Tyre pressures at Road America
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.
| CORNER | RUNS 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.
Road America, on paper
| Location | Town of Plymouth, Sheboygan County, United States | OSM |
| Lap as mapped | 6.438 km | MEASURED |
| Longest straight | ≈1253 m | DERIVED |
| Corners | 12 | DERIVED |
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.
What Road America asks of a tyre
Road America measures 6.44 km on the map, with 12 corners counted along that line. Corners come about every 537 m, so the lap is more about carrying speed between them than surviving them back to back. Its longest straight runs about 1253 m, far enough to cool the tread before the stop at the end of it, so a hot pressure taken in the pit lane understates what the tyre saw mid-lap.
DERIVED — length, corner count, hands and straight measured from the mapped lap drawn above. Corner counting is a judgement (a double apex can be read as one corner or two), so treat these as this line's reading of the circuit, not a series' official figures.
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.
Huge straight-line cooling: probe immediately after the braking zones' sector if possible
Repeated heavy stops build front pressure through a session
The Carousel's long right leans on the left side for seconds at a time
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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