A little-known joke about Ozarks International Raceway is that it should come with a Surgeon General’s warning at the entrance to the track, because one visit to the place is enough to make you addicted.
Sure, some tracks have turns with enough to camber to allow for 1.5 g’s during cornering. Others have tricky off-camber turns that require a delicate touch to get right. Still others have blind corners and dramatic elevation changes. When you drive Ozarks International Raceway, OIR for short, you’ll find that it has all of those elements in abundance. The track features 19 turns and 150 feet of elevation change, and 1,200 feet of elevation change during a single lap.
Track builder and owner J.R. Pesek tried to include the kinds of turns you might recognize from other tracks around the nation and the world. When you drive it, you will find turns that resemble Spa’s Eau Rouge, flat-out undulations from the Nurburgring, a mirror image of Canadian Tire Motorsports Park’s Turn 2 or Mid-Ohio’s Carousel.
The gestalt is that the track feels familiar in places, yet it is like nothing you have ever experienced.
“I wanted the best. I wanted to make it the most complex. I didn’t want to build something that you came in here today and walk out of here going, OK, I got it. It’s on my checklist. I’m done,” said track owner and builder J.R. Pesek. “I want you to come back here five or six times, and every time you come back here, I want you to figure out something different, you know? And I think we’ve accomplished that.”
OIR is a track like no other, and it is home this year to the 2025 NASA Championships and then a month and a half later, the NASA 25 Hours of Ozarks. It’s going to be a busy fall at the track.
To help drivers interested in attending either of these events to make the most of their visit — especially if it’s their first — we wanted to talk to drivers who have been there to provide a first-hand perspective on how to tackle this unique raceway.
From NASA MidAmerica, we interviewed Jason Ross, who has many, many laps at OIR in a number of different cars, from a Lotus Elise to Ginetta and Ligier LMP3 cars.
We also interviewed NP01 racer Tyler Atkinson, who drove down from his home in the Rocky Mountain Region to experience OIR. Finally, we also got to talk to Brian Haines, an American Iron from the Mid South Region.
“It is a beautiful facility. I mean it was like nothing I’d ever seen before,” said Ross, the driver who told us the Surgeon General joke. “I can say that definitely it is the best track I’ve ever been to. It is my favorite track, all time.”
We asked these drivers a lot of different questions about the track, so you can plug into this story at any point to find something new. Not one question is the same. As with all Speed News Q&A-formatted stories, you can scan the questions in bold-face type that interest you and read the answer immediately following. There is a ton of great information here and photos and videos. We hope their answers not only give you a good feel for the track, but also some specifics on how to go fast at OIR.
Jason Ross, NASA MidAmerica, TTU, Super Unlimited
A native of Canada, Jason Ross started in motorsports as a teenager doing autocross and some rally driving. After taking a break from motorsports for a number of years, Ross returned to the track and got some experience behind the wheel of some pretty nifty cars, which included a Lamborghini Murcielago and an Audi R8, both of which Ross described as terrible track cars.
Ross switched to Porsche 911s for a few years, then picked up a Mark 11 Riley, the No. 10 SunTrust car that was driven by Jeff Gordon, Wayne Taylor and Jan Magnussen. He sold the Riley and eventually picked up two LMP3 cars, a Ginetta G57 and a Ligier JSP320.
Upon transferring to the midwestern United States, he signed up with NASA MidAmerica. After driving Ozarks International Raceway a time or two, he fell in love with the track and he has been back more than 20 times.
Q: How would you describe the overall flow and rhythm of Ozarks International Raceway?
A: There’s no place that you can really say, OK, I’m going to sit back and I’m going to relax and take a minute. I would say you have a faster section, which would be right up to coming into the Esses, which would be Turn 5 coming into the Esses. I mean, for myself, when I start coming into the Esses, even after I’m off (pace) for 4, that’s what I call the fast section of the track from Turn 4 to 11. That flows very quickly and then you come downhill into 11. It’s hard on the brakes, you’re making a closing left-hander and then you’re on the acceleration again. And that part is a little bit more technical of the track.
From 11 all the way through to 19 is the more technical portion of the track very fast except for 14, but that’s a more technical portion. So in terms of flow, you got a fast section, you got a slow section, and then when you come off a 19 onto the front straight, you’re into another fast section of the track up until the Carousel.
Q: What was your first impression of the track when you drove it?
A: I would say that there is a lot to memorize. I think it was almost a sensory overload for what I had to memorize. It’s very fast. NASA MidAmerica was the first club that I went with over there and there’s a lot of fast drivers there. And even in an LMP3 car, it was to a point where I was worried I was getting in people’s way. I didn’t know the track very well, so there was a lot to learn.
