The Roval - Just about as much fun as you can have with clothes on. + pics!

[1fastsedan]

Holy Crap what a Saturday! I was fortunate enough to drive the "roval" at California Speedway in Fontana, CA with Speed Ventures this weekend. For those that don't know, the "roval" is half in-field road course and half NASCAR oval. Yes, I got to drive on the big track!!! Dan Realtor, Eddie, Cam, Shawn, and a guy with a black Magnum who I didn't get to talk to were there. It was a great day to drive with cool temps and the rain held off. The SRT8s were seeing 140-145 across the NASCAR front oval and 100-110 into the NASCAR turn. The in-field road course is a very technically challenging course with a nasty decreasing radius 200 degree turn and several tight switch backs. Overall, the group of drivers in my group was very well-behaved with giving passes (except 2 guys with fast cars who couldn't corner worth a damn, I guess they just couldn't stomach being passed by a 4 door sedan) and good spacing. I was nervous going into the day with high speeds we'd be running, but everything turned out great. And a BIG 2 thumbs up to Speed Ventures for a very well run day of high-speed, responsible, organized racing.:rockon::good::tip:
Now what you've been waiting for:

 

[Ozzie]

Very cool, Adam. Looks like a great time!

 

[The "Reverend" CoolFlo]

awesome!

 

[sgtstanko]

I guess I missed out!!!!!! Dan told me about it but I thought it was a coned event in the back. I didnt know it was on the track.

Well as one guy put it ......me, the Jeep on nitrous, on a track, would be like handing a monkey a machine gun!

That looked like a blast!!!

 

[1fastsedan]

I guess I missed out!!!!!! Dan told me about it but I thought it was a coned event in the back. I didnt know it was on the track.

Well as one guy put it ......me, the Jeep on nitrous, on a track, would be like handing a monkey a machine gun!

That looked like a blast!!!

I'm sure you would've been OK, especially if you left the giggle gas at home. And trust me, there were several VERY high powered cars with novice drivers that couldn't control them very well. The car I passed the most was a Rousch Stage 3 Mustang who spent more time on the apron than on the banking, poor guy. The other was a practically brand new Porsche 911 turbo widebody with a ton of aftermarket turbo work done. It took all the driver had just to keep that thing wheels down. He never even had a chance to work on his cornering. And boy was he pissed when I was on his butt for an entire lap I even kept up with him on the straights because I had much better corner exit speeds than he did. You definitely should have come, your Jeep would have surprised a lot of people. I know our SRT8 sedans did.

 

[LegMaker]

WOW!!!!! man that must have been a blast!!!! did you guys have "escorts" or pace drivers??????

 

[1fastsedan]

WOW!!!!! man that must have been a blast!!!! did you guys have "escorts" or pace drivers??????

Nope. The fear of the wall set the pace!

In fact, the expert group had trailered in race-prepped Vettes, a Viper, a Ferrari, etc. Those guys were pulling 170s across the front stretch about 4 feet away from the wall. They told those of us with street cars (90% of us) to stay in the middle of the bank and try not to go above 140, because you need to slow down for the turn with touching your brakes or you could loose control and slide up into the wall.

 

[LegMaker]

holy crap!!! then what kind of parameters were set for you guys, if any??? what a fun time that sounds like!

 

[1fastsedan]

holy crap!!! then what kind of parameters were set for you guys, if any??? what a fun time that sounds like!

For every group except expert, there is point-by passing. To pass, you had to have a hand signal from the guy in front of you, but you don't have to take it. Meaning if you're on somebody's butt and they point you by on a short straight, but you know you won't have enough room to accelerate, pass, brake and make the turn; then you don't have to pass him. You'll likely get the same point on the next bigger turn or straight. There were flag men in every corner (standard green, yellow, red, black, meatball -vehicle damage stuff). That's about it. So no passing without permission unless there is a spin-out, off track, evasive maneuver, safety situation.

 

[StevoSRT]

sweeeeeeeeeet....i'd have loved for them to have that at the SRT E hahaha

 

[LegMaker]

For every group except expert, there is point-by passing. To pass, you had to have a hand signal from the guy in front of you, but you don't have to take it. Meaning if you're on somebody's butt and they point you by on a short straight, but you know you won't have enough room to accelerate, pass, brake and make the turn; then you don't have to pass him. You'll likely get the same point on the next bigger turn or straight. There were flag men in every corner (standard green, yellow, red, black, meatball -vehicle damage stuff). That's about it. So no passing without permission unless there is a spin-out, off track, evasive maneuver, safety situation.

ahhhh, i see. thanks for the clarification..... any on track issue pop up??? i am always leary of doing things like this with others i do not know or trust.....

 

[1fastsedan]

ahhhh, i see. thanks for the clarification..... any on track issue pop up??? i am always leary of doing things like this with others i do not know or trust.....

A guy 2 cars in front of me rubbed a hole in an oil line with a tire (rear mount engine Porsche) doing about 120mph, a lot of smoke but otherwise no real big deal. Everybody lifted and DIDN'T stomp on the brakes, exactly like they were supposed to, he drifted to the grass ASAP and we all cruised on by. In a later session, we had a Miata spin-out in the middle of a corner back in the road coarse section but it was the same deal. The yellow flags were out, everybody slowed started breaking earlier into corners, no passing, and we went past the guy single file and they moved him back onto the track when there was an opening.

 

[LegMaker]

sounds like you guys had a good group of people....... i just think back to my srt track experience and some of the yahoo's who were driving like idiots and killed a lot of the action for me on the road course. would pull us in everytime someone f'd up!!! lucky for me, the instructors picked out a few of us who could actually drive a little bit, and took us out again!!!

 

[1fastsedan]

That's the difference between "free" and having to pay for it and driving your car vs SRT's cars! I admit that I pushed the Track Experience cars harder than I do my own, but it helped me learn where that line is with my own. Then I went and upgraded a ton of stuff and had to find it again anyway...

 

[sgtstanko]

When is this happening again?

 

[Cam]

When is this happening again?

We have track days all the time, if you want, I'll keep you in the loop. Heading to Button Willow on Dec 29th. Wanna go??

 

[1fastsedan]

I don't know when they're running the roval again, but the company I went through is speed ventures (www.speedventures.com). They have 2 more events planned before the end of the year, if you're interested.

Its the same organizers we used for the Spring Festival track day. They do a great job, very professional.

 

[Cam]

We also work with Alltime Racing.

 

[Raland]

That looks awesome! I'm still torqued we got rained out for 1/4 mile action on Friday!

 

[1bad4dr]

Thanks for sharing Adam.
I will definitely want to take my monster on a course such as that. lol