This is the same track used by NASCAR and Indy Cars except we got the added fun of running the road course inside the oval rather than just going around in circles. The road course does make use of the front straight and turns 1 & 2 of the oval so we did get to zip around on the banking each lap. That was certainly different!

I've got pictures and an in-car video showing a full lap of the circuit, all available HERE

 

Mike,

Looks like great fun. How many cars were running? At the fastest point on the track, what were you able to get it up to?

Steve

 

Steve, there were maybe 30 cars in our group and they ranged from a full race prepped Ferrari 360 to an SL 65 AMG, a couple of Spec Miatas with race tires, a couple of C6 Z06s and a BMW or three. My max speed was about 125mph but interestingly enough that speed brought me into the second slowest corner on the whole circuit - a left hander taken around 35mph. I almost got rear ended by a Porsche 911 Turbo who was shocked that I could stop so fast and that I'd gotten up to that speed - he followed me through the oval and hadn't reached that speed previously. Needless to say he misjudged his braking point due to the higher speed and I just managed to get out of his way through the corner while he went straight off. I've got the whole thing on video as I had the camera pointing out the back for that session. I'll post that up later when I get some time.

 

Very cool Mike. Glad you are enjoying the car. Nice driving BTW.

 

Mike,

That track is practically in my back yard. I have run the interior course several times. Never got out on the oval (ROVAL). I did not know about this run. Next time give me a yell ahead of time. BTW the SRT6 hit a top of 130 on the road course front straight between the mild chicane and the hard 90 degree right. I was on the tail of a RUFF race prepped Porsche. I was just stupid enough to think I could stay with him (I did). He was quite pi$$ed that the lowly Crossfire stayed on his butt considering he had almost $200 large in the Porsche. LOL

 

You're talking about under the bridge, right? I was good for about 115 if I came off the hairpin quick. My biggest problem with that stretch was that I was redlining in 3rd right at the chicane - not the best time to shift, you know? I tried short shifting before the chicane or just holding it through and shifting immediately after. Didn't really seem to make much difference.

I did have one suspicion confirmed though - my buddy with the heavily modified PT Cruiser Turbo was there and I know he can kill my Crossfire in a straight up drag race (he turned a 14.01 quarter mile just two weeks prior) but I was of the belief that from a 40 or 50mph roll the Crossfire was faster (obviously the Crossfire would be faster in the twisty bits, that's a given). Sure enough, as we went full throttle coming out of the infield complex at maybe 50 and onto the front straight I'd just drive right by him. Buh-bye!

For me the real fun part was the Spec Miatas I got to run with. All the instructors talk about these things just shining on the infield, even catching much more powerful cars. Well, after I caught one of them on the oval - I could run almost 15mph faster there than he could - I hung right on his tail all the way through the infield. Considering he was on R-Compound rubber and was a full blown Spec Miata and I was in a bone stock Crossfire on street tires I thought it was pretty cool that I could hang right in with him. Just as with my buddy's PT though, once we hit the main straight I was gone.

 

Way too much fun Mike... Glad you had a blast... The withdrawl is becoming almost unbearable!

 

Great story Mike! Your story among others are keeping me motivated to run my XF at BIR this spring. The way this is working out, we may have XF's running at most of the major road courses all over the US.

 

I just added two more videos - me hunting down that Spec Miata racer and the Porsche that almost ran into the back of me. Both available on the same page I linked to in my original post: HERE