Thanks for your interest in my “Racing Summit Point” video. After selling hundreds of these videos over the years, I’m offering it up free of charge, with a catch. If you find it helpful or entertaining please make a non-deductible contribution to the Racers Helping Racers Fund by using the link below. RHR is a fund which I coordinate that provides monies to DC area motorsports friends and their families who are in need of some financial assistance and all monies go to the fund. Every cent. So even $10 or $20 helps, and the help you give will come back to you.
racershelpingracers.com/
The Long Version:
This video started out as something fun and for my own entertainment but took on a life of its own. I did the driving, video recording and voice over, not to mention overseeing the edit sessions. I’m even responsible for the guitar and bass tracks but luckily there's a volume control.
Summit Point Motorsports Park is a 2-mile, 10 turn road course located just across the Virginia/West Virginia border and has been around since 1970. It is the home track for the Washington DC Region of the SCCA and many other racing or high performance driving organizations in the region. Many of the WDCR SCCA instructors refer to the carousel as they are numbered in this video, which is turn 5, 6A, 6B, 7 and 8. Some of the turns have been semi-officially renumbered by Bill Scott Racing (BSR), the track’s own staff of instructors. For the Friday at the Track (FATT) events, they refer to turn 6A as 6, 6B as 7, turn 7 as 8 and turn 8 as 9. You’ll have to sort that out depending on what club event you attend and who you’re talking to in the paddock.
BSR has made many safety improvements to the track over the last several years, so it looks very different around the track now. There’s a serious gravel trap at T1 at the end of the main straight, another on driver’s right at T3, and another at T10. They wait patiently to gobble you up. The run off areas have been greatly improved and concrete retaining walls and tire barriers have been installed in several important areas.
The braking techniques I mention for the various corners are only descriptions of my own experience in my own car. Every car accelerates, brakes and handles differently, so you’ll have to decide for yourself how much braking is “required.”
There are several laps showing the line under race conditions. On the first race lap the smoke you see in the rear view mirror (upper right of screen) in the braking area of T5 is my left front tire getting flat spotted down to the cord. I couldn’t believe what it looked like at the end of the race and it was no wonder why I was going backwards. I’ve also included a couple of my better starts so you can see that sometimes things go right, with a little luck. There are also a couple scenes at the end of the video to show you that things don’t always go quite as expected. My personal favorite is the one at T1, practicing in the wet. The incident at T6 is me getting tagged from behind by someone who hadn’t noticed the Red Flag, which was due to the crash back at T1. Also, notice the “G-Bears” hanging on the roll cage on the in-car stuff. They were given to me by my son when he was a little boy. They remind me of what’s really important about this sport… having fun with my racing buddies and getting home in one piece!
AJ
Racing and high performance driving is risky business and we all do it understanding those risks. Art Jaso and/or Racers Helping Racers are not responsible if you trash your car or injure yourself in any way after viewing this video. This video was put together to simply demonstrate the DRY line around Summit Point and I hope it will be useful to you as a visual aid. The resolution is not great, but I think it still gets the point across. Just stay on the black part!
