An economic minimum number of five Excavation textures and very few models makes this track a very efficient download and absolutely lag-free. This is a simple yet difficult track. Simple in that it is a straight road--sort of, and difficult in that it contains some hard parts to negotiate. The point of interest here is the way the road slants from one side to the other so that we're not always driving with the dashboard parallel to the horizon. It's a nice effect and is a refreshing change of pace from the more typical mountains and valleys as a way to break up the landscape. The most daunting part is a section of road that suddenly rises to the left whilst you are also travelling at speed uphill. It calls for some deft steering adjustments on landing! A drawback, however, is that it's possible to drive around this part that is toughest to navigate. This shortcut could probably have been prevented either with an additional checkpoint or with some added hills, trees, or models to obstruct the way. The dip in the lake through the yachting club is fun and, though sparsely modeled, looks very good. However, maybe shallower water would be in order so that speed loss isn't as extreme. But these are only minor quibbles since, by and large, the track is solid and features many nice touches--for instance, a stretch of motocross-style terrain work with many well-timed jumps, and a very well-designed dual driving level approaching the finish line. Hey, and the starting formation of the trucks is pretty good too. This track has a chicane feature (used in two places) that's been handled to both extremes. The first of them is located just after the start. REOSPEED has very wisely placed Checkpoint One in the passage between the direction signs that make up the obstacle so as to force the racers to use this part of the course. There's no shortcut here. However, the signs are placed very close together and you must slow almost to a crawl in order to pass along without colliding with 1) the barricade signs or 2) your opponents. Yes, "after having raced this track at least a dozen times I found that if you stay to the extreme left of the road when approaching this potential "momentum stopper" and IF you nail the steering just right, you can swerve through the barriers without losing too much speed." But, the single course segment of the straight-a-way prevents the computer trucks from passing through at all, thus virtually eliminating any off-line competition. "I don't think the computer trucks ever made a lap." The easy answer here would have been to use extra course segments (even though it's on a straight-a-way track) to help the trucks. The other chicane is set up in a very similar way but lacks all the problems of the first. This one is located underneath the dual level in the home stretch where a ground box road/platform is approached by a big-air jump. If you're successful at making the jump (and only if you are travelling fast enough, you will land on an upper tier of the track), then you drive onward completely unaware of any blockade or obstacle at all, which will save you valuable seconds.. If, on the other hand, you don't make the jump, then you fall beneath the ground box road where the chicane punishes your weak driving. No checkpoint necessary to force you on course because through the barricade is the only way to escape your unfortunate situation. Very nicely handled. The bottom line here, then, is that this track succeeds in overcoming the boring straight problem - Nice terrain which was fun to drive. It's a very competent effort but one that could benefit from a tweak or two. Overall a fun drive.

Lap Time 1:16.33