Windrock Park Testing

QuantumRacing

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Aug 9, 2012
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The Windrock Park course testing was held on Jan 27th 2013. The idea behind it was to gain an idea of the course, how it will race out and rough lap times. We think it is fair to say the course was very well received and as promised is very fast. Very few pictures were taken on the day as we had already released pictures of the course and we wanted to focus on the testing more than a picture op. That said there are some pictures and once they are made available to us we will post them.

The day started with everyone meeting in the new pit area at around 12, a quick car count was made and a trail ride began. 16 cars turned out for the testing which is a great sign for the series at Windrock Park as it shows people are interested to help with the process and make the Windrock course something truly great. The weather conditions for the test day were great but the course had taken a beating for the last two weeks with heavy rain consistently beating on it. Windrock even had heavy rain the night before the test so we knew the fresh cut part of the course would be muddy and it was. That said if this is the worst it will get then I think we are all in for a treat.

So the program for the day was simple,

1, Lead the testers around the course.
2, Have them run laps of the course.
3, Have a group session to understand comments and feedback.
4, Run the course some more.

The testers provided great feedback and really helped us understand their thoughts.

Once we returned from the trail ride it was time to get everyone lined up and let them run free. The beauty of the Windrock course is that it's a closed course so the testers could literally run the course as fast as they could. The test groups was made up of, Commanders, XP's, Wildcats and 800 RZR's which again was a great mix for testing.

We sent them out at 1 minute intervals so as to not get in each others way and the run was on. The fastest rough times recorded were in the 16 minute range with the slowest at about 19 and an average was in the 17 - 18 minute mark. This was great news, this meant the course was a fast as we had anticipated even in the very wet conditions.

It's fair to say the course got literally no negative feedback and most of the comments from the drivers we already had on the list to work on. Don't forget this was a rough cut course that had been abused by the weather for the last 2 weeks!

The feedback from the group discussion after the first round of running was as follows.

1, The course make up is awesome, even the technical sections are fast, not to narrow and they flow. There are two types of technical racing, fast high speed technical and slow through the trees technical. As we had hoped for we hit the nail on the head with high speed technical sections.

2, The course was not to narrow at any point to allow for high speed racing.

3, There were two tree stumps that needed fixing (We had this on the books and we are glad the racers picked up on it as it shows us they really were thinking about it in a race situation)

4, The brush off to the side needs to be pushed further back to get potential hazards away from the high speed stuff. (Again something we were aware off)

5, Burm up one of the corners near the lake

6, Try and create a few more passing places in the high speed technical sections. (Again something we were aware of but again it shows the racers really were thinking about the course during a race, great!)

The mix of high speed technical and just wide open parts of the course was very well received and we were told we have it just right. In fact one racer told us in the group session that the course was a 10 out of 10 over any GNCC course they have ever raced and they had raced 4 different GNCC courses. This is very encouraging as the course is still rough cut and not bedded in at all! Every driver that participated in the test said they would be back to race the track and compete in the 2013 season at Windrock Park.

We really feel we have have hit some what of a home run with the new course at Windrock Park and it's testament to the commitment from Windrock Park in their desire to give the very best on offer to UTV endurance racing and UTV Rally Raid. The fast sliding corners were just that and the spectator areas will give a great view of the action.

Once this course is bedded in it will only get faster and faster and this for us is what we are all about. The speeds were very comparable to the very fast track we have at Stony Lonesome ORV in Alabama and both parks have really done the South Eastern racers and Quantum Racing proud.

Wow what an exciting year 2013 will be for the UTV Endurance racing community! Two great parks, two great courses, great pit lane atmosphere and great comradery.

Thanks to everyone that took the time to come out and test the course. You provided us with invaluable feedback and much needed input.
 

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