Hehehe, yeah, lots of time to be won on the infield, practiced with wotan and he managed to get his time down to 1:23.8 (woot!)
Most important is being able to go round without spinning first, its slippery at certain corners.
Here's how I drive:
-pass start/finish, start strong braking between start/finish and the 4 red cones, about where the charlotte symbol is painted on the ground is visible in my left window, shift back to 4th
(1) hit the grass apex left, accelerate in 4th (3rd if you were forced to brake extra by not making the apex) from apex on, do a near miss on the yellow wall at the right.
(2) still full acceleration in 4th hit inside apex, stay left for next corner
(3) start braking on top of the little hill, stay in 4th, steer in for hitting the apex and accelerate as soon as you're lined up for the apex (you can cut the apex quite a bit without getting an off track)
(4) strong but not too long braking just after the halfway point between 3 and 4, back to 3rd, steer in reasonably late as the road will narrow after the corner, hit the apex and full acceleration at apex (again you can cut the apex quite a bit without getting an off track)
(5) strong acceleration upto the corner, upshift in 4th, no braking before turning in, just let go off the throttle to help your car turn towards the apex, hit the apex, accelerate out still in 4th from apex on, go wide for positioning yourself for the next corner
(6) strong braking when you have that little sideroad on the right disappearing from your front window, back to 3rd, and hit that apex or you'll end up in the grass. Strong acceleration in 3rd from apex on, don't go wide but try to at least stick to the middle of the road.
(7) stop accelerating , no braking and keep -steady- high revs in 3rd, hit the grass apex at the left where the bend is strongest. Do not let go of the throttle or you'll spin! Controlled acceleration at the apex by slowely comingon to the throttle, don't suddenly floor it as you'll spin too or will go too wide and end up in the fences. Go reasonably wide for next turn, upshift in 4th.
(8) Full acceleration, and go as close to the yellow wall apex as you can as you'll want to make your angle of entry on the oval as small as possible, you'll know you're doing good if you can immediately keep your left tires at the white line of the banking, or perhaps even stay left of the banking untill cenbtrifugal forces force you onto the banking.
(9)(10) keep sticking to the white line, going up the bank will make you lose speed/time, upshift to 5th
(11)(12) you might hit rev limiter in 5th just before hitting these corners, but stay in 5th as you'll keep better speed in the corner then when in 6th. Stick to the white line of the banking again, shift up to 6th just before or as soon as you exit the banking/corner.
Then keep as smooth as you can with as little steering as you can through start/finish. Keep right for the turn in on (1) Same goes for the other straight bits on the oval, steer as little as possible on the straights. Entering the corners from high up the banking towards the low side doesn't seem to do much for me, as any gained speed gets lost again by having to steer in sharper after hitting the white line.
There's a lot of time to be won on the inside field, and on the entry and exit onto and off the oval.
