Leaving the pit area the car's anticipation for the track seemed almost animalistic, like a bird dog, anticipating the kill, pulled back on
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| Willow Springs immediately pulls left out of the pits, before settling into one of the longest right sweepers I've ever experience on-track. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
its leash before being set free to spook out partridge, but once the pit lane ended its persona took on an entirely different nature. Still animalistic, for sure, but now the Charger SRT8 possessed the power of a Kodiak and the fleet feet of a deer. OK, enough with fauna analogies, cold, hard truth is all that matters now.
Willow Springs immediately pulls left out of the pits, before settling into one of the longest right sweepers I've ever experience on-track. It's important not to turn in and hug the inside line too early, or you'll end up scrubbing off time through lateral acceleration instead of keeping a steady, patient foot on the throttle, maintaining a constant speed during the slight uphill grade, before adding a little more with the right foot as the apex appears. Here, it straightens and flattens out for a short straight, and then quicker than you can see 6,000 rpm in third gear,
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| I managed a top-speed of about 130, bypassing the pits on the left, preparing for the gradual left and long sweeping right that started the entire process over again. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
an ultra-sharp left combines with a steep vertical climb before wrenching to the right, a tiny straight, and hard right again. The track drops down the other side at an alarming rate, flicks to the right a bit before the car needs to be straightened out, brakes added liberally, and wheels lined up for a high-speed left. A slight dip precedes the "jump", what locals call a crest in the road that also unwittingly shapes to the right before plunging down a left angled "straight", 185 km/h (115 mph) being the fastest I attempted with the Charger SRT8. Another extremely long right sweeper meets the end of this high-speed stretch, this time taken with the throttle more or less pegged all the way around until a sneaky curve could easily get the better of novices and experienced drivers alike, as it tucks in quickly to set up the front straight. I managed a top-speed of about 130, bypassing the pits on the left, preparing for the gradual left and long sweeping right that started the entire process over again.
