This got rekindled in my mind with the piece on SC365 regarding the Blancpain America finale's venue, and its particular configuration.
https://sportscar365.com/sro/blancpa...yout-revealed/
Obviously, the great majority of the courses normally lumped into this category are in the States, but it isn't a uniquely American thing, with circuits like Rockingham (UK), Lausitzring, or even Brooklands, and the old Monza and Montlhery if we're stretching it.
I've made some of my thoughts on this known on several fronts in the comments for that article, but I thought it might be a worthy topic here.
Naturally, the most pressing items for this section of the forum in terms of rovals would be the aforementioned Blancpain America finale at Las Vegas, as well as next year's finale, and US round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge, at Indianapolis.
Aside from what I said in response to that article, I guess my main sentiments are that I think a roval needs to either be particularly interesting or just go to the extreme (more in the Daytona or Talladega sense than the NASCAR Charlotte or California/Fontana sense). Don't make it too tight and fiddly, and not to put too fine a point on it, but I don't really see the point of a roval that doesn't use any of the banked corners.
So, what do you guys think about the chosen layout for Las Vegas? What alternate layout might you have preferred instead? What layout do you hope they choose for Indy next year? What are your thoughts on rovals generally? Are there any ones you particularly like? Do you hate them all, or are there just some that come off as especially terrible in your mind?
I'll take up the first reply with an extensive catalog of rovals with lap lengths, the number of corners for each layout, and lap records for major Sportscar and/or GT categories that have raced on them to help give you some idea of the nature of the course. And of course, feel free to look up track maps and such as you see fit.
As a final note here, I didn't include purpose-built ovals that just had a few chicanes added, but no infield section. So that's why Rafaela, or the World Challenge version of Charlotte from 2007, aren't listed.