The new racer-friendly curbing is in place at Mid-Ohio. image by bice-o-rama

With less than a week to go before the first of two--count 'em, two--AMA Superbike weekends at Mid-Ohio, I attended Vintage Motorcycle Days with a mission. Unlike a lot of the VMD attendees, however, my mission wasn't to seek out and overpay for that "missing link" for the restoration of my clapped-out UJM. I was much more interested in having an up-close and personal look at the re-configured curbing that lines the 15 turns at Mid-O.

In early June, when last the Superbike riders were at the facility conducting a test, the freshly rolled asphalt was bordered by the red-and-white splendor of new, standardized curbing. Kokosing Construction Company did the work, and their expertise in building highways and municipal streets showed. Unfortunately, they saw fit to install curbing that resembled a typical suburban subdivision more than it did a proper racecourse. Sure, the curbing was all the same configuration, and it was all nicely painted to resemble giant candy canes in the turns, but sweet, it was not. Dangerous, it was. Dangerous enough to potentially catch a handlebar, snag a knee puck, or worse.

But, Mid-Ohio listened, and they listened carefully, to the Superbike riders who attended the test. The curbs would not do, and Mid-Ohio immediately went to work fixing the problem.

Unencumbered by the usual throng of Nikon-packing photogs who stalk the corners during the Superbike events, I was able to pretty much walk where I wanted to and shoot from where I wanted to, and no one was there to laugh at my woefully inadequate equipment?an indignity that I generally endure from my lovely wife of 20 years. But, like my equipment, I digress.

From my eyewitness accounts, I can report that the street curbs have been dutifully transformed into proper racecourse curbing. In fact, Turn 7--in the area of the esses up over the rise in front of the announcer perch--is nicely contoured and ready for Aaron Yates to drag his elbow without consequence.

All 4,000 feet of the curbing is uniform in its shallowness, and it appears to be ribbony-smooth. The red-and-white striping has been re-painted, and the track looks ready for the Superbike riders to turn a wheel in anger.

But not too much anger. In my opinion, most of the riders should be pretty happy with the additional revisions that Mid-Ohio made to its track-improvements project.

Now, hopefully, the Vintage riders didn't oil down the track too much with their antediluvian contraptions, and we can all enjoy some proper racing this coming weekend without any incidents to curb our enthusiasm.

Note to Eric Bostrom: The ski jump on the outside of Turn 6 is still there, buddy. I know that was your number-one gripe about Mid-O, but, I think you'll like the lowered curbing. Maybe next year, they'll address Gravity Cavity. Just keep it on the asphalt like you usually do, and you'll be fine.