Quote:
Originally Posted by the_calculator
I'm sure every fantasy trackmaker has come across this idea once (and quickly passed on).
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Well, I have pondered this idea before and did not like my outcome which was basically like a 2 mile oval of similar 180 plus turns which had the crossover of the straights in their middle (where the infield of a common oval would be) and the pitlane to one of the sides. But having the crossover at angles like 30 vs 330 degrees would mean you could not see what's happening on much of the lower straight. And that is just not an option.
Therefore, I actually like your idea to connect 2 ovals on their wider side with each other. This makes much more sense than the concept I tinkered with.
However, what about the banking? At least one of the connecting straights would have to be flat, the lower one. And since the corners on both small ovals before and after the connection to that straight cannot rise abruptly, they also would have to be flat. It remains to be seen if having banking on the other 2 turns which connect the upper straight to the small ovals makes any sense. What do you think?
In the end, you might end up with two small ovals which only have banking on the front stretch of each but no banking in the corners. That is quite unusual and NASCAR will probably consider it somewhat odd.
Yet, it is not certain that the 8-shaped oval would provide better racing since in oval racing, some cars are set up to work better on the outside lane and some are set up to work better on the inside lane. And that promotes overtaking. But here, on the 8-shaped oval, both lanes are upper and lower lane in one of the corners, so there would always have to be a car setup compromise to accomodate both, because, as road circuit specialists might not know, in oval racing it can take a few laps to change from one lane to the other. And if your car works better on, say, the inside lane, you would be forced to change lanes twice every lap or risk losing positions when you cannot get out of the "wrong" lane.
But that does not take into account the fact that race cars for ovals are set up in an asymmetrical way so they could not run the oval in the opposite direction at the same speed without switching the sides of the asymmetrical setup. Same thing goes for spotters and drivers' reflexes: they would have to do things at high speed in the opposite direction in the right turn.
So to make it safe, people would need to start practicing at an early age on an 8 shaped dirt track. Now that would be an entirely new track design challenge!
Edit:
I forgot to mention that bankings only make sense if a car gradually goes up into the banking. The original Fuji Speedway has tragically proven a banking into which cars need to drop down to be too dangerous. Hence, coming off of the bridge and diving down into the 18 track banking of your Turn 4 will not work.