We talked previously about using rhythm as a reference point. Another useful reference point you can use is your engine note. Engines of course sound different at every different RPM, and you can get a very accurate picture of your revs just by listening to your engine note.

Using your engine note as a reference point is really just an extension of using rhythm as a reference point. By that I mean you are once again feeling your way to your next input. The benefit of using your engine note is that this gives you an additional reference point past your “hard” (on the track) reference point.

Take the Lefthander at Lime Rock again. The “hard” reference point will still be my track out from Big Bend, and I will use my rhythm to feel my way to my braking point for the Lefthander. But, in addition to just “feeling” when it is time to brake, my engine note can give me another “floating” reference point. If all goes as it should, the engine note and “feel” points should correspond exactly, and that will be when to hit the brakes.

Consistency is Key
As with using rhythm as a reference point, your engine note is only as good as you are consistent! If you mess up the previous corner, you will be slower on that straight and consequently will not be as fast at the end of that straight. This means your revs will be a bit lower, and your engine note different. If you wait until you hear the “correct” engine note, you will be way too far into your braking zone and then you are in a world of trouble. So, if you mess up the previous corner at all, either 1) make your next input at a lower engine note/rev, or 2) forego the engine note completely and go by feel or some other reference point.
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This is a turn-by-turn guide for the full 4.1 mile, 20 turn course. There are a few general things you should note. 1) the course is LONG and there are a TON of compromise corners, so make sure you learn the track so you can think ahead several corners. 2) the straights are long and fast but the corners are tight and slow, so be vigilant about your braking zones. 3) as the track existed on July 31, 2009, there is virtually no runoff anywhere, ESPECIALLY at the ends of the two fastest straights! So again, BE VIGILANT IN YOUR BRAKING ZONES!

There are actually two different pit areas, so where you consider “Turn 1″ to be can be rather fluid. This guide will use the standard turn numbers as listed by Monticello Motor Club, so Turn 1 will be the tight left hand turn at the end of the Pit Straight. (see the numbered track map here) (Note that the SCDA used the pits along the Back Straight on 7/31/2009, so this is not what many of us would consider “Turn 1″ to be)

Here is some footage of a lap with the corners marked:

Turn 1-2

Pit Straight is quite long and has a fairly steep decline, so speeds at the end of the straight are very high. I can push upwards of 90 mph in my Miata, which doesn’t easily push upwards of 90 mph. Turn 1 is a very tight left hand corner so you need to slow WAY down. Additionally, this corner has the worst runoff of the entire course. There is about 30 feet of grass, then a row of tires and then the armco wall. The runoff and gravel trap as depicted in the online track maps is NOT actually on the racetrack as of July 21, 2009. BE ABSOLUTELY VIGILANT OF YOUR BRAKING ZONE. There is NO room for error! And because you are still going downhill, there is not all that much braking grip.

Turn 2 is the important corner in this section as it leads out the mini straight before Turn 3, so compromise Turn 1 hard and late apex Turn 2. This whole section is VERY slow, so late apex as needed to be able to get your power down as early as possible. Use all the curbing on the right inside of Turn 2 unless it hinders your car’s ability to put down power.

Rain Line
The inside of Turn 1 on the left, right over the curbing you want to drive over, forms a lake when it rains. It can be 6 inches deep, and probably about 10 feet or so in diameter, so your usable track is MUCH narrower. Go in deeper, turn slower. The curbing on the right inside of Turn 2 is obviously slicker, so the issues noted above are amplified. Adjust your line around the curbing as necessary.
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Here I am doing two clean laps around Monticello Motor Club in July 2009 with the SCDA. This is the full, 4.1 mile course with 20 corners. It looks like I’m not using all of the track, but that is just because of the view. My wheels do extend quite a bit farther to the side than the camera and are on the edges of the pavement.

As I mentioned last week, I went out to Monticello Motor Club in NY with the SCDA last week. Suffice it to say, this new racetrack is amazing. The track layout was done quite well, and there are a whole slew of different configurations that can be run. We were fortunate to be able to run the full, 4.1 mile, 22 corner course. Now, I wouldn’t consider it a full 22 corners, just because some of them are small and close enough together that they are more like “sections,” but that is true of any course. Bottom line though is that there are a lot of different sections to learn. Perhaps more importantly, there are a ton of compromise corner and sections throughout the course, so you literally need to know what to expect 3 or 4 corners ahead to figure out the best line.

Overall the course is extremely fast on the straights and pretty slow through the corners. I hit 112 mph at the end of the 1 mile straight (personal fastest on a track!) in my Miata, which is a few MPH faster than I hit at the Glen. And I was braking extremely early for the braking zone. This course is pretty hard on brakes overall, as there are so many places where the speed discrepancy between the straights and corners is severe.

I must say that Monticello, at least as it currently exists, is not a particularly safe racetrack. I understand that it was designed with safety in mind, but unless they plan to add lots of runoff everywhere, I will have to disagree. Every major straight had zero paved runoff, and pretty minimal grassy runoff before the wall. The worst by far was the end of the Pit Straight, where you had about 30-40 feet of grass to a row of tires and Armcor walls. And that is a pretty fast downhill straight - I hit over 90 mph by the end. Even many of the slower corners, like the very first left hand corner out of the pits, leaves you very little grass (downhill in this case!) before the tire wall.

The track is complete (I believe) but none of the buildings have been built yet. All that exists is a rather grand tent which currently serves as the clubhouse. So the track doesn’t look quite like it does in the track map online - yet.

Look for some in-car footage and a turn-by-turn coming up.