The West track is a lot of fun! It is very technical and awesome for small nimble cars. I pitted next to Luc and Bill from NCRC and had a lot of great chats with them. We were discussing the new track and Bill noted that it felt like a National Autocross track; lots of high speed, quick turns, hairpins, weight shifts, etc.
They said that it is very likely that they won't being doing the full 5-mile track again because of the price. They lost money on the day because the raceway charges an extra $7k for the 2 mile track. However, they are seriously considering running two concurrent track days; one on the three mile track and one on the two mile track.
However, one of the challenges that NCRC had yesterday was that all of the workers in the flag stands in the West track were relatively new. That is what exacerbated the problem with the grass fire and oil and diesel spill in the morning.
Overall, I am glad that I got the opportunity to run it as a 5-mile track. If you get a chance to run the 5-mile then I would suggest that you jump on it. The spots will probably fill fast.
@
garfull was there too in his Miata but I never saw him on the track. Maybe it was because I always got on the grid early. However, that bit me in the butt in the first session as I was the first one over the chicane on 9C. I didn't realize how sharp the turn was and wound up going off and taking a shortcut through the dirt. Didn't make that mistake again :-p
I will post a video later of all of the off road excursions that I personally saw on the new track. There were a ton that I didn't get on camera too. A lot of people tried to drive it fast like the East section instead of a slow technical track like it is. Add to that the fact that it is relatively new tarmac which is isn't as grippy and lot of dirt being dragged on track from others... Yeah, it was a learning experience for a lot of people.
Here is a turn-by-turn break down including my best lap.. Many thanks again to @
ddeflyer. Turn 2E was much better for me this time.
Oh yeah, this was my first time over the bypass. Much more of a gut check than I was expecting. It was still a lot of fun!