Grandsport Speedway

Went to the DE/TT only event there yesterday. This was my first time at this little track, and I was really surprised! Its a great place to practice driving and for doing car setup testing. Its smoother than most Tx tracks, but not slick like Cresson. Its short (probably 1.08 or so CMC times) so you get to do the turns more often for a given amount of track time. Its got a couple of hairpins, a mid speed sweeper, a mid speed normal 90deg turn, and a set of fast transition esses. In other words, just about all you need to experiment with car setup. The facilities are sparse: one building thats rather small for a classroom, and a couple of portapotties. The parking lot is a little rough and has gravel sprinkled all around, but its huge.

The track is too narrow for real racing, but I think its perfect for comp schools. I mentioned to Dave next year we need to set up a package to attract racers that want to test: lots of track time, not lots of money. Any of you guys think you might be interested in this?

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Originally Posted by Al Fernandez

This was my first time at this little track, and I was really surprised! Its a great place to practice driving and for doing car setup testing.

I mentioned to Dave next year we need to set up a package to attract racers that want to test: lots of track time, not lots of money. Any of you guys think you might be interested in this?

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Comment sounds familiar. I think it would make a great day.

So I showed up to the high speed, cone-less autocross on Sunday. The course was tight. Over half of the turns on the track were Turn 2 at Hallett tight. My pony car suspension/steering based on ‘70’s technology just doesn’t operate all that well with the steering wheel turned that much. Generally lots of understeer followed by tire roasting oversteer.

The track was very busy with lots of steering inputs/corrections on top of gear changes. My transmission isn’t all that happy these days. It wants to pop out of second a lot of times and sometimes refuses to go into third. That made it challenging since the gear changes for this track looked like this for me: Shift into fourth around the start finish, then third, second, third, second, third, second, third, fourth, third, second, third, and back into fourth as you crossed the start/finish again. All in a one minute, four second lap. Combined with fighting for front grip and then catching the power slides, this track just plain wore me out.

I picked one session to focus on my normal disciplined approach to keep the car in control at all times. That is usually the fastest way around the track. I went slower. My best times were set when I purposely upset the car to get it to rotate so I could roast the rear tires on corner exit in a straighter line. It was a bit of fun but hard for me to take seriously. I made many more mistakes than usual and even mowed some grass, which is rare. I had one session without a passenger and used that time to practice drifting. It’s an excellent track for that…
For the last combined session of the day, they bypassed the inner loop. I was shocked at how much that changed the complexion of the track. Definitely a big improvement and gave the track a good variety of turns rather than fighting tight stuff for the whole lap.

So, I agree with Al. Grand Sport is an excellent place to set up your car… if you goal is to dominate turn 2 at Hallett and get left behind everywhere else. On the other hand, if you are looking to practice car control and understeer/oversteer correction (or inducement) at speeds that aren’t scary fast, this is an excellent place.

I’ll probably go back for one more day if they run the direction I didn’t get to run on Sunday, but only because it is 20 minutes from my house. Any day at the track is a good day…


Richard P.

Richard, good feedback. You guys ran it CW, the day before we ran it CCW. That makes a huge difference. CW you have several (three) hairpins that go into increasing radius turns. CCW these are decreasing radius turns with braking zones in the middle before arriving at a hairpin. Much more useful for car setup testing. Think turn 1 and 2 at TWS CCW except you're coming in in 3rd or 4th instead of 5th

I had fun! Here's three laps. :D

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=2&theater

Mindy

Anyone else need some practice? I am planning on the August 12th track day. It will be CCW which Al says is better and V8 powered cars are $100!

http://grandsportspeedway.com/driveyourcar.html

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Originally Posted by HoustonNW

Anyone else need some practice? I am planning on the August 12th track day. It will be CCW which Al says is better and V8 powered cars are $100!

http://grandsportspeedway.com/driveyourcar.html

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I don't know if the car will be running (or if I can get a kitchen pass) but that would be cool. I've only been CCW and dug it.

If the car is ready in time, I'll go. Need to make the autocross the weekend prior...

Missed the August V-8 event. Yeah, it was too hot! Waiting for the Blue car weekend in a couple months. Fun track to go get the sudo racing "fix"