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CIRCUIT SHEET · USA

Tyre pressures at Road America

Track outline (c) OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL N

The lap, to scale. Track outline © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

How hard a circuit works each corner of the car shows up as tread temperature, and temperature is what sets pressure. GripCalc carries corner heating figures for Road America as a starting point: how much hotter each tyre runs over the session's base temperature, from the layout's mix of corners and load. They pre-fill the calculator when you pick the circuit, and your own pyrometer readings refine them from the first session.

CORNERRUNS HOTTER BY, °C
Left front+2.0
Right front+1.5
Left rear+3.0
Right rear+2.5

ESTIMATED — class-based starting values over an 85°C session base, derived from this layout's type (direction, speed profile, load), and shared with circuits of similar character rather than measured here. Not gospel: enter your own pyrometer figures after a session and they take precedence.

THE CIRCUIT

Road America, on paper

LocationTown of Plymouth, Sheboygan County, United StatesOSM
Lap as mapped6.438 kmMEASURED
Longest straight≈1253 mDERIVED

OSM — the sections mappers have named on this venue's tarmac: Road America · Kettle Bottoms · Canada Corner · Kink · Hurry Downs · Carousel · Thunder Valley · Moraine Sweep · Road America Straight · bend

Lengths are measured from the OpenStreetMap geometry drawn above; the longest straight is derived from the same line and is approximate. Section names are the venue's, and can belong to any of its layouts.

FROM THE TYRE'S SEAT

What Road America asks of a tyre

Road America is four miles of Wisconsin countryside: very long straights into proper braking zones like Canada Corner and Turn 5, connected by fast sweeps through the trees. The tread cools substantially on the straights then takes braking spikes, so front temperatures cycle more than averages show.

W1 Watch

Huge straight-line cooling: probe immediately after the braking zones' sector if possible

W2 Watch

Repeated heavy stops build front pressure through a session

W3 Watch

The Carousel's long right leans on the left side for seconds at a time

WORKED EXAMPLE · COMPUTED BY THE ENGINE

A 992 GT3 on Cup 2 R at Road America

Published hot target 30.5 / 32.0 psi at 92°C tread, on a 15°C morning, with the corner figures above: cold set 21.5 / 21.5 front, 22.6 / 22.6 rear. A different car, tyre or morning moves every number, which is what the calculator is for.

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