1.3 mi. Infield Course...

[NismoZ]

For Rolex Grand Am at that 7/8 mi. oval in Newton, Iowa! July, '07. Make your reservations early. :rolleyes: AR1 says so, so it's true. :)

[cameraman]

Grand Am Cup ST race on Friday the 13th :eek:


In a major 2007 race announcement for the new Iowa Speedway, track officials and officials from the Grand American Road Racing Association today unveiled plans for three different series to compete on the 1.3-mile infield road course on July 13-14, 2007.

Headlining the weekend’s activities will be the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve on the evening of Saturday, July 14. The Rolex Series has revolutionized North American road racing with incredibly close competition among its exotic, mid-engine Daytona Prototypes and production-based GT machines, and both classes will compete simultaneously under the lights at Iowa Speedway. Fans in America’s heartland will be treated to an action-packed, two-hour and 45-minute battle in the Rolex Series feature.

Joining the Rolex Series will be the Grand-Am Cup Series and the new MOTO-ST endurance motorcycle racing series.

Iowa Speedway President Stan Clement said racing fans throughout the country will enjoy the 2007 schedule additions, “We’re delighted to be working with The Grand American Road Racing Association and the Rolex Sports Car Series. Rusty Wallace joins us in saluting this new racing partnership and, of course, the name ‘Rolex’ speaks for itself. We’ll do our part to showcase these races properly at the finest track in the country, Iowa Speedway”.

The two Grand-Am Cup Series classes, Grand Sport (GS) and Street Tuner (ST) will compete in individual races, with the GS race—featuring a battle between American muscle cars and storied racers from European manufacturers—slated for the afternoon of Saturday, July 14. The Grand-Am Cup ST class highlights the hottest “sport compact” cars on the market and will do battle on the afternoon of Friday, July 13.

Headlining the schedule on the evening of Friday, July 13 will be MOTO-ST. Contesting its inaugural season in 2007, MOTO-ST—which is sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association and organized by Grand American and Professional Motorsports Productions—will bring three classes of “sport twin” motorcycles with teams of riders for a three hour race.

[cameraman]

Fire away.


http://homepage.mac.com/datkinso/.Pictures/iowa.gif

[Al Czervik]

What do the numbers on the track map indicate? The # of fans at each location?

[pchall]

Hey, they used to have little road circuit in Milwaukee at the Mile, too. I haven't heard about it being used lately, though.

http://www.silhouet.com/motorsport/tracks/milwauk2.jpg

[Accipiter]

And I thought Phoenix was bad. :rolleyes:

[gerhard911]

Wisconsin Grand Prix - Double Regional Sept 2 & 3

Milwaukee Mile - West Allis, WI

Milwaukee Region SCCA (http://www.scca-milwaukee.org/RoadRacing/2006/roadracesched.html)

[Opposite Lock]

Grand Am Cup ST race on Friday the 13th :eek:

Iowa Speedway President Stan Clement said: "We’ll do our part to showcase these races properly at the finest track in the country, Iowa Speedway”.

well alright, then - giddyup!

[NismoZ]

Speaking of Milwaukee, I was climbing over one of those infield cement blocks lining the road course in June and there was PT's big black and Forsythe blue smudge and scrape marks from his wreck on open test day! Was the pre- SAFER wall (N) made of blocks? Did they cut it into blocks to use in the infield? I was very surprised to see it there. Same one, because I missed the accident but took a picture of his wall art. He should autograph it. :)

[matthole]

exotic, mid-engine Daytona Prototypes


If this doesn't get the France fambly jailed for fraud, I fear for America.

:gomer:

How can they seriously claim that sort of nonsense?

I'm sure they'll have a gay old time at Russell's masterpiece. :saywhat:

[nrc]

What's worse than a 1.7 mile parking lot street course? I'll take "Swords" for $400.

[extramundane]

What's worse than a 1.7 mile parking lot street course? I'll take "Swords" for $400.

http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/8853/turd4ny.jpg

[FCYTravis]

Yeah, uh, suffice to say that if we had to go to Iowa, I'd rather run the old Des Moines Trans-Am street course. Color me underwhelmed. :shakehead

AR1's got a couple other rumors about Grand-Am in 07... they're probably true as well.

