Esoteric Ontario Motor Speedway question

[Bobcat00]

oms.jpg

Why was the track tilted with respect to the street grid?

[KevMcNJ]

No idea but that makes my brain hurt to look at it off-kilter like that.

[Sea Fury]

Topography, maybe? Wasn't the backstretch at OMS slightly higher than the frontstretch, thus giving better sightlines than its twin, IMS? Maybe aligning it like that was the only way they could achieve that topography given the plot of land they had.

[RacingPortaJohn]

Could it be something to do with true north versus magnetic north? Maybe they really wanted those stands in turn 3, and that was the only way to shoe horn them in.

[Bobcat00]

Maybe they really wanted those stands in turn 3, and that was the only way to shoe horn them in.

That's a possibility. I was also thinking maybe they needed more room for the freeway interchange near turn 1.

Regarding topography, there was only a 40 foot difference in elevation from front to back (which helped with the higher back straight). Map is from 1966:



oms3.jpg

[Sweaty Teddy]

I can't help but notice that the front stretch seems to parallel the train track at the bottom of the bottom map.

[dalz]

Regarding topography, there was only a 40 foot difference in elevation from front to back (which helped with the higher back straight).

The number I've read was 30 feet. Nonetheless I would've liked to see the sightlines from a typical frontstretch seat.

As I understand OMS was wider than Indy, to the point where the rubbered racing groove in the chutes looked almost like a single 180deg turn. But since I've read that the chutes were banked along with the turns,, i would think the optimal line would be to dive into the turn early,, leaving the banking to catch grip on the trackout, then a late apex and aggressive turn-in at turn 2/4, again letting the banking do some work. But I wasn't staring down walls with 900hp.

[Bobcat00]

I can't help but notice that the front stretch seems to parallel the train track at the bottom of the bottom map.

How about that! They're both approximately 88 / 268 degrees.

[JThur1]

The number I've read was 30 feet. Nonetheless I would've liked to see the sightlines from a typical frontstretch seat.

As I understand OMS was wider than Indy, to the point where the rubbered racing groove in the chutes looked almost like a single 180deg turn. But since I've read that the chutes were banked along with the turns,, i would think the optimal line would be to dive into the turn early,, leaving the banking to catch grip on the trackout, then a late apex and aggressive turn-in at turn 2/4, again letting the banking do some work. But I wasn't staring down walls with 900hp.

The sightlines were great, especially since there was so little in the infield. But, the air was so smoggy during that era, if was often a moot point. The cars could be seen on the backstretch with the naked eye, but fuzzily so. From the stands just past turn 4, one could see turn 2, but not make out much of what was going on.

Much wider, and yes, the short chutes were slightly banked.

That tract of land being used for vineyards prior to OMS, it was quite flat, although it slopes towards the mountains.

[Bobcat00]

Ontario was great. Being able to see the entire track, three large computerized scoring pylons, a premium seating tower with stadium seats. It was great. Everything was top-notch, first-class. (Compare to Pocono, where everything was cheap and looked like it.)

They had a public restaurant up in the tower. We had lunch there once, watching members of a Porsche(?) owners club drive around the road course.

[dalz]

The fledgling Skip Barber series held races at the OMS road course. The guys said that the pace lap was a flat-out 125mph lap around the oval, because the drivers wanted it. One veteran said, you could've ate your lunch while doing it.

[Doctorindy]

Why the track is built at a slight bearing to the road, it does seem curious. It could very well be the desire to allow room in the parcel for turn three grandstands. The other thing I was thinking of was to prevent the mainstrech (and backstretch) from facing due east/due west. To help keep the sun out of the drivers' eyes. IMS runs north-south, so the sun is seldom an issue...you're never going down the long mainstretch/backstretch aiming right at sun. But with OMS laid out east-west, it's different.

[JThur1]

Ontario was great. Being able to see the entire track, three large computerized scoring pylons, a premium seating tower with stadium seats. It was great. Everything was top-notch, first-class. (Compare to Pocono, where everything was cheap and looked like it.)

They had a public restaurant up in the tower. We had lunch there once, watching members of a Porsche(?) owners club drive around the road course.

Perhaps it was in that section, but being one of the plebes, we never could afford anything beyond the bench style grandstand seats further up the front straight, toward turn 4. Those were rather expensive tickets for what one was getting. A lot more than cost of a weekend pit pass at Riverside.

You might have seen us at one of the races, badly sunburned, in our ragged clothes, hands extended outward toward your section, pleading for bread and water

I joke, but I often wondered if they ran out of food and beverage in the Main Concourse or Speedway Club Somehow, I'm guessing, they did not.

In the early years, there were some issues at OMS. The later management groups were better organized, better prepared and didn't seem to be trying to cut corners. They had righted the ship in that regard.

[dalz]

The undeveloped parcel that used to be the first part of Ontario's turn 3 is still there, despite being surrounded by high-end apartments. A land baron playing long ball?

There are videos of people rummaging through the area, observing the slope of the banking and finding various artifacts that may or may not have anything to do with the former track.

[Bobcat00]

Perhaps it was in that section, but being one of the plebes, we never could afford anything beyond the bench style grandstand seats further up the front straight, toward turn 4. Those were rather expensive tickets for what one was getting. A lot more than cost of a weekend pit pass at Riverside.

You might have seen us at one of the races, badly sunburned, in our ragged clothes, hands extended outward toward your section, pleading for bread and water

I joke, but I often wondered if they ran out of food and beverage in the Main Concourse or Speedway Club Somehow, I'm guessing, they did not.

Ha, ha. Maybe you could catch one of the jackrabbits if you ran out of food.

In 1970, we had regular bleacher seats. In 71 and 72, we had the premium seats. We also had a premium parking pass, which included reserved access from the back roads, bypassing the traffic jams. I proudly displayed the parking pass on the front of one of my 8th grade notebooks. I think we only went to Ontario three times.

Telling tales out of school:

Mike Krisiloff told his travel agent to get him plane tickets to Ontario, but they kept trying to book tickets to Canada. I have no idea where in Ontario they thought he wanted to go.

When we picked up Mike at the Ontario airport, it was such a beehive of activity (sarcasm) that the airline ticket desk had a sign saying the agent was out servicing the aircraft and would be back in 15 minutes.

Steve Krisiloff had a girlfriend out there who was a pilot. But the plane wasn't pressurized, so they had to fly between the mountains. Steve didn't like that. It struck me as odd; 200 mph on a race track was fine, flying between mountains was not.

On one of our trips there, my father and I visited the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. Definitely worth a visit. I've been back there three more times.