Improving grip

[Tailwind]

A lot of work was done on the Denver GP circuit this year to improve the racing conditions over last year. The drivers all seemed to agree that the track was smoother than it had been in 2002. They also felt the track was still slick. It did rain each night washing away the rubber build up. What can be done to a track surface to improve the grip?

[Crash Test]

Have the race on a decent race track, not in a car park?

[gttouring]

for 1 Crash, true

and if they chose denver, well deal with it, the lack of grip on a surface must be overcome by mechanics or Wing, so it is part of the game.

[dirtfan]

I think it was Eddie Cheever who said, regarding a track that NASCAR drivers were whining about, "learn to deal with it, that's why they call us race car drivers", or something like that.

[Emfa]

Several interesting aspects to this question.

Not much can be done aerodynamically. Since Denver is a mile high, all the teams dial in as much wing as possible and are still only getting about 80% of the downforce that they have closer to the sea.

There is only so much you can do with the track surface, and everyone is dealing with the same issues. I suppose they could lay that sticky goop they use on dragstrips (VHT?), but that is very artificial - and would cost a pretty penny, I'm sure.

I think that the pavement grinding they did this year was mainly aimed at smoothing the surface. They seemed to do a good job with that, however the drivers said that it is still the roughest track they visit. It's hard to keep good traction while you're driving over bumps, so maybe the best thing they can do is to keep grinding the surface to eliminate more bumps.

In one respect, the drivers and teams just have to knuckle down and come to grips with the track the best they can (sorry, couldn't resist ). The diversity of the tracks that CART visits is often mentioned. Even though not everyone likes Denver (Junky & MarioD being exceptions?), it tests teams and drivers and adds another dimension to the whole spectacle. Like was said - deal with it!

[Crash Test]

VHT would really help in the rain

[GP Racer]

Champ cars race in the rain, don't they? And no dry track, no matter how slick, is going to be as slippery as that.

So set up your car and get on with it!

[Crash Test]

The thing with VHT in the rain, is that it is hard to stand on, let alone drive a car across at any form of speed

[GTRMagic]

Originally posted by GP Racer
Champ cars race in the rain, don't they? And no dry track, no matter how slick, is going to be as slippery as that.

So set up your car and get on with it!

Why werent you in race control at the Gold Coast Indy race last year

[Emfa]

Originally posted by Crash Test
The thing with VHT in the rain, is that it is hard to stand on, let alone drive a car across at any form of speed

Oh. So that must be why they don't run drag races in the rain?

[Snrub]

One thing that might work is mandating wing angle like the IRL does. I'm not sure I'm in favour of this idea...

[Crash Test]

Just as a bit of a case, there is a track here in Australia where the front straight of the track doubled as a drag strip, with the first turn leading off the straight one of the fastest in the land. There were some absolutely mega accidents there in the wet from people having no control on the VHT and whatever else the drag people use. It then became a big struggle to schedule a block of drag meetings between circuit races, to limit the cleaning costs.