Golden Sands Speedway is a 1/3 mile oval located between Plover and Wisconsin Rapids on Highway 54 in central Wisconsin. It is banked 16 degrees in the corners and 12 degrees on the straights. For more info about the track visit the Golden Sands Speedway Website.
This was my first attempt to recreate a real track. It started in 2002 when I used an excel spreadsheet to calculate centerline locations and enter them into an xml file. Since then new tools such as Centerline and Sandbox have made it possible to do more things, much more easily. As a result there have been several major updates to the track over the years.
I tried to be as accurate as possible when making this track. I did this with satellite photos, the info provided on their website, all of the pictures of the track I could find, and finally my memory from being there.
| Night Version | Day Version | N2002/N4 Version |
|---|---|---|
|
Video of a Lap Back Straight Close-Up Back Straight Far 1 Turn 1 Back Straight Far 2 Turns 1 and 2 Turn 3 Newspaper Background Pit Road Cup TPTCC |
Sun Glare Front Straight Infield Wall Camera Trucks |
Wide Angle |
For N4/N2002 you must have the night version installed before you can install the day version.
Version 2.0 is updated for the 1.2.0.1 patch. The previous versions have a conflict with the 1.2.0.1 patch that causes cautions to come out whenever someone is on pit road. This update fixes that and a few other things. This version is not compatible with previous versions for online play.
List of changes:
The pit road is different from most and is difficult to navigate the first time if you don't know how it works. Here is a screenshot of the pit road entrance and exit in N2003. When you drive outside turn 2 to enter the pits there are 2 lanes. You enter on the right side. If you enter on the left you get black flagged for going the wrong way down the pits. You then drive to the end, turn left, come back the other way and exit on the right side. One other note on pit road, if you're pitting on the left side of pit road there is no wall between you and the crew. Just stay on the pavement and left of the white line and the crew will work as normal.
When driving into the pits if the yellow comes out and your spotter does not tell you it is ok to make your stop (this happens if the yellow comes out before you reach the white line where the pit road speed limit starts) pit road closes and you receive a black flag if you stop in your pit stall. To avoid the black flag just drive right through pit road without stopping. In version 2.0 this problem is a lot less likely to occur because the pit road speed limit line was moved closer to the track.
In version 2.0 the AI run with up to 43 cars without any problem when cautions and full pace lap are off. However the option for more than 20-25 cars is mainly intended for online play. They will also work with yellows and the full pace lap on if there are 25 cars or less running. Occasionally an AI car stops and backs traffic up under yellow but they usually get going again. More then 25 cars causes the AI to get backed up under caution too much. When this happens you won't get a restart. They also can't get off pit road together when the full pace lap is turned on with a field larger than 25.
Since AI cars cannot drive backwards on the track the AI enter pit road by leaving the track in turn 3 and driving behind the wall on the front straight. If you try to enter pit road this way you are penalized though. Also, occasionally the AI crash on pit road when there are a lot of cars there at the same time.
Brian Suber helped in the creation of the original lp files. All of the lp files have been updated since then. They have gotten better and are able to race pretty good now. I've done all I can for the AI but they can always use more work so if you're interested in helping make them even better contact me.
