Yes, just show up in your daily driver. Like I said, I was there for the history more than any kind of real driving challenge. I tried to hit the apexes, but you didn’t have to. It was thrity dollars for three laps. The Porsche Club had the track for most of the day, and while I was waiting I could hear some of them; those guys were having a good time. And there were cones marking the turn-in, apex, and exit of each corner, which were probably leftover from the club event.
If you’re ever in that area, go to the Corning Museum of Glass; it’s amazing. And Watkins Glen State Park is great, too.
(That’s me behind the wheel, instructor in the passenger’s seat, coming out of the esses onto the back straight.)
Two days in July 2003 (pictured) and three days in July 2005, a total of about 185 laps, 620 miles, in my stock 2003 Nissan 350Z. My best lap was 2:25.5, averaging 83.4 mph, with a top speed on the back straight of about 125.
It’s called High Performance Driver’s Education (HPDE) and although I haven’t been involved for ten years, it was my primary hobby for more than 12 years: 135 track days at 20 tracks in eight cars.
I had to make a run up there in late 2000. Went past Watkins and Gettysburg both at about 3 in the morning. Would have loved to see both, but, not to be. Missed out on the WTC too. Was about … eh, nevermind.
Bizarre Turkey race. The Merc strategy machine totally effed up Hamilton’s race. It looked pretty clear that he would lose time over the final 10 laps but he had a 10 second lead on Perez and a solid chance to stay ahead. Pitting merely guaranteed he would finish behind Perez (and probably Leclerc). I can only guess that the team was worried about a complete failure of one of the tyres.
That’s what I reasoned. I was astonished when they chose to pit but I guess a blown tyre would have been too catastrophic to contemplate,. Mind you, if that was case they could have arrived at that conclusion earlier and pitted earlier.
I’m guessing they didn’t pit earlier because they were hoping for a safety car, or maybe for the track to dry. Considering how much people were sliding around it was a bit of a surprise that there wasn’t a single safety car.
Two entertaining spots of the race were Yuki holding off Hamilton for several laps early in the race (though Yuki admitted he used up his tires doing so), and Perez holding off Hamilton (barely) on lap 35.
All the anlysis I’ve seen suggests that any decision was marginal and it would’ve only taken a slight increase/decrease in rain or a safety car to scupper any decision that any team made.
Yeah, you hate Hamilton, we get it. Wouldn’t have made any difference; Perez and Leclerc were already well within his pit window when he was called in.
Nice little race. Yesterday I predicted that Hamilton and Verstappen would make contact which took one out immediately, the other needing to eventually retire from damage. Winner Perez, followed by Leclerc and Norris.
I think I was about 2 laps away from my prediction being realized, swapping Norris for Ricciardo.
I’m toying with the idea of trying to get to one of the US races next year. I’m not sure I can afford a seat to the actual race, but maybe I can pull off some practice or qualifying.
The best thing about the race, really, was I got to cut away from the Chiefs game
About an entire 20 seconds of excitement in Mexico. I’ve watched the start again and again, read comments and analyses from a handful of sources, and still can’t really decide what Bottas was doing other than making damn sure he didn’t interfere with Hamilton. However, one thing is crystal clear: Max absolutely nailed the first corner, and I think that’s all that needs to be said.
It was extremely poor from Bottas. He braked early which was the first error but he could at least have driven Verstappen wide. He didn’t need to take him out, just use the space out wide. It’s not like he didn’t know Verstappen was there.
Toto said after the race that it wouldn’t have mattered, and he was probably right. Even if Bottas and Hamilton would have managed to stay P1 and P2 at the first corner, Red Bull had the pace to get past them with pit stop strategy. Undercut or overcut, either would have worked.
Still pretty lame to just leave the door wide open, but probably didn’t change the championship outcome.
