Darlington repaving and renovation begins
Quote selected text Published June 21st, 2007 in NASCAR News
The facelift to Darlington Raceway has begun. Construction on the track’s $10 million worth of improvements started Monday with the removal of the SAFER barriers in order to begin the building of the tunnel in the middle of Turns 3 and 4. That’s the first phase in the process, which is expected to last until November.
“It’s going to be interesting with this whole deal,” Darlington Raceway president Chris Browning said Tuesday. “It’s going to be great. When they get done, this place will look brand new.”
The other big portion of the project is the repaving of the track, which hasn’t happened since 1995. All areas, including pit road and the aprons, will be repaved. Browning said the new asphalt won’t be laid down until sometime in August.
“We are really excited about the repaving and hopefully we can eliminate some of the problems the track has had,” he said. The problems, Browning said, dealt with the water undermining the track. He said steps have been taken such as controlling the water under the track. With the new surface for next year, Browning hopes NASCAR allows teams to conduct an open test session. Since 2006, NASCAR has limited the amount of tests at tracks that host Nextel Cup races to six a year, but Darlington hasn’t been selected to host one of those tests since the rule was implemented.
Bookmark to:
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this may not seem like a big deal to most people “repaving a racetrack” that is. but i am an asphalt paver operator and paving the corners ugghhh the banking the countrweights on the equipment it sucks not to mention paving slower than 10 feet per minute and all the regulations you have to meet “NOT FUN”
I wish they would compensate for the amount of track taken by the SAFER barriers and widen the track some during this.
I hope this ends up getting Darlington two dates again.
Are we going to have tire issues on this new pavement then next year? Eating them up or no not really??
I don’t see how anything could be worse on tires than what they’ve been racing on at Darlington. I guess anything is possible…
i dated a asphalt paver, he repaved the richmond track and talladega, he said he would rather repave tracks than regular roads. he said its less boring.
remember all the wrecks they had after they repaved before.. so probably a given.