[Purist]

Which one is the "Magic Mile"?

I still consider 14 degrees to be a moderate bank. The thing is, it's just Nashville and Kentucky that are at that level now. Chicagoland was always 18 degrees. Homestead, Kansas, and Las Vegas have all been raised to 18-20 degrees in the turns.

As for Portland, I think they'll probably need to add/redo a fair amount of debris fencing.

I don't think the run-off has changed much at Turns 10/11 and 12 since the previous ChampCar and ALMS races, so I'm not as concerned there.

If I see an issue, it's in the Turn 7 and 8/9 area. Turn 7 has been moved outward by, I'd guess, around 150ft. It is tighter now, but it's now a longer run out of T6, and a straighter shot right off toward the tires. More importantly though, the run into Turns 8/9 is longer, and those turns will be faster. Turn 8 is rather abrupt, and has almost no run-off, and T9 will feel tighter than it used to, and doesn't have a huge run-off either, through the first part of it.

It may be alright in the dry, but I have some doubts about how things could go at T8/9 in the rain. We've seen accidents there before in damp conditions. If someone exits T7 well, but the guy in front does not, T8/9 can act as a bottleneck when negotiating that traffic. Also, T8 might not be totally flat-out in the wet.

For the most part, I think it's fine. (The biggest thing, for me, is, I'd like to see them run it without the chicane. Narrowing from six lanes to three in 1000ft sure seems a hell of a lot better than going from six lanes to one almost instantly.)