I would like to encourage the Circuit of the America’s folks to stop right now with the work on their track.
Judging by the pictures at the official Formula 1 site, the current track — completed all the way around the 3-plus mile circuit — would make for some seriously awesome racing.
Basically because it looks like, at best, it would be two cars wide. If those two cars were pretty much kissing each other.
Even if they don’t take my expert advice, we can note that COTA — site of the mid-November return of F1 to the United States — passed a milestone last week in “marrying” the track. In other words, they have laid concrete all the way around the circuit.
Since I ended up not being a mechanical engineer, I’ll just quote from the F1 piece about it (it’s also where you can check the narrow-laned photos):
About three metres of Central Texas clay was excavated the entire length of the circuit. A black poly material 30 millimetres in thickness was then placed along the length of the excavated portion. This material acts as an envelope for layers of select fill to be placed so that it remains exactly in place.
That quote, by the way, is a lot more entertaining if you read it in Matthew McConaughey’s voice.
Because I know y’all would be bummed if I didn’t turn some kind of critical eye to this, I’ll note that last week I did see a few headlines about how the circuit is racing the clock to get all the work done. To de-criticalize that, I’ll also note that a “racing the clock” story is inevitable when it comes to a new track’s being built.
Looks for all the world like there might be a race in Austin in November. Speaking of which, are you joining F1B?
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