[racer2c]

Yeah, uh, suffice to say that if we had to go to Iowa, I'd rather run the old Des Moines Trans-Am street course. Color me underwhelmed. :shakehead

AR1's got a couple other rumors about Grand-Am in 07... they're probably true as well.

I remember watching De Moines on teevee. Back when ol' PG was winning every race.

Did TA race in New Orleans? I remember watching a late night ESPN race circa '91 and I could have sworn it was in NO but I must have been dreaming because they have the worst roads in the country. It was a long time ago.

[FCYTravis]

IMSA ran in downtown NO back in the GTP days. The streets tore cars to pieces, and the Intrepid GTP ended up winning one of 'em because it was one of the only survivors.

[gjc2]

I looks like the road coarse doesn't use any of the oval, the coarse seems to be contained within it. It also looks like the oval's pit lane is used as part of the road coarse. Where will the pits be?

George

[cameraman]

Okay, this is just silly.

http://www.iowaspeedway.com/images/photogallery/07242006-1/full/019.jpg

Where the hell is the paddock for all those cars going to be?

[Spicoli]

what a ****ing joke.

i'm sure the gomers will love it.

[theunions]

AR1's got a couple other rumors about Grand-Am in 07... they're probably true as well.

Long Beach too, you think? :thumdown:

[FCYTravis]

Where the hell is the paddock for all those cars going to be?
There's a 50-bay enclosed garage area - plenty of room for the Rolex Series.

I assume Grand-Am Cup is going to be exiled to the parking lot outside the track :shakehead

[nrc]

Reminds me of the when the "Fastmasters" turned the IRP oval into a "road course" for one of their crash-fests.

[NismoZ]

Yeah, they must be planning on using the spectator lots for the paddock. All the spectator cars should fit in the infield. :rofl:

[NismoZ]

And...cones. LOTS of cones!

[Accipiter]

Amusing pole on the track's official site:


What Event Would You Most Like to See at Iowa Speedway?

Sports Car Racing (50%)
Street Legal Drag Racing (12%)
Legends Car Racing (13%)
Motorcycle Racing (14%)
Figure 8 Racing (11%)

http://www.iowaspeedway.com/default.asp

Figure 8's for me! :D

[SurfaceUnits]

wait till the :gomer:s find out that crapwagons weren't mentioned.

[NismoZ]

No, they were on the original list but nobody voted for 'em! :p

[FCYTravis]

Reminds me of the when the "Fastmasters" turned the IRP oval into a "road course" for one of their crash-fests.
:rofl:

I remember that series on Saturday Night Thunder... that was just A-1 classic stuff! :laugh:

[Steve99]

Wow, what's the connection between GrandAm and this track. Is there some big money involved? I just don't get it.

[Tifosi24]

There won't be a large turnout for the event, because you will be hard pressed to get people from Des Moines to travel to Newton for a Grand-Am race. Considering that Maytag just closed down this town can use whatever economic stimulus, no matter how small, they can get. Grand-Am should call me up about my State Fair circuit that I designed three years ago.

[Sean O'Gorman]

Hey, they used to have little road circuit in Milwaukee at the Mile, too. I haven't heard about it being used lately, though.

http://www.silhouet.com/motorsport/tracks/milwauk2.jpg

The old Rockingham track in NC apparently has a road course too, I guess SCCA and NASA just started using it after NASCAR left.

[Accipiter]

Rusty is actually at a business meeting of a good kind right now. He has a corporate golf match going on. He wanted to take the time to be with us today to talk about what is truly a magnificent racetrack just on the outskirts of Des Moines. Rusty, talk about your track. You had some racing going on last weekend, and more next weekend. We'll give him a different type of product when we come out with the Rolex Series. Talk about what our friends in the media can see.

