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Old 7 Oct 2013, 12:34 (Ref:3314085)   #1
Yannick
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Grand Prix of Houston challenge

Background:
In yesterday's IndyCar race, the Grand Prix of Houston, at the Reliant Park temporary street course, a violent 3 car accident happened in a long and fast right-hand corner, sending one car into the catch fencing which was partially torn apart by the impact. Debris flew all over the place, including into the grandstand behind it, hurting around 15 spectators. 2 of them were brought to hospital whilst the others were treated on site. The driver of the car, Dario Franchitti, suffered several fractures in different places of his body and is now on his way back to full health.

IndyCar chose the same track layout which ChampCar ran previously in 2006 and 07 for their comeback to the city this year. Even then, the track surface was bumpy as hell. This year, the schedule of the event got mixed up due to further work being required to grind away a serious bump from the track surface in a place that turned out to be Turn 1, a fast, left-handed kink with virtually no runoff ahead of the concrete barrier. Equally, there was no runoff whatsoever in that place where the accident happened on Sunday, the long Astrodome Turn 5. Oddly, the tire barriers, if there were some, quickly fell apart when cars brushed by them. And there were no water tanks placed in front of the concrete walls anywhere so any impact had to be absorbed by deforming the car. Actually, Franchitti was lucky the fence gave way and sent his car into a spin whilst in the air, taking away most of the energy of the impact this way. There is no current report on the injuries sustained by the 2 fans who where brought to hospital but it should be evident to everybody that this track seriously needs a safety upgrade.

The Reliant Park circuit is built on what is essentially a big parking lot so there should be more than enough space for safety improvements, like added runoff, but the track has also been criticised as being not near as wide as back in 2006 and 07 and for its lack of apparent overtaking opportunities. Nevertheless, we did see quite an amount of overtaking manoeuvres this weekend.
The Challenge:
However, here's the challenge for you guys: Please re-design the circuit at Houston's Reliant Park, making it a safer place for spectators and drivers alike, and a more fun place to drive, too.

Here is a link to a satellite view of the place: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6105461 It's clean, without any circuit. Feel free to use it with the tools available to you.

And here on this other thread, http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=139466 there is a picture of the actual track map from this past weekend.

Here's looking forward to your redesigns - and please make them as realistic as possible. Only track designs in the Reliant Park location will be accepted as part of this challenge - no downtown Houston suggestions please. Thank you.
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Old 8 Oct 2013, 11:26 (Ref:3314548)   #2
TheNotSoHidden
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Reliant Park Reborn.

I love Car-park circuits,for the fact that you have a massive tarmac playground to set up a track in any way you like,excepting elevation changes. Obviously, Caesars Palace was a negative example,but there is a massive potential for positive examples.

I redesigned Reliant Park with two factors in mind: Safety and Overtaking, which I don't really like to focus on. But watching an onboard lap,Reliant Park looks way,way too tight. So,I've decided to design the track with these factors in mind. Thus,without further ado,here is:

Reliant Park.

Track Summary:

The track uses the same pitlane and front straight as the current track in order to save costs on infrasturcture and so on. Turn 1 does not have much runoff,but it has been reprofiled from a fast,sudden kink to a long sweeper,reducing speeds and increasing runoff at the end of the turn.Turn 2 is tight to allow overtaking,especially on the first lap. Turn 3 and Turn 4 is a tight,technical double-apex that tests drivers.Turn 5 rejoins the long,arcing turn 5 midway through to reduce speeds through the arc,though runoff for the turn is nothing more than a tunnel into Reliant Stadium itself. Turn 6 is the arc,then a straight goes into turn 7,mostly unchanged from the original turn 6.

A straight,the longest on the track,follows before a tight,hairpin turn 8. Another straight leads into a medium speed kink turn 9,then follows a tight turn 10,yet another overtaking opportunity with plenty of runoff. A short blast goes into a sweeping esses section,turn 11 and a long,left,turn 12. Finally,a tighter final turn replaced the fast kink to end the longer,safer and more exciting 2.01 mile lap.
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Old 8 Oct 2013, 12:28 (Ref:3314582)   #3
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The current track uses the tree line avenues that mark out the roadways through and around the car parks.

Any change in the track means tearing out trees or using narrower access roads than they do already. TheNotSoHidden's track above cuts through trees on at least 3 places.
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Old 8 Oct 2013, 16:59 (Ref:3314695)   #4
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Apart from the trees, and the course already using the widest roads available, your proposal, TNSH, creates some other problems.

Your layout substantially reduces the space available for the paddock. That tighter Turn 1 introduces aero-wash issues that could well make overtaking into Turn 2 nigh on impossible. Shortening how much of the Astrodome Curve they use also makes it harder to overtake into the left-hander at the end of that run. I'm not sure that the straight after that into the hairpin is quite long enough to make for a good setup for overtaking. If it isn't, then none of the other, shorter runs you've created are likely to be long enough to promote overtaking either.

