Whisky Hill Raceway aka Palmer Motorsports Park

A new track opened this Spring in Palmer Mass. It's as much of a hill climb as a track.
Reminds me of the Bathhurst course in Australia if you watch the V8 Super car races.
It"s got something for everyone. 2.2 miles, 14 turns some banked, a"corkscrew", up hill esses, The main "straight" is a 100 mph +, right hand sweeper leading to an up hill left and immediate down hill left. Very technical and challenging and not for the meek. Exciting when your "00 Boxster S is being passed by a GT3 Super cup Porsche. Very little run off with lots of concrete barriers or ledge. Some tire barriers.
The view at the top is probably 50+ miles.

Here are a couple of links.

[goo.gl]

[goo.gl]

Here is a pic Nancy took showing the altitude change.

image1.JPG

Ed B

Thanks for the links either way!

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

Yes, I drove it for two days this last weekend with North Country PCA. We were were the first group NOT to have a incident ! Be careful.

I run in the red group, and it was recommended the you take a ride with someone who has driven the track. My first session was with a friend in a GT3 RS. Well worth it. The track manager will sometimes let you take touring laps in the evening or during lunch break. A track walk will take 2.5 hours.

It's a lot of fun, but it will take three or four sessions to learn the track. Almost all apexes are very late. I was using 2nd, 3rd, 4th, & 5th gears. Some GT3 drivers complained about having to use 2nd gear too much. I only use it twice. My very cautious lap times were in the 2:14 to 2:20 area.( My almost sock Boxster is no match for prepared race cars) The faster cars run about 2:00. Unofficial track record is 1:48 in the GT3 Super cup.

It would be interesting in the rain, but you will need very good rain tires. and a very sensitive touch.

Maw's has decent food. I'm still trying to post Nancy"s picture.

Warning! The Mass Pike traffic can/will be very bad in the AM and PM.



Ed B

Challenging is the word; can't imagine 4-25 minutes session/day on this track with traffic--and not a lot of places to pass.

With all the concrete walls close to the track surface, you don't have much room if you make a mistake. Do you think you'd try this track in rain, Ed ?

The old Beaver Run track, which opened 10+ years ago in western PA, is now Pitt Race and they've just added a south course which makes the full track 2.8 miles long.

Since it's only 2 hours from us, this will be very convenient to get to. IIRC, this track was bought by new owners a few years back when it ran into financial difficulty and the new owners are partners in VIR.
Here is the track website and a video of the track at speed:

[www.pittrace.com]

[www.youtube.com]

The video from inside a '62' TR4 is a hoot--analog driving at it's best. BTW, there is still some work to be finished at the track, including a resurfacing of the original track.

Spent three days on PittRace full course recently. South track (new) is Mid-O-esque (i.e. technical) and has a toe (T5) like WGI. North is same except now w/ the transitions a number of former turns completely change. T1 becomes a sweeper a la Mid-O's T1, T11 (formerly T4) is now high speed and T12 (formerly T5) has a hard brake zone whereas before it was more or less tap and go up the hill. North of course is bumpy compared to South and kink is still pucker factor territory... Both I understand remain until 2017 when they repave and eliminate kink (not sure how though knowing why kink is there). Esses are great fun carving and require patience. All are pretty much constant radius and positive camber but a few gotchas in new are T-3 & T-4 (combo) and a few overcook T-8. Elevation changes in esses are obvious if you walk but not so much behind wheel initially.

Great fun and I know you will enjoy!

… I love the elevation changes, but man, that's a lot of concrete!
Happy Porscheing,
Pedro

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 311,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

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Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/11/2015 03:20PM by Pedro (Weston, FL). (view changes)

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

Nancy"s Picture. Maybe?

[s1254.photobucket.com]

Ed B