The Mid Ohio Sports Car Course is undergoing significant safety upgrades during the offseason. The famed Turn 4, the fastest turn on the 2.25 mile 13-turn road course has seen a dramatic reprofiling that has reduced banking from approximately 4 degrees of banking to just 2 degrees.
Along with the reprofiling of turn 4, the runoff area known as “China Beach” has seen a major leveling project that included backfilling the runoff area with concrete barriers (removed from around the facility over the past handful of years), fill dirt from area farms and a fresh gravel trap to top off the now level run-off area.
Turn 4 is the corner where Simon Pagenaud launched into a series of barrel rolls during the Saturday morning Practice for the 2023 Honda Indy 200 at Mid Ohio. Pagenaud has not returned to the driver’s seat since the crash.
Additional upgrades to the facility include replacing the remaining concrete barriers with fresh armco barrier and repaving the main boulevard along with access roads in paddock areas.
Mid Ohio has stayed true to it’s original 1962 configuration with the removal of “Oak Tree Bend” which followed Turn 9 was replaced by Thunder Valley in early 1963 amid concerns that the track was “too slow”. While minor modifications have been made to the race course, the reprofiling of Turn 4 is one of the most significant in the track’s history.
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