March 11, 2010 Apologies to any Juniors that had planned to run at ORP April 10, 2010. ORP does have a minimum age policy of 16 years old. NWRR will not be challenging this policy for this first event. We will however assure that Competition Age 16 racers (those that turn 16 this calendar year) can race in the senior classes per the IKF rules.
Regarding karting Novices:
NWRR will have a minimum experience requirement (see IKF rule 110.1.2). IKF roadrace yellow card holder with a minimum of one punch OR completed roadrace event OR 1 years verifiable IKF senior sprint racing experience, NO FIRST TIME RACERS AT THIS EVENT.
Regarding Novices with experience in other road race formulas or series:
NWRR may allow novices with road race experience under other road race sanctioning bodies. These novices must provide license/credentials or validation of past experience and obtain pre-approval from NWRR in advance of the event.
Okay racers, ORP registration is open!
Feb 8, 2010 Come be part of history and run the first race at the fantastic new Oregon Raceway Park in Grass Valley, Oregon. This place is unlike any other track in Region 6 with lots of challenging turns and terrain. The asphalt is smooth, the curbs are in, the flag stands are up, the paddock is ready. Let's go racing!
The price is right. $175 first entry if pre-registered before
April 1, 2010 $50 more buys all you can race. Day of race entry is $200/$250.
for Entry Form click here.
The event is Saturday April 10 and will feature the standard Gold Cup one day race schedule and classes.
There will be overnight motorhome camping at the track on friday night.
For information about the track see the Oregon Raceway Park website: click here.
For lodging and restaurant info in Grass Valley and surrounding communities go to: Oregon Raceway Park area travel info click here.
Karts should run really well at this place so come lay down some lap times for the cars and bikes to aim at!
For Questions? Call me at 425-280-7803
Blair Nelson, NWRR
ORP Grass Valley Track Testing and Evaluation
For IKF Certification
Oct 27, 2009 Well, folks it seems we have now come full circle in dealing with the ORP track and it is a very good thing. Last year Don and I visited the track to see how it might fit in the PKA Road Race schedule. At the time the track was a strip of black – 40 feet wide – in the middle of wheat country. The construction of the track did not progress enough to allow us to schedule a race for the 2009 season. We have been in communication with the Board of Directors of ORP and have been receiving extremely good information in a timely manner. I was able to schedule a day to meet and survey the track for IKF certification this last Saturday ( 10/24/09). My son (Donnie Sullivan) and I drove over and met with the current (and former) marketing manager to get the tour and receive needed information to process the IKF insurance and track certification program. If this track is accepted, we will be able to utilize the facility for race events during the 2010 season. Before going too much further, thank you’s need to be mentioned for the following people. Donnie Sullivan for the use of his TagE kart for the track drive. “Doc” Coulson for use of his video camera to take the pictures of the circuit. Jonathon Clark (ORP) for his time and information during the visit. Bobby Baldwin for the edit of the video and transfer to CD. Wayne O’Neil for posting the video and pictures along with this story. Apologies need to be sent to Donnie for my error in video recording of his drive around the track. Thanks for his super “feel” and impression input to both myself and Jonathon. The kart used was set up for the last PIR road race and no changes were made to “tune” for the ORP track. As such, I believe that a 3-5 tooth larger rear gear will be needed to run on ORP. Chassis tuning will be a lot different than either PIR or Pacific tracks. The track surface is a special blend of asphalt and is very “grippy”. The track circuit is 40 feet wide all around the track and is very smooth, as it is brand new and they have taken extreme care in building the sub-structure of the track bed. Unfortunately, they have been extremely busy getting barriers, curbs, tires, etc. in place to satisfy the SCCA certification details and we encountered some muddy tracks across the race surface during our drive time. The track should be spotless again during the Nov. 7 test day and I am looking forward to the posting of driver comments after that date. The facility has really changed a lot in the year since my last visit. The road from town is now paved all the way to the main track gate. Hard gravel pack is currently the road on the property to the fully paved and fenced pit area. The pit area is probably about 50-60% of the pit area at PIR, but that is still plenty of area for our events. There is a fully paved “HOT PIT” area to allow track access and exit from race time. There are buildings in place to allow scoring and registration to take place. They have installed an AMB scoring loop in the track. You will be able to see both of the “pit” areas in the pictures.
Due to this being a “test / evaluation” day, we did not have track workers or medical staff in attendance. Therefore, the kart speed was limited to 60-70% of its full capacity. Gearing and jetting also kept the speeds down during these runs. The video camera was mounted on the front of the kart and at about a 12” height from the track. The picture below shows the actual mount. This will allow the “flat back drivers” to see what they will be seeing during an event at ORP. I was concerned about the kart drivers being able to see corner workers around the track. In the video, you can see that all corner worker locations are able to be seen from a kart drivers view.
The video is about 10 minutes long and it covers 4 laps. Please note that the track is designed to be run in either direction but we chose to run in the clockwise manner. Leaving the pit area toward turn one is a sweeping right hander. Turn two is a quite a bit tighter righthand turn that exits to a long downhill “sorta” straightaway that ends with a hard left “off camber” turn and then an immediate right turn. This turn is a lot closer than the camera makes it appear. Continue to a short straight and another downhill left. This is almost a 100’ change in elevation (downhill) to this point. From this point on, it is uphill and uphill and uphill on a long run with blind peaks to the signature turn of the track. This uphill run is about a 70 foot elevation change. The next set of turns are called the “Half pipe” and they are really fun to drive with another drop in elevation of about 60 feet. You continue on to an uphill and downhill straight with another hard left “off camber downhill” turn with another drop of about 40 feet in elevation. This leads to a right turn on to the uphill straight with about an 80 foot elevation change to the finish line. The track length is 2.35 miles for the outside total circuit. The North section alone is .8 mile. We could run a sprint and road race event at the same time on the same day.
All in all it was a very challenging track that is extremely fun to drive.
Article by John Sullivan : PKA Forum
