Rockingham Speedway Suitable for Indycar?
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- Rockingham Speedway is a 1.017 mile D shaped oval with 22 degrees of banking in turns 1 & 2 and 25 degrees in turns 3 & 4. Rockingham is one of the few remaining speedways (1 to 2.49 miles in length) in North America that is not owned by Nascar or Speedway Motorsports. This then leads to the key question, would Rockingham Speedway be a good Indycar circuit?
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I don't know about Indy coming to The Rock, but I was at my local barbershop yesterday and my barber was telling me about some sort of new motorsports park under construction near Star, North Carolina, in the central part of the state, so I wonder if that could be a future IRL venue. I do know NASCAR is running at Rockingham on Easter weekend this year for Trucks and Xfinity, but I frankly wouldn't see any sort of feud if Indy also chose to come to The Rock.
Yeah, since Rockingham is independently owned, Nascar can't quite control the circuit the same as tracks they own directly or owned by Speedway Motorsports.
This one is a thought I've had off and on for a while. I'd want to see more clearly just what the current state of the track is. Thankfully, it isn't concrete like Dover, and the confines don't seem to be as tight.
That was one of the big issues with Dover, because if you hit anything, you'd just bounce right back across and hit the other wall. Multiple impacts are bad for the initial car/driver, but then, you also had the issue of anyone following not really having any room for evasive action.
I'd like to see how the current cars would go at Michigan, just to know.
I don't think the clamor for a Triple Crown of super speedways is going to have died out even when Roger Penske is gone,however far out that ends up being.
Obviously, Pocono was designed for Indy Cars back in the day. I would think fixing/raising the Turn 2 wall at least wouldn't be horribly unfeasible. That alone would help quite a bit. (I kind of wonder if someone didn't get their sums right and the wall isn't exactly perpendicular to the banking there.)
The harder part would be moving the inside wall there at the end of the Long Bond Straight back inward more, so you don't have guys bouncing back up onto the racing surface.
It's unfortunate that previous management seemed to sort of poison things with Loudon, because that strikes me as a perfectly logical IndyCar venue as well.
Just for reference, for roughly 1-mile ovals:
Dover - 1.0 mile
Rockingham - 1.017 mi
Phoenix - 1.022 mi
Milwaukee - 1.032 mi
Loudon - 1.058 mi
Nazareth was 0.946 of a mile.
Pike's Peak just seemed too similar to Iowa for me to be particularly interested.
With the current cars, I just feel like Richmond is just that little bit too short.
I think a 1.5-miler could work, especially if the banking wasn't as high. The trouble is finding a track like that anymore. Nashville is the closest to it that that I can readily find.
@@Villoresi many of those tracks are owned by Nascar, which seems to control more and more tracks each year.
Indycar needs to ensure they lockdown Gateway & Milwaukee, then they will have three ovals including Indianapolis. Even with doubleheaders at Gateway & Milwaukee that only gets Indycar to 5 ovals each year. A bit low, as I'd say the sweet spot is 6 oval races.
There are only two more independent speedways in North America: Puebla & Rockingham. I think Indycar needs to purchase at least a partial share in one or both of them: Puebla is a 1.28 mile slightly banked perfect oval. Rockingham is a heavily banked 1.02 mile D shaped oval. Puebla also has a good Roval layout, which was recently used by Formula E. It is in Mexico and a perfect addition considering the growing Indycar fanbase.
I'd advise Indycar to enter into a long term contract with Puebla to be the home for spring testing (on the Roval), followed by the opening race of the season (on the oval). Then Indycar should purchase Rockingham and include it in the earlier part of the season schedule.
Now Indycar would have 5 ovals venues:
Indianapolis
Gateway
Milwaukee
Rockingham
Puebla
That's 5-6 oval races depending on if Indycar wants to do a doubleheader at Gateway or Milwaukee with HiVee.
@@ACasualRacer First, we need suitable venues, period. And really, it would help for those to be ones that stand out in such a way that they make people actually care.
