By Jeff Glucker
The other day I mentioned that I’d gone on a vacation. I spent time with friends and family. Oh, and an Audi Q8. Part of my time, however, was spent in an iconic sports car at a private race track. It’s called Club Motorsports, and it quickly became one of my favorite places to drive a car.
Nestled into the hills surround Tamworth, New Hampshire, Club Motorsports is a slithering slice of tarmac cut into granite and trees. The track is 40-feet wide, boasts 250 feet of elevation change, and is comprised of 15 turns over the course of 2.5 miles. Laguna Seca has 180 feet of elevation change. COTA has 133. When you’re driving at Club Motorsports, you’re running with the terrain in a beautiful way.
I’ll go into greater detail of my time at Club Motorsports very soon. The short of it is that I borrowed a friend’s first-generation Acura NSX. He’s a member of the track, and he spoke to the powers that be so I could get in two run sessions. The car was fantastic. The circuit was wonderful. And the people running the show are great as well.
But right now, I want to know about other lesser-known race tracks. I’ve driven a handful of circuits, some very well known, others less so. Which ones are your favorites? Let me know, below!
I don’t know what I’m doing on any of them, but at least The Ridge is close to home.
https://www.hookedondriving.com/images/tracks/the-ridge-motorsports-park-details002-lg.jpg
Drove that track during the Jaguar F-Type launch. Fantastic circuit. And then I took a float plane back to Seattle. Fantastic trip.
I’m not sure how you did in the F-Type, but in the 96 we can almost reach 70 mph by the end of the straight.
Why, my home track of High Plains Raceway of course! Just a short jaunt out of Denver. It’s a challenging track that equalizes horsepower and handling. Track days are always reasonably priced as well. https://www.highplainsraceway.com
This is my answer as well, though I wouldn’t necessarily call an hour and a half drive a ‘short jaunt’.
The only lesser known track that I have been to is Roebling Road outside of Savannah, GA. I went there in the early 1990s as a high school kid to see a SVRA vintage race with my dad. Showed up and found out that it was a no spectator track. They let us in under media credentials.
Cool layout!
And it has a small collection of interesting Cold War jets on site:
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/17c0d80b582685ff30a260c943267bb9d6dd07e2949345bbc5922d4910931be7.jpg
Doesn’t the main straight also double as a runway?
https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm4.staticflickr.com%2F3081%2F2917267071_4a6119dc76_b_d.jpg&f=1&nofb=1
“…and then, coming into 4, you want to turn in just as you pass the MiG…”
Fortunately we brought an Eastern Bloc car to the 2017 race for just this eventuality:
http://www.murileemartin.com/UG/LAZ17/099-IMG_7651.jpg
The Garlits photo on the Lexington was staged, but there have been a handful of other dragster vs. jet matchups.
https://i.redd.it/fsu7vjfe2a931.jpg
Is Pacific Raceways (formerly S.I.R.) “lesser known”? Regardless, it’s my vote, for the racers AND for spectating.
http://pacificraceways.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/PacificRaceways-Sovren.jpg
Club is going to be a loooong tow but it looks awesome. I saw a lot of pictures during construction and it has been calling since. Sometime in the next year or so it’ll be on our list. Closer to home, Grattan Raceway has always been one of my favorites. Lots of elevation for this area, several blind turns, and a couple lift/don’t lift decisions every lap. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7344628e7fa0638f7719b11fd785a61fe53fa9182f39879cf39db8c1d5337323.jpg
my first race track, and so far my favorite, was MSR Cresson in the DFW area. 3.1 miles of tight corners, elevation changes, and decent pavement. it was perfect for my Fiesta – the track has a few straights, but for the vast majority of it your wheel is moving. done a bunch of tracks since moving away from Texas, but none I love as much as I did Cresson.
https://www.motorsportranch.com/images/misc/Track_Layout_3_1.jpg just look at all those corners