Charlotte Motor Speedway
Charlotte Motor Speedway's "Quad Oval" NASCAR course was built in 1960 and the Roval was added in 1971. The Roval course has seen multiple adjustments over the years with the current configuration popularized by NASCAR. The 24 degree banking encircles 17 turnes and 2.28 miles of road course that we'll be using this weekend. Charlotte has hosted legendary series such as Can Am, Indy Car, Pirelli World Challenge, IMSA and of course NASCAR over it's long history.
Charlotte's road course Roval unique in that it contains considerable elevation that adds to the character and demanding nature of the race track. Over the years mitigations have been added in the form of chicanes to slow the cars on the banking and for the entry to T1 that has us at the current 2023 configuration. One of Charlotte's defining characteristics is the tight almost "street-course" proximity of walls and barriers on the infield road course - a design element driven by the desire to utilize as much spaces as possible for the road course. The result is a surprisingly fast and flowing infield road course that offers driver's a super rewarding and demanding racing experience requiring maximum awareness, patience and caution in certain areas.
Some liken Charlotte to a "street course with elevation", this analogy checks out - there are several places where your track out area is, quite literally, a concrete wall. With this in mind we must remind drivers of the tired euphimism, "to finish first you must first finish". Anyone who has driven Charlotte in real life or even on a simulator will have learned that driving beyond your abilities here can quickly go awry.
Please use Friday to gradually build speed, become familiar with the track and imparatively learn the areas that lend themselves to passing and those that do not. Driving beyond one's ability, trying to push through fatigue or attempting inopprotune passes will greatly increase the chances of an incident and as always our goal is to send everyone home with a smile and a shiny racecar and the decisions that inform that outcome lie in the hands of you, the drivers.
We mention this often, but PATIENCE and RESPECT are paramount here, the overtaking driver must be aware of the driver they're passing, where they're doing it and critically if that other driver has been given ample opportunity to see them. This is where hand signals are extremely beneficial to all, allowing passing in areas that can otherwise be difficult.
One instance of unnecessary car-to-car contact is too many, and this is why we officiate contact the way that we do. Per WRL rules, overtaking cars hold the bulk of the responsibility to complete a clean pass, but we can only hold overtaking cars to this standard IF the car being passed remains AWARE, predictable and consistent.
When being passed please stay on the racing line, use point-bys when possible and avoid, at all costs, moving "out of the way" of faster cars. This sort of unpredictability can make overtaking difficult if not impossible, and cars being passed can and will be penalized for not following this standard.
Awareness of your surroundings is absolutely required in multi-class endurance racing, and we require that drivers remain aware of their surroundings at all times. Faster cars - ENSURE YOU HAVE COMPLETELY CLEARED THE CAR YOU ARE PASSING BEFORE MOVING OVER. These instances will be ruled as avoidable as spatial awareness is a requisite skill of multi-class endurance racing.
Failure to adhere to these expectations, particularly in egregious situations, will compromise your ability to participate in this series. Driving privileges may be revoked at any time at WRL officials sole discretion. We owe this stance to the massive percentage of WRL competitors who do their very best to embrace these values.
While WRL's car to car contact statistics are typically industry-leading, we're still seeing too many single-car incidents. Please be aware of not only your surroundings and other competitors but also the limitations of your car and YOURSELF. Endurance races are not decided on the ultimate pace of a car on one flying lap. Endurance races are won by being clean, consistent and running without penalty on track or in the pits. This is not a sprint race, time trial or time attack, and the best thing you can do for yourself and your team is to hand the car off to the next driver in the same condition you started with. We have been and will continue to track solo offs, spins and solo contacts and those drivers who have multiple instances can expect to be accelerated to probation even without touching another car.
As always, I appreciate you reading this message and doing your part to uphold and build the excellent reputation that WRL has earned. We want to provide the safest, cleanest and most competitive endurance racing we can, but that relies entirely on you and your fellow competitors embracing and supporting the culture we've all worked together to build.
RJ Till
Vice President, WRL
|