Yannick, lack of run-off and soft walls at temporary circuits is par for the course. The Astrodome Curve has no tires on the outside, but then again, the curve on Shoreline Drive at Long Beach has never had them either. Also, if you add them, you narrow up the track, which could well make things worse. The barrier alignment at Turn 8 actually looks friendlier than it did in 2006-07, but with that tire bundle sticking out, the chances for an incident there may, in fact, be higher.

Really, it's mainly detail things that I would be looking at. I'd like to see a way to eliminate the Turn 2 chicane, so they get that full, unabated run to set up passing maneuvers. I think they could do to narrow up the designated pit exit lane a little, and thus widen the designated racing surface there a bit. I would possibly be inclined to narrow up the short straight between Turns 3 and 4 on the existing course, in order to reduce the main problem with Turn 4; the exit of that corner is substantially narrower than the entry. Making Turn 4 less of a funnel would definitely help. Finally, I'd say that they need more robust debris fencing in place.

There's something else to keep in mind. They're using largely the main through routes around the complex. Going off of those is problematic because there is a decent chance that any of those extraneous segmenis will need a proper repave, because the asphalt in those sections is not as resilient.

Last edited by Purist; 8 Oct 2013 at 17:07.
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Old 8 Oct 2013, 20:07 (Ref:3314781)   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Yannick View Post
Background:
In yesterday's IndyCar race, the Grand Prix of Houston, at the Reliant Park temporary street course, a violent 3 car accident happened in a long and fast right-hand corner, sending one car into the catch fencing which was partially torn apart by the impact. Debris flew all over the place, including into the grandstand behind it, hurting around 15 spectators. 2 of them were brought to hospital whilst the others were treated on site. The driver of the car, Dario Franchitti, suffered several fractures in different places of his body and is now on his way back to full health.

IndyCar chose the same track layout which ChampCar ran previously in 2006 and 07 for their comeback to the city this year. Even then, the track surface was bumpy as hell. This year, the schedule of the event got mixed up due to further work being required to grind away a serious bump from the track surface in a place that turned out to be Turn 1, a fast, left-handed kink with virtually no runoff ahead of the concrete barrier. Equally, there was no runoff whatsoever in that place where the accident happened on Sunday, the long Astrodome Turn 5. Oddly, the tire barriers, if there were some, quickly fell apart when cars brushed by them. And there were no water tanks placed in front of the concrete walls anywhere so any impact had to be absorbed by deforming the car. Actually, Franchitti was lucky the fence gave way and sent his car into a spin whilst in the air, taking away most of the energy of the impact this way. There is no current report on the injuries sustained by the 2 fans who where brought to hospital but it should be evident to everybody that this track seriously needs a safety upgrade.

The Reliant Park circuit is built on what is essentially a big parking lot so there should be more than enough space for safety improvements, like added runoff, but the track has also been criticised as being not near as wide as back in 2006 and 07 and for its lack of apparent overtaking opportunities. Nevertheless, we did see quite an amount of overtaking manoeuvres this weekend.
The Challenge:
However, here's the challenge for you guys: Please re-design the circuit at Houston's Reliant Park, making it a safer place for spectators and drivers alike, and a more fun place to drive, too.

Here is a link to a satellite view of the place: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6105461 It's clean, without any circuit. Feel free to use it with the tools available to you.

And here on this other thread, http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=139466 there is a picture of the actual track map from this past weekend.

Here's looking forward to your redesigns - and please make them as realistic as possible. Only track designs in the Reliant Park location will be accepted as part of this challenge - no downtown Houston suggestions please. Thank you.
Quite frankly I think they did an excellent job working with what they had in that whole sports complex (the Astrodome, Reliant Park, etc.). I don't think there is any bigger chance of a major (and nearly fatal) accident at this circuit than any other street circuit TBH. Like Purist said, the corner in which the crash took place is actually quite wide and similar to the Shoreline Drive sweep at Long Beach. Unfortunately, street races are limited in the amount of runoff room, by default. Personally, if you want a new Houston race, I'd say run it Downtown.
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Old 9 Oct 2013, 10:43 (Ref:3315089)   #6
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My complete redesign of Reliant Park. 2.01mi Anticlockwise
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Old 14 Oct 2013, 16:03 (Ref:3317783)   #7
Yannick
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Thank you NotSoHidden and SpeedingTortoise for your design contributions. They show what else there can be done with the Reliant Park location.

The problems with TNSH's track have already been pointed out above and I only have to add to them the lack of overtaking opportunities because of even shorter straights than there are on the real thing. Yet, I do like the shape of the circuit and its corners. It would be a nice standalone design for elsewhere for sure.

ST's track solves the problem with the length of the straights quite well, and also does not occupy as much possible paddock space as the former design.
However, it remains to be seen whether positioning the Astrodome on the inside of the circuit is desirable, since we don't know whether its toilet facilities are used on the GP weekend or not. Yet, it seems likely that they are.
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Old 14 Oct 2013, 16:22 (Ref:3317793)   #8
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I didn't even think about the facilities at the Astrodome and if their used on race weekends. I just thought it would be cool to see the cars race between the stadium and the Astrodome.
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