RUSTY WALLACE: We're really excited about the new track in Iowa. It's a seven-eighths miles, the oval is, which has got rave reviews. We have a 1.4-mile road course inside the facility. It's laid out really nice. Myself and Alan Wilson designed the track.

One thing I like so much about it, guys, everybody in the grandstands can sit and see the entire road course. I think it's going to be unlike most facilities where you see bits and pieces of a road course. At this facility, you can see all the action going on.

Road race cars will enter off the back straightaway, enter into the road course, and go back up on the exit of Turn 4, much like Daytona. The one key thing I like about the track is the layout and the braking points for the drivers. We should have a lot of passing there. The great thing for the fans is they'll be able to see the entire track and all the action.

http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/grandam/33088/



:rofl:

[FCYTravis]

I'm sure I could find some quotes from Gerry and Kevin talking about what a spectacular facility San Jose was, too :laugh:

It's called spin ;)

[stroker]

the Gomers like Iowa so much I don't see any reason why they can't have two dates there--one on the oval and another on the "road course".

[Accipiter]

Well I suppose it was allright, if you like overgrown go-kart tracks that you can't pass on.

[Methanolandbrats]

Well I suppose it was allright, if you like overgrown go-kart tracks that you can't pass on. They should run one at a time and use a PAX index to determine the winner. :gomer:

[Tifosi24]

Grand-Am should call me up about my State Fair circuit that I designed three years ago.

Since I don't have Speed, I didn't get a chance to see the race, but I will reiterate my statement from last summer. Iowa State Fairgrounds ftw and a 2.25 mile street/park circuit.

[FCYTravis]

And yet almost 15,000 Iowans showed up to see the show on Friday night. Not a bad crowd, at all, for a really short roval in the middle of a cornfield. :)

The racing wasn't nearly as bad as was predicted, either. It wasn't an IRL-style draftpassfest, but neither was it nothing but follow-the-leader. Only two cautions.

Whether we go back next year has not been announced.

[High Sided]

this has nothing to do with the track but a good joke none the less...
http://www.jibjab.com/view/169067

[SurfaceUnits]

“It’s a joke. I think this is a ridiculous place for us to come,” said Scott Pruett of Chip Ganassi Racing. “[Grand-Am] got away from going to Phoenix because they determined that the track was too short, and now we are going to a place that is even shorter.”

While not as outspoken, most teams think Pruett might have a point. The most common phrase used to describe the track alluded to Disney’s beloved rodent. The road-course portion might justify its “Mickey Mouse” adjective with effectively only two right-hand turns and a layout appearing to be a circle interrupted by a brief horseshoe. At the very least, the course certainly has less “road” and more “oval,” with an infield section just 0.43 mile long.

“We race Daytona Prototypes at 180 to 190 mph,” SunTrust Racing owner Wayne Taylor said. “We come to race at an infield that is four-tenths of a mile. That’s all I have to say.”

Pruett compared it to a slightly smaller racing circuit.

“It’s a go-kart track. And whoever determined to come here I think was out of their minds.”

[Sean O'Gorman]

They should run one at a time and use a PAX index to determine the winner. :gomer:

I'm all for that! :laugh:

[FCYTravis]

I don't think anyone would disagree with Pruett's assessment of the course. Not our drivers, for sure :)

[cart7]

Since the track was designed by road racing affecianado, Rusty Wallace, I think it's a no-brainer that the road course circuit would be under-whelming to say the least.

[RichK]

So they tried to run a motorcycle race at the Iowa "road course":

The NASCARization of the World Continues (http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=210918&perpage=15&pagenumber=1)

[cameraman]

And we think Champ Car is screwed up:shakehead


The fears of riders came true when a fiery crash in the banking ended today's MOTO-ST race 33 minutes early at Iowa Speedway, with Richie Morris Racing's Shawn Higbee transported to a hospital in an ambulance and Brian Kcraget of the Speedwerks.com Suzuki team--who crashed trying to avoid Higbee--transported in critical condition via a helicopter.
http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=29617

[devilmaster]

double post to RichK

[FCYTravis]

:eek: :shakehead :irked:

[Indy]

Shut up and race, eh?