Just got off the phone with Dana Temple, who unfortunately spent so much time repairing bikes that he only got a half-dozen hot laps. The Penguin 2-Day Pro School apparently had about 50 attendee's, every rental bike taken .... a few crashes, some of 'em twice!
Turn 1 is a LOT deeper -- "It feels like you got the gas held open for another 4 minutes, then you find you STILL backed off too early." (OK, Dana is prone to a bit of exaggeration, but it gets the point across. ;-)
Then it comes back harder, to get back to 1A -- he described it as essentially a decreasing-radius left sweeper that tights up to become a 90-degree left at the end.
That means the old "pre-turn" doesn't really work, because if you turn in too early (and cut down closer to the end of the pit wall) you'd wind up carrying too much speed and drift out to the right too far before you even got to the apex of that 90-degree left.
T1A is MUCH sharper ... you come into it headed more towards the North Garages than the prior layout. (Which had an entry line that aimed you pretty much straight east.)
So you're pointed north, you have to come all the way back to T2, then get back out to T3. He said Jeff says the winning bet is to still aim HARD to T2, (instead of swinging out to the right) because you don't want to get passed on the inside and balked out to 3.
The surface itself? "It's like silk ... it so smooth that it's hard to feel what the tires are doing, how much grip it has."
See you all soon. Should you choose to accept the mission, this email will become fish & chip paper as soon as someone posts the first vids.
B.J.