Anatomy of A Racetrack

ANATOMY OF A RACETRACK

RACEWATCH

BEN SPIES BREAKS DOWN CoTA

Matthew Miles

Everything is bigger in Texas, right? Circuit of The Americas is 3.4 miles in length, has 20 turns, 133 feet of elevation gain and its .745-mile front straight is the longest on the MotoGP calendar. Here’s what Longview native Ben Spies said about the new track.

• "I hate to say it, but Turn 1 is a dangerous corner for a start. It’s a good corner for racing, but with the shape of the turn, the way the right line is supposed to be, if somebody messes up, you could take out a lot of people.’’

• “The fast esses-Turns 3,4, 5 and 6-are the most difficult part of this track.”

• "I wish Turn 11 leading onto the back straightaway weren’t a bus stop. I understand they've got to mix it up, but for this track to be as big as it is and to have such a nice flow, it’s a bit strange.”

• “Braking is nothing crazy; Monza is pretty similar and so is Sepang off the back straightaway. Up the hill into Turn 1 is more of a spectacle. The back straightaway is downhill going into first gear, so that puts a little

more pressure on your upper body.”

• "The triple right [16,17, 18] is the easiest part, because it’s a constant turn; you just set it in there. It’s a blind exit, but once you’ve done 10 or 15 laps, you know

where you're at. The hairpins before that are a lot harder.”

• "Turn 19 is difficult because it drops away after the long triple right. So, you have your momentum up, and the track falls away from you."

• "There isn’t one fourth-gear corner on the whole track. It’s still world-class and awesome, but instead of five super-slow corners, it would have been nice to have three slow corners and one big, really fast one."

TEXAS TWISTIES: 20 turns, a 14,000capacity amphi theater and a 251-foot-tall tower.