Originally Posted by JCC:
Ic thanks. Thought this might that might be not the same but similar to perris.
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I'm guessing you've never seen Perris in person; although it's billed as 1/2 mile it's always seemed smaller to me, and it's certainly smaller around the outside than Terre Haute.
Let's put it this way; if Perris is a half mile, THAT is a HALF MILE!
My wife worked for an attorney who was neighbors with the Kazarians. He made a couple of phone calls, as we were planning a race trip to Perris, and Dan Kazarian was nice enough to give us a behind the scene's tour of the entire facility. He told me, when I asked about the size of the track, that it was "barely a half mile on the top of the outside concrete barrier". So maybe what, a big 3/8th's on the racing groove? Great people, great track. Oh yeah, me and the wife went to THAT in 1999 for the "Non Wing world Challenge", loved all 3 nights. You could fit Perris Auto Speedway in the infield of THAT.
Originally Posted by wingless1:
My wife worked for an attorney who was neighbors with the Kazarians. He made a couple of phone calls, as we were planning a race trip to Perris, and Dan Kazarian was nice enough to give us a behind the scene's tour of the entire facility. He told me, when I asked about the size of the track, that it was "barely a half mile on the top of the outside concrete barrier". So maybe what, a big 3/8th's on the racing groove? Great people, great track. Oh yeah, me and the wife went to THAT in 1999 for the "Non Wing world Challenge", loved all 3 nights. You could fit Perris Auto Speedway in the infield of THAT.
I had always suspected the PAS wasn't a true half; I had written a letter to the track after opening night (when was that? 10-plus years ago?), complementing them on the facility (especially that awesome sound system) but questioning the circumference. Never got a reply. Thanks for the confimation. I'd say a better West Coast T.H. counterpart would be Calistoga; don't know if the VdW's choose to compete at that big ol' joint or not...
Ascot was a "smallish" half too, but I've always thought it was a little bit bigger than the PAS. What makes it hard to compare is that their shapes are entirely different; Ascot had those long, dragstrip-like straights and tighter corners that spawned the classic CRA back-it-in style, whereas Perris has more open corners with more banking. Perris has another little "quirk" in that the back straight is elevated so they run uphill through one and two and back down coming through three and four.
The clincher may be the all-time 410 non-wing records at both tracks; Billy Boat will have that mark forever at Ascot with a 17.958, I think the only lap ever turned under 18 seconds. Nic Faas currently holds the record at the PAS with a 15.833. Sure the cars have gotten faster in 23 years but I'd love to see somebody try to break 16 at Ascot in modern equipment. My gut tells me Ascot was bigger; yeah, the tight corners and lower banking may have held the lap times down but Bubby, Deano, Buster, Eddie and all those guys would flat take your breath away with the speed they carried into one comin off that long frontstretch...
