there were people working out there today. The new portable work stations were delivered and put in place for the SOVREN races. They finally widened the exit to five and added the much needed curbing . The entry road off of Sprague to the entrance to track has been repaved to so no more pot holes coming in.

There is a fenced in area that runs from the old picnic area across to the dirt bank just prior to the old turn 8. All the area behind it toward the access gate is now free for paddock area. I think we will know more of what the place will look like closer to the event. The tree behind the concrete wall as you re enter the old track would be a place on interest if it remains like that. I understood one of the issues was opposing cars would be approaching each other without enough gap
if they didn't re enter the track there. Cars heading from turn 3 into turn 4 would be heading toward the cars entering the end of the drag strip just past the lights. In order to put the re entry there they had to do a lot of work relocating he old electrical utility building.

Here is a video from Jeff Seehorn's STI taken today. He is also the guy on the motorcycle that took the video above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoGZ6_iaNIM

The track has really come a long way since the goat farm days and really is starting to look good.

After running on the track this weekend and having a big off and only bent a wheel/knocked off 2 tires, I can say with confidence that the track has improved a TON over past years. The amount of grip on the new pavement is phenomenal. The curbing is excellent and they extended some areas too with a bit more run off room. There is still work to be done, but soon enough SCR will be a top-notch race park to play in for years to come.
 
A bit of an update on SCR from last weekend. SOVREN along with assistance from Northwest Motorsports hosted the first race
on the newly configured road course with great success. A lot more action to see with the new corners added . And the front section can be scene from a more convenient bleacher area and along the old paddock . I am surprised on how much work was completed since last weekend. I will post a link to photos as they come on along with any on board video I can snatch.

The track is really coming around now that they are focusing on the road course and circle track . They had an estimated 5k people show up for the circle track race on Saturday night. In 15 years going out there I haven't seen so much activity at the track.

Mike
 
That's awesome. Am I right in thinking that only first few rows will see the green flag, at least for cars where the driver sits pretty low?
 
Cool to see updates to the track, but that video leaves me with more questions than answers.

Is there anything (besides cones) between the old exit at the end of the back straight and the new front straight? If a car loses it brakes or has some other issue at the end of the back straight, it could easily end up head on to other cars. A similar thing happened at Thunderhill with deadly consequences.

What seperates the paddock and the track, and what is front of that maintenance building?
 
Eric,
I will try to answer your questions they are however unofficial :)

I think the first question is the oncoming cars heading towards turn 4 and separation of cars coming up the new section at turn 11. During the race we left just cones in the old pit in location as a run off area for people coming in to hot into 4. We have access to all the walls that aren't needed after NHRA runs their large meet there in a few weeks. They are currently located at the end of the drags strip. and can be moved. I wanted to bring the high lift over so we could have the photographer take some high angle shots of the separation points. The separation was a key item when relocating the entrance point back on to the end of the drag strip.

Steve,
There are two timing loops installed. The new tower stands you see can be move as they are built on steel skids. We knew that the start finish flag location used this past weekend was to far back and needs to move closer to the track. The request to move it was to close to race for us to safely move it. One other suggestion was to extend it a bit so the flags and the boards could be seen better. There is a suggestion to use an alternate location so that all the spectators and crews can see the start close up. This location will also allow all the drivers to see the starter.

The paddock and the track are now separated by a 6' high chain link fence ( security ) and a wall where the new turn 8 is . If you look at the entry of 8 you should see the fence with the wall in front. A tire barrier crew is already in place to assemble the required barriers . The hay bales in place were used by the motorcycle racers that used the track a week before and left in place for SOVREN. The metal shop building that is drivers side left as you come through the corners 9 and 10 currently only has hay bales protecting it. Again that was only temporary for the last two events.

Please fill free to ask all the questions you have , it takes a lot of input to fine tune something so new.

Also a lot of notes were taken this past weekend and we know that tweaking is necessary .

Mike
 
Thanks for the update, Mike. I realize it is a work in progress.

Here is a screen capture of what I was talking about. (I never have remembered the turn numbering.) There doesn't seem to be anything to physically stop cars from crossing over as you can see up the back 'straight'.
spokane.jpg
 
Erik,
You are correct ! In that photo there isn't anything in place but three sets of cones. There will be a wall in place by July .
This is a known issue as you know that was pit in and people were aware that the track alignment was difficult in that location. The wall will be located so that if someone enters 4 hot there we wanted them to have some run off but will have to return to the track they way they came in with use of the corner 4 flagging station.

The corners from 4 on were numbered differently at the event. It was confusing to me when corners were called in.

If you see anything else you have concerns with please post up. One of the officials with SOVREN was going around with a punch list of items and passing them by me when he could.
 
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Erik,
You are correct ! In that photo there isn't anything in place but three sets of cones. There will be a wall in place by July .
This is a known issue as you know that was pit in and people were aware that the track alignment was difficult in that location. The wall will be located so that if someone enters 4 hot there we wanted them to have some run off but will have to return to the track they way they came in with use of the corner 4 flagging station.

The corners from 4 on were numbered differently at the event. It was confusing to me when corners were called in.

If you see anything else you have concerns with please post up. One of the officials with SOVREN was going around with a punch list of items and passing them by me when he could.

Just a suggestion from one of the Safety team that will be working the event. If it is possible and safe to do so, having an opening so that a safety truck can go through that runoff and re-enter the other side of the course as a short cut could save lots of time getting to a crash pre-S/F. Adam and I will be driving over on Wednesday evening and hope to visit the track on Thursday to look things over from a safety truck perspective. At this point, we expect to station the truck in the short cut between the front straight and Turn 3 as we have in the past. We can short cut the turn 5/6 complex by going off road to get to the south end quickly. Being able to short cut the entire south end and get back on the track prior to the final corner could be quite advantageous.
 
Rob,
I believe they are leaving the left side open as you view the photo so safety and supporting equipment can get through to the hair pin area. All the grass his been mowed out there and the bleachers are no longer on the hill behind station 4 . The dirt cross over road between 4 and 6 is in good shape and you can cut through there as well. No RVs or trailers in that infield grass area makes crossing over there quick as well. We discussed stagging the forklift in the cross over between turn 3 and the front straight to speed up response this weekend since most of the stuck vehicles occur in the turn 1 and 2 area. If you think of anything else let us know. Response time is much quicker now that we are not dealing with pit area and spectators.

Mike
 
Thanks Scott for the photos !!

Both photos show items that Eric brought up , there are solutions for what was mentioned .

Scott, If the photographer that was out there doesn't have photos of these two areas can I use theses for my punch list ? These show a couple of items that are on my list :)
 
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