Tom,
This got hidden at the end of another thread about CMP, but I called Joe Hooker the other day to find out what the story is:
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I'm sure they will have press releases before long, but the CMP Board of Directors has approved a Five Year Plan for facility upgrades. This from Joe Hooker (who's amazed at all he's heard on what HE plans to do) about what to expect by February 2008:
. No changes to the Kink (Turn 10) or the Hairpin (Turn 11). Bypassing the Kink would have the ground-pounders running 180+ when arriving at a 45 mph right-hander - and you think CMP is hard on brakes now!
. 12, 13, & 14 are the trio of right-handers that make up what some people call "Disney World". What they plan to do is extend the track outside (left) of the existing pavement on the exit of 12, make an increasing radius sweeper that comes back inside the existing 13 and joins up with the short chute up to 14. They also will add pavement to the inside radius of 14 to make it less abrupt and increase the speed carried through there. The changes are designed to allow you to run both configurations as you choose. Apparently many of the Pro teams use CMP to test for street circuits and don't WANT the changes to 12-14.
. They are also paving additional parts of the paddock roads (I think he said 1500 linear feet) plus building "day garages" and clubhouse structures, but none of that affects the actual track layout. They're eventually going to build a second pit road between the current T-1 & T-3 to allow two independent tracks, plus the long-range plans call for extending parts of the East course to make the entire track in the neighborhood of three miles in length.
Butch Kummer
Former SCCA Director of Club Racing (July 2012 - Sept 2014)
2006, 2007, 2010 SARRC GTA Champion
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