JG and I were talking about ozarks on Sunday at the FIRM (yall should go, it's a fun track!).
I Raced there in the Champcar championship a few years ago. I think it was their 2nd race ever.
At the time (and things may have developed more since), the entire paddock was on a hill with no flat areas. You couldn't just leave your racecar in gear. It would roll away.
The track itself is very fun, but lots of blind corners. I'm not sure if they reprofiled the elevation in the roller coaster, but you could definitely feel the car getting light. This was with about 190hp.
Line of sight is difficult and there are aome tricky parts to the track.
An endurance race there will be about survival!
In reply to wvumtnbkr :
It certainly looks like a fun/challenging layout.
It will be interesting to see tire temps as November in the ozarks can be very warm or close to snow. I use to do a regular hiking trip in the area over thanksgiving and lived in Springfield for a while and have seen all of the weather.
It is a challenging track from the sight lines as wvumtnbkr mentioned. I think it's an interesting move overall and since it's closer to me I may head down there for it.
That track scares me TBH. I went once for a HPDE and will not go back without a caged race car. I just felt there was too many places where things can go very wrong very quick.
JG Pasterjak
Tech Editor & Production Manager
2/17/25 11:19 a.m.
bmw88rider said:
It will be interesting to see tire temps as November in the ozarks can be very warm or close to snow. I use to do a regular hiking trip in the area over thanksgiving and lived in Springfield for a while.
It is a challenging track from the sight lines as wvumtnbkr mentioned. I think it's an interesting move overall and while it's closer to me and I may head down there for it.
That track scares me TBH. I went once for a HPDE and will not go back without a caged race car. I just felt there was too many places where things can go very wrong very quick.
To be fair, Thunnderhill could have some wild temperature swings as well. I did more than a few stints there during a 25 Hour that were below freezing. Much like the rolex, out laps are going to be exciting, but once you get the tires and oil up to temp it should be good for engines and brakes.
JG Pasterjak said:
bmw88rider said:
That track scares me TBH. I went once for a HPDE and will not go back without a caged race car. I just felt there was too many places where things can go very wrong very quick.
To be fair, Thunnderhill could have some wild temperature swings as well. I did more than a few stints there during a 25 Hour that were below freezing. Much like the rolex, out laps are going to be exciting, but once you get the tires and oil up to temp it should be good for engines and brakes.
In the six years I was going to that event, we had everything from hot as blazes to freezing, clear skies, heavy fog, and various amounts of moisture/mud.
On the outlap thing, we pre-heated our tires with electric blankets. Perfectly compliant with NASA rules.
My personal feeling is that they need to go back to the old days and remove the prototype class if they are going to continue to allow the ST5&6 cars to run. An LMP3 coming up on a Spec Miata over a blind crest is not going to end well, especially in the dark and with amateur drivers. Thunderhill had only one such turn so everyone knew to take it easy there. Ozarks has many.
If the Honda guys decide to go, they will have to find another crew chief. I can't be party to that.
There are good reasons SRO decided not to race there any longer.
In reply to sobiloff :
The SRO never decided to "not race there any longer". They have never been. Track was built during Covid and experienced many delays. They preliminarily scheduled an event in hopes the track would be complete early on but they all decided they needed more time to finish the track. This is all widely known and easy to search.
“Over the past two years we have been reminded that we cannot control all external forces,” said Greg Gill, president and CEO of SRO Motorsports America. “We thank our friends at the Ozarks International Raceway for their extraordinary efforts to prepare for our race weekend. Yesterday we concluded that we could not produce the desired quality event in the limited time available. We are appreciative of NOLA for being able to step in to maintain our schedule.”
I love this track, yes you have to pay attention and drive if you want to go quickly but it is so much fun once you figure it out! It's also a great spectator track as it's easy to get around it and sight lines are terrific, especially at turn 11....
Weather is always a crapshoot that time of year, could be beautiful, could be raining, foggy or snowing!
The pit area is all paved, but it does have a slight slope to it depending on where you are parked, def use chocks! If I were racing there I would pay for a garage spot......
That track looks like a lot of fun, glad they are still building places like that these days. Coming from Mosport which also has lots of elevation changes, blind crests/entries and constant corners it looks great.
Roughly the same drive time as Road Atlanta or Barber Motorsports park from my house.
Well as a Northern Californian I selfishly say that sucks. It's always been a great event. But I want what's best for the sport. Not sure why they can't have both.
