What ever happened to POCONO??

[Robin Plummer]

What ever happened to the Pocono 500? And I wonder if the lap speeds of todays cars would rival Fontana and the like?

Also would Talledega be suitable for a Champ Car race and what sort of lap times and speeds would you expect?

[Dave S]

Wasn't Pocono more of a flat track, tri-oval? (I don't remember!) There's is a desire to run at Watkin's Glen, but as more af a long term thing as the track needs a lot of work.

[ma]

Pocono was dropped because the track owners refused to upgrade the safety features to even reasonably modern standards. The outer wall was constructed of 1/4" steel plate and was loose in many places - there were even spots where the leading edge of a plate stuck out a couple inches & wasn't attached by much ! Can you imagine what would happen if you slid up and ran into that ?

[Crash Test]

I don't think the speeds would be as high as a Fontana, the corners are low banked and reasonably tight.

[Heeltoe6]

Pocono wasn't a tri-oval per se, although it did have three turns. It was 2.5 miles, and kinda looks like Kautzingring, except Pocono's straights were of more varied length. T1 was banked at 14 deg(stock car style), t2 was 6 deg(champcar style), and t3 was banked 6 deg(road course style), so Pocono's claim to fame was that each turn was suited to a different type of driver.

Yes, those boiler plates were nasty. Thankfully, they have been removed. Not that it matters, the owner never really cared for the champcar races there anyways

[Jared]

That's what I was wondering while watching the Winston Cup race there this past weekend (after the CART race), is what kind of race would the CART cars put on. I wonder if the Handford Device would be mandated, and, with the looooonnnnngggg front straightaway, might we see one car pass and then get passed by the same car before Turn 1?
The speeds there for the last CART race in 1989 were around 212 mph, I believe.

As for Talladega, they haven't repaved that track in 20 years. It's way too bumpy for a CART race. That and the speeds would be about 260-270 mph, maybe higher. De Ferran actually drove a Champ Car there for a Valvoline commercial a few years ago.

[floid2000]

INDY Cars at Talladega ! That's been my dream for years.
Speeds ? In current Engine and Aero trim my guess is 275mph top speeds .(Watch for tire problems) That track is 2.6 miles long and banked steeper than Daytona. Let me be the first to get a ticket to that race.

[Robin Plummer]

I agree I'd love to see Champ Car's at Taladega! How about Daytona too?

[Heeltoe6]

TG expresses interest in running his irl at Daytona some weeks back. But that was just talk