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Lap of D.C. track with Kristensen
Washington D.C. - Tom Kristensen lapped the temporary street circuit adjacent to RFK Stadium in the nation's capital in an Audi A6 on Thursday. Tom Kristensen, driver of the number two Infineon Audi R8, describes a lap of the D.C. circuit: Coming ...
Published: Jul 19, 2002, 5:33 PM
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Washington D.C. - Tom Kristensen lapped the temporary street circuit adjacent to RFK Stadium in the nation's capital in an Audi A6 on Thursday.
Tom Kristensen, driver of the number two Infineon Audi R8, describes a lap of the D.C. circuit: Coming down the fast main straight we will be doing about 270 km in the Audi R8 in sixth gear. It is important to stay to the left while the car wants to take you to the right to get setup for the entry to turn one. You have to be careful not to upset the car under braking as the exit is very tight and this can ruin your lap time as well as the fact that there is no run off to correct a mistake. You will use all of the road at the exit to try and maximize your run down into turn two.
Tom Kristensen.
Photo by John Thawley.
Turn two will be the fastest corner on the track, in the R8 it will be third and possibly fourth in qualifying. You can carry a lot of speed into the corner and then it narrows and your exit will be right up against the wall. You will definitely see some paint scraping there on the exit wall.
The entry to turn three is going to be tricky; the track has a dip in the middle of the braking zone. You want to make sure the car is stable at the entry and focus on getting a good exit. The second hairpin has no runoff, again a mistake will be costly. I will be taking the hairpins in second gear. Although they are tight, we will have to use the entry as a passing zone with the slower cars as we can carry a little more speed in their than the GTS or GT cars
Turn 5 is the quick left then right chicane. This combination will be critical in qualifying; you can't afford to come up on slower traffic here. To get through here fast you will run on the curbing a little and exit directly against the wall to get the run to the last turn. The chicane will most likely be a third gear corner.
The last corner is very important as it sends you out onto the fastest part of the track, the main straight. This is where we will maximize our passing opportunities using the top speed of the Audi FSI engine.
I am impressed with the overall layout; it is the smoothest temporary course that I have ever seen. The track is quite wide and they have done a nice job with the curbing.
Traffic will be a critical factor in the race, the drivers that handle traffic the best will be on the podium.
-audi-
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