If it came down to it, I wouldn't bet against RP's lawyers in an anti-trust case. That said, I don't see any good reason for NASCAR to be that adversarial anytime soon.
NASCAR seems busy enough itself, just trying to see what kinds of things might work since their 1.5-miler gambit has fallen through. Also, you have things like the cooperative deals between Barber and Talladega.
Honestly, for a second, my mind was initially thinking of Pueblo, Colorado.
Anyway, I'm not sure if/how that oval would be preferable to the 1.0-mile at Mexico City. Puebla is also up at ~7,000 ft in elevation, so it could still be pretty chilly early in the year. Maybe the roval might be okay for testing, but I wouldn't have Indy Cars run an actual race on it.
And hey, I'm all for bolstering the existing events at Gateway, Iowa, and Milwaukee. But I'm also trying to think of ovals that aren't just going to offer something that seems too exactly like what we already have.
I mean, if you have the track map up, or they show the aerial shot on the broadcast, you can tell Gateway is an irregular oval, but if you don't have those references just right there, how different is it going to look from Puebla?
Puebla is probably going to need upgrades, anyway, as, to my knowledge, it's only a Grade 3, and would need to be fully Grade 2 to host IndyCar.
Honestly, the paperclip-shaped oval in Latin America that jumps out most to me is Rafaela in Argentina. (Yes, I know, that's a stretch, to say the least.)
I wouldn't even think to bring up an oval of that size in the first place, except that Rafaela is so flat (8.5 degrees) and elongated (tighter corner radii).
Internationally, the only other functional oval readily coming to mind is the Lausitzring in Germany, since Motegi is out of commission and Calder Park has long been neglected.
This would be rather easier if, for instance, someplace like the 1.4-mile tri-oval at Hanford, CA still existed.
@@Villoresi Rafaela isn't a horrible choice, if only Argentina was a bit more stable of a country to visit.
Nascar so far has killed most deals that Indycar tries to put together at tracks, even now. It will only get worse if Indycar grows. Iowa might be safe, if just to avoid an antitrust lawsuit... and I guarantee that most doors that Nascar leaves open, will be on tracks that poorly suit Indycar.
The alternative oval layout at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is pretty flat. Also, I'm almost certain that Indycar wouldn't be able to purchase any ownership share in the track. With Puebla I was thinking it could serve as an Indycar home base in Mexico. It is graded at FIA Grade 3E (between 2 & 3, and I think mostly just needs the extra fee paid to FIA). But I hadn't thought of the elevation issues in the early spring. Perhaps my scheduling idea is wrong, but in terms of a possible location for the series to acquire I still think makes sense.
One that I hadn't thought of until now, is if Indycar could potentially buy Chicagoland from Nascar. That track produces great Indycar racing, in a solid location, and it is quietly on the market just waiting for the right price.
I love the tracks you both pointed out. And my idea is that indycar can strike a deal with ISC and NASCAR to race on a few oval tracks that they don't use anymore, for example chicagoland. I would say Puebla is the better option because indycar could make it a Mexican home for the sport.
I also have a few oval tracks to add to the international list:
- Phisaka freeway, a 1.5 mile oval in south africa. It's a fairly standard cookie cutter track
- Some track in Angola, which is a square oval like indy
- the bahrain int circuit has a 1.553 mile flat oval which I don't think would be that special honestly
- in France there is the autodromo de linas montlhery, the oval layout there is 1.5 miles long and pretty much a full circle
- and as a bonus there is raceway venray in my home country of the netherlands which is a 0.5 mile oval
@@brammyr1543 Unfortunately, Montlhery isn't necessarily in much better condition than the Monza banking. Not to mention, the higher part of the turns is way too steep (up to 52 degrees).
Welkom in South Africa could be a thought.
Luanda in Angola definitely isn't up to anything like the required standard.
And no offense to the Netherlands, but I'm just not that keen on ovals that are particularly shorter than Iowa for the current crop of Indy Cars.
I thought you meant the defunct (but still existing) Rockingham Motor Speedway in the UK. It's actually longer than this one.
Haha, yeah that probably wouldn't work!