"Welcome To...How'd They Do That!"
All we've heard the last few weeks is how fast Charlotte has become... after the track surface was smoothed out....it worked, the track records for both Busch and Cup evaporated.
Last Febuary, engineers used a combination of a global positioning system and three-dimensional laser mapping to smooth out the track at Lowe's Motor Speedway..Okay, granted, I have NO idea what the hell that means...So Humpy Wheeler (track president) had to dumb it down for us:
"Basically what we've got is a beautiful golf course but the putts aren't going exactly where we want. So we are smoothing out the greens,"....Oh okay, got it!...I think!
It's still cool as hell, how they actually did this...it began with engineers using a three-dimensional laser to map the track. So precise that it can detect bumps not visible to the naked eye, this system generated an extremely accurate 3-D map of the track's racing surface.
Engineers then attached a Global Positioning System receiver to a regular car Wheeler drove numerous laps around the track. Driving the same lines used by race teams, the GPS utilized a satellite to produce a digital map of Wheeler's exact location as he circled the 1.5-mile track.
"There are three distinct grooves on this type of race track," Wheeler said about his laps around the speedway. "One is what I call a qualifying groove, which is the fastest. The second is a passing groove and it's just to the outside of the qualifying groove. Then there's a third groove up high that I call the Richard Petty groove. We originally identified seven places we wanted to grind," Wheeler continued. "But after I got on the track, the places that had been
ground were so smooth I said let's go ahead and do all of the turns."
Hey Humpy, did you say "three distinct grooves"...where are they again?...Well then, that explains why no one has wadded up their rides in the last few weeks! The middle groove seems to be better. That's why Ryan Newman (pole winner) is strongly considering starting on the outside for the 600...Yep, the pole winner has his choice of where he wants to start...and only the front row can swap positions! We'll find out tomorrow!
Mark
www.NascarStockCar.com
Last Febuary, engineers used a combination of a global positioning system and three-dimensional laser mapping to smooth out the track at Lowe's Motor Speedway..Okay, granted, I have NO idea what the hell that means...So Humpy Wheeler (track president) had to dumb it down for us:
"Basically what we've got is a beautiful golf course but the putts aren't going exactly where we want. So we are smoothing out the greens,"....Oh okay, got it!...I think!
It's still cool as hell, how they actually did this...it began with engineers using a three-dimensional laser to map the track. So precise that it can detect bumps not visible to the naked eye, this system generated an extremely accurate 3-D map of the track's racing surface.
Engineers then attached a Global Positioning System receiver to a regular car Wheeler drove numerous laps around the track. Driving the same lines used by race teams, the GPS utilized a satellite to produce a digital map of Wheeler's exact location as he circled the 1.5-mile track.
"There are three distinct grooves on this type of race track," Wheeler said about his laps around the speedway. "One is what I call a qualifying groove, which is the fastest. The second is a passing groove and it's just to the outside of the qualifying groove. Then there's a third groove up high that I call the Richard Petty groove. We originally identified seven places we wanted to grind," Wheeler continued. "But after I got on the track, the places that had been
ground were so smooth I said let's go ahead and do all of the turns."
Hey Humpy, did you say "three distinct grooves"...where are they again?...Well then, that explains why no one has wadded up their rides in the last few weeks! The middle groove seems to be better. That's why Ryan Newman (pole winner) is strongly considering starting on the outside for the 600...Yep, the pole winner has his choice of where he wants to start...and only the front row can swap positions! We'll find out tomorrow!
Mark
www.NascarStockCar.com
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home