Nashville’s IndyCar street circuit debut last year produced one of the races of the season, as Marcus Ericsson went from an airborne crash at the back of the pack to a sensational victory.
But you could be forgiven for wanting a few things from that race to have been a bit more normal.
The race and the circuit layout were drawn up during the pandemic, and the end result was fantastic. But a few teething issues certainly could be addressed for 2022.
The primary one was the restart situation. The race started on the Korean War Veteran’s Bridge – the stunning centrepiece of the venue – but then all consequent restarts came at the start/finish line in front of the hospitality boxes and grandstand.
The problem with this was the Turn 11 right hander is so tight that it created a bottleneck, and while the drivers weren’t blameless in some of the crashes that took place, it certainly made sense to take that issue out of their hands.
There appeared to be two prevailing opinions on how to stop these issues: either to ban overtaking until after Turn 11, or to move the restart position.
REPLAY: The incident involving multiple drivers that brought out the red flag in Nashville.
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So, for 2022, the track’s restart zone has been moved to the bridge – exactly like the start of the race.
This should alleviate any serious issues coming onto the straight.
The race organiser also believes it should “provide cleaner restarts and more immediate passing opportunities”.
The problematic area at Turn 11 has also been widened by six feet “to not only increase the track width but provide better vision for drivers”.
A bump at the narrow Turn 5 chicane will be resurfaced in a bid to make that smoother, and the entrance onto the bridge and the exit from it will also be smoothed “as much as possible”, “to reduce the potential of the cars bottoming coming on and off the bridge”.
The entry to Turn 5 just after the bridge was one place that caught some drivers out when braking last year.
The final change to the track comes at the Turn 9 left-hander. The organiser says the “track width into Turn 9 [is] being reduced to 50 feet to accommodate additional suites in a primary viewing area”.
While additional places for the event to make money and ensure its place on the calendar are important, let’s hope the narrowing of that corner doesn’t impact the technicality of it.
The original entry to Turn 9 was so wide that some drivers went really late on the brakes – compromising their exit – while others took a slower, wider line into the corner to get back on the power for a better exit onto the straight.
We won’t know if that’s been impacted until IndyCar goes back to the track in August, but it’s always a treat as a racing fan to see a variation in styles and the chance to mix up corner entry and exit, which can play a big role in overtaking.
The organising group for the Nashville event received plenty of credit for getting a street race off the ground in the pandemic and seems to be doing something many organisations and people struggle to do – listening to feedback and making changes for the overall greater good.
We’ll reserve judgement on Turn 9 for now, but the other changes should help deliver a much more sensible race.
