Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

From Gordon Lunde, via e-mail:

In addition to the complete resurfacing of Blackhawk Farms Raceway in South Beloit, Illinois, the owners are in the process of more safety-related changes.

An unintended benefit of the repaving is lower curb heights in the turns. An inch-and-a-half of surface was ground off the track. Then two layers of new asphalt (1.5 inches each) were laid down, resulting in raising the surface 1.5 inches total and effectively lowering the curb heights by the same amount.

I spoke with owner Mike Irwin on New Year’s day about changes to the turn five area for more run-off room. There has always been a problem there due to a creek that runs under the track from inside to outside of the turn. In the past the Illinois DNR would not let any changes occur that would possibly impede the flow of the creek. There were also numerous trees and heavy underbrush along the creek and a guardrail fronted with tires only a couple of feet off the track’s edge.

About mid-January Mike called me to inform me changes were underway in turn five. I had the chance to check out the progress about a week ago.

Workers went in and took out 18 trees and all of the underbrush in that area. Culvert pipe was installed to extend the existing pipe under the track further away from the racing surface and the area will be back-filled over the pipe. This has considerably increased run-off room before and after the apex of the corner. The guardrail will still exist but in a much abbreviated form just in front of the creek and it is moved back at least 15 feet from the track edge. A dirt berm about 5 feet high will replace guardrail that was previously in front of the creek but some 20-30 feet further back from the track and will be fronted with a tire wall. The area beyond the apex where most incidents have occurred has been cleared of all brush and will be filled and leveled for much better run-off room also.

Other areas (outside of turns one, six and seven) are being filled-in to provide a more level run-off area. Also the entrance to pit road has been extended toward turn seven and widened. A dirt berm extending from inside turn seven along the front straight has been moved back at least 15 feet and several trees were removed in the process which drastically improves the line-of-sight from turn seven to the control tower. No other changes were made to the track layout.

Another improvement is that all the grindings from the track have been laid on the infield roads and as soon as weather permits will be melted and rolled to provide a fully paved infield. Any one who regularly races here can tell horror stories about the dust during dry spells. Now just a memory.

I think the CCS racers will be happy to see all the work that has been done by the track when they arrive for the first event in April.

Although it may be a bit of a mess if work is still in progress, the safety improvements will be obvious.