Monticello............What a track!!!!

[betegh9]

Just got back from Monticello Motor Club event with PDA and can't say enough good things about the place. The track is over 4.5 miles long with 23 turns (full course). Unless you have learned in autocross how to memorize a course quickly, it would take most people a good part of a day to recognize where you are on the track. The track has one or the longest straights in North America as well as second gear hairpins. There are combination of turns that make it very technical as well as off camber (unlike WGI where most turns are ON-camber). The track, overall is quite different than WGI, even though it has great elevation changes. The facility in manicured like a golf course with plenty of run offs for guys that like to push their limits. Oh!, and there are a couple of blind turns that can bite you of you don't learn the course quickly enough. This has been the only track that I felt brake fade (pads overheating) due to the frequency that the brakes needed to be engaged without much cooling between turns. Next time I'll bring a set of higher temp pads to this event.
This is a private club and requires a 6 figure membership, yearly fees as well as track time fees. Imagine that you could take an afternoon off work, go to Wings airfield (Blue Bell, Pa), fly to Monticello airfield next to the track, drive a club car or your own at the track till you get dizy, and make it home for dinner. WHAT A LIFE! RIGHT?.........or you can do what I did.......... Wake up at 3 am, drive up to Monticello, 2.5 hours, drive on the track with a group that managed to rent the full track for 1 day (very difficult to do), then drive home tired hoping you can stay awake on the Pensy Turnpike, put the car in the garage leaving everything in the car, and crash your body in bed or the sofa watching Jay Leno by 10 pm. As tired as I was, the one day trip was well worth while. The only thing missing at the track were the Porsche pavilion, the Mercedes pavilion, the Audi pavilion, and the BMW pavilion. If you would picture or imagined those facilities being there, I swear that you'd think that you are at one of the famous European tracks of your favorite choice.