Midwest weather causes havoc for fresh asphalt with the expansion and contraction. Not sure how much of that weather gets to Ohio though.
Hopefully they can grind it down a bit.
Well, I know that the base layer and pavement was laid in the fall of last year. I’m guessing to TJ’s point, that the very cold winter and unusually hot summer we’ve had so far has played a role with freeze / thaw. I’ve heard rumblings of “re-rolling” the asphalt, but apparently that can cause other side effects.
Chat GPT gave me an answer that is too long to post. To summarize: subsurface preparation, temperature fluctuations, paving techniques, material quality can all play a factor.
I’m not sure what steps in the process that kart tracks are missing compare to big auto racing tracks like Mid Ohio which is in the same climate, but clearly there’s a difference.
I treat the physical nature of MCC as a home track advantage, so I’m guessing the regulars of Quaker will be hardened like prison veterans.
I’m not a concrete expert, but the mix, conditions, and prep are definitely different between kart tracks and car tracks. I’m sure cost is also a major factor.
I’ve run my kart at Mid-Ohio and Nelson Ledges, and both felt much smoother than any of the local sprint tracks—even after those tracks were repaved. I always assumed that was just part of the challenge and uniqueness of sprint tracks.
It’s interesting to see how thick the asphalt looks at Badger. I can’t quite remember how thick it was when Pitt Race (PRK) did their repave a while back. I am just happy there is another track to race it. However Lorain will probably be my home track.
From the sounds of the Quaker Karting Discord channel, they are preparing to re-pave the surface next month. I don’t have further details but a relevant update to the discussions previously held here.
repaving a brand new track? Is it that bad?
Honestly, it was rough when we were there for Stars, but no worse than Road America or Badger before they were repaved. But it’s a new track, so that’s the issue. It should be glass smooth. And Badger and RA both definitely needed a repave.
My camera makes it look smoother than it was, but there were a quite a few spots where if you hit a bump the wrong way, it would just pitch you off the road. You can see a few instances of that in my video…
I would imagine if it was already rough when we were there, it’s only gotten worse. Plus, after winter it would definitely change again with the temperature change. And when we were there, the asphalt was already getting ripped up from all the grip and karts, so they were patching a lot of it already.
Did they get this repave done?