New Road Course-New Jersey

No, not ~NJMP~ in Millville (AKA "Thunderbolt & Lightning")

This is the new road course (really, more of a mini-road course) at Raceway Park in Englishtown

Here's a video (link below) I took last weekend at a free test day.

Too bad the windshield header kills some of the view, but my camera mount was just a last-minute, lash-up. I know that Wreckerboy (from this forum) and some others were there for this demo weekend too. I saw a lot of NASA stickers on cars.

They set up the slowest, twistiest configuration to keep speeds down. This was probably a good idea, since many of the drivers there were drag racers who had No Clue. There are supposed to be 10 possible configurations in all.

The MINI following me said his telemetry measured about 40 mph lap speed averages. Still, there are much straighter, faster configurations (but they end up being less than a mile long). My car ('00 Miata) got to 7200 rpm in third on the straight and most turns were done at about 7000 in second. There's a weird turn-back that I didn't like, but that could be side-stepped in another configuration. I was still running my old, worn-out winter Bizzaks on the rear wheels. I'm sure I could have done better with proper tires (I spun 360 degrees on the first lap).

~E-town Road Course~

~E-town Track Map~

Hahahhah, there's nothing "new" about that course. It's been built for at least 5 years now. Stupid Raceway Park just didn't setup the correct safety provisions so we've had to wait until now to actually get to use it.

And...of course, the crap sandwich that is the Raceway Park website has no schedule posted or further info for running the road course.

were there a ton of IROC Z28s there? It is New Jersey and there are more IROC Zs concentrated there than any where else in the world.

I was there Sunday and there was a lot of people there who had never been on a course of any sort before - no auto-x or track experience.

Suprisingly for Joisey, I didn't see any IROCs.

there are? I cannot remember the last time I saw an Iroc

you guys are clapped out.

nobody but people outside of NJ say "Joisey"

all the IROCS and GTAs are now honda civics hatchbacks.

if you want to know what jerks from NJ are like, go to YouTube and look up "my new haircut" that pretty much describes 50% of the state. The other 50% is trying to be anything other than that.

ryanhettenbach wrote: you guys are clapped out. nobody but people outside of NJ say "Joisey" all the IROCS and GTAs are now honda civics hatchbacks. if you want to know what jerks from NJ are like, go to YouTube and look up "my new haircut" that pretty much describes 50% of the state. The other 50% is trying to be anything other than that.

"f'ing skanks" "Yea my collars popped, that's because I'm the f'ing man" Not right now chief, I'm in the f'ing zone"

god, it makes me cringe to even read it....

"Jagerbombs!"

Free test day? Damn, i was just on Raceway Parks website a few weeks ago looking for info on the drags. Then i always look to read if there's been any progress w/ the Road Course. I saw no mention of any free test day... damn....

Those haircut videos have been around for while....and they are funny.

I would agree that the track and the website aren't prefect...yet. I've been dealing with track managers and track websites for years. Most prefer doing business on the phone...the phone number for E-town is listed on the site and I'll give it to you here too (732.446.7800).

So let's not all "pile on" before we give the place a chance. K? A lot of "internet experts" attacked Shenandoah. I have tons of wheel-to-wheel experience on many road racing tracks and Shenandoah one of my favourites.

E-town is small and probably too limited for wheel-to-wheel racing (except maybe the pre-war, vintage small-bore stuff....and, of course, karts)

But I think it's still a great asset for test-and-tune development, scrubbing in tires, etc. E-town is much closer than even Pocono for many of us in the NY-Metro area and could be very useful in setting up our cars. This place would be a better option than running autocross events, where the runs are typically too brief to really get tires heated up or validate suspension setups (not that autocross isn't fun...but this place would be a better place to set up a dedicated race car).

And Raceway Park is already an important part of the local economy and has pretty good support in its area (yes, there's a McMansion crowd in the area too....but the exisiting airport helps beat back some of the noise issues. It and the drag strip have been there for ages)

Here is some stuff I gleaned from another friend who showed up on this first weekend:

According to the organizers,

~Planned cost will be in the area of $125 for six hours of open track time (phone to get the latest info on this)

By the way, the idea for this place is a lot older than some of you may know...I was down there over 20 years ago with the NJ-SCCA scoping out a potential new track (It was on a different part of the property back then)

Even with its limitations, it's still better than having no track. And I am intrigued by the fact that they own more land and could expand if the place starts to make money. I hope we will all support this place. We need more tracks! Maybe with support from racers, it can grow into a bigger, better track.

I wanted to go to this, but I had cruddy tires, and my saturday was messed up when the car I bought broke the water pump and overheated just blocks after I picked it up. I'd still love to make it down to that track.

Dont complain, support!

Or drive...