On 10/4/2021 7:41 AM, News wrote:
On 10/2/2021 10:08 AM, Mark Jackson wrote:
https://the-race.com/motogp/for-me-we-cannot-race-motogps-cota-crisis-explained/
F1 is to race there in three weeks; bikes are more sensitive to bumps,
but still. . . .
The instability of expansive Texas clays has been a problem from before COTA's first race event.
Can F1 deal with the same issues as World Endurance Championship, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCars, Pirelli World Challenge, and Trans Am cars?
Stay tuned.
I wonder what they do about the situation
at the nearby airport?
an excerpt from:
https://www.cycleworld.com/story/motorcycle-racing/2021-cota-motogp-wrap-up/
"Bumpy Surface, and What Can Be Done
Nearly everyone was stunned by what riders were calling “holes” or “bumps.” But just arriving at the circuit in your rental car from the
back access road reveals what they mean—the clay soil’s constant heaving introduces waves into the track. Panic and desperation! Convene the
Safety Commission and shout with one mighty voice that we can’t ride!
The problems were concentrated on turns 2 through 10; fortunately the
very fast straight (210-mph max for Jack Miller’s Ducati) had been
recently leveled. These waves are not subtle, and it takes more than a
bit of grinding and patching here and there to flatten them. When clay
absorbs water it expands; when the water departs, it contracts. Bikes
were getting air, and there were some resulting crashes. Márquez stated
that circuits with walls close to the pavement are more dangerous (COTA
is not one of these), and that a rider can find a way across the COTA
waves. But he also said, “…the bumps are in the limit…because they are not real bumps. It’s more like the surface is moving.”
Teams and riders took measures against the waves—using softer springs to better isolate the chassis from the pavement, and as a means of not
getting launched off the crests, spinning and losing stability. At the
end of the weekend the rider consensus was that they’d race on Sunday,
but wouldn’t come back next year unless something can be done.
It’s not clear what that can be, for in constructing this track the
nature of the subsoil dictated digging down 8 feet, backfilling with
gravel, then grading and paving. Since this part of Texas was once the silt-accumulating bottom of a warm, shallow sea, the clay may be very
deep indeed. Who knows how the water within comes and goes?"
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