The facilities just make you feel as if you're at a preservatory, the ambiance of trees, a cool summer breeze and a blindingly quick track make it so unique. It's over 4 miles of pure bliss, a proper circuit for the stars and cars of the American Le Mans Series to stretch their legs.
A shame, then, this year's race has been reduced to merely a standard 2:45 race on Sunday after the last two years of four hours from sun into dusk on Saturday. Last year was a ghost town on Sunday once ALMS cleared out with the hasty cancellation of the Champ Car race as a result of the open-wheel unification.
This weekend's schedule is still jam-packed with seven different series (ALMS, SPEED World Challenge, Patron GT3 Cup, IMSA Lights, Mazda MX-5, Volkswagen TDI Cup and the Formula BMW Americas' US sendoff), but mainly sportscar-based with little in the way of open-wheelers. The Mid-Ohio date change meant this weekend was moved back one week, so Atlantic and Star Mazda are off in Trois-Rivieres, Canada instead of here.
Today was mostly spent walking the track, down the long middle straight under the Sargento bridge into turn 5, and up to Canada Corner. Relaxed as it was just the promoter's test day. Things kick off in earnest tomorrow with qualifying and the first batch of races, and most of the feature events are on Sunday.
For now, it's a serene end to a personally very hectic and crazy summer of travel with school about to begin in about a week. It's at the point of enjoying the racing while I still can.
As always, there will be more to come throughout the weekend here, on my Twitter page (twitter.com/tonydizinno), and motorsport.com with articles on the ALMS and SPEED World Challenge events. Out for now, cheers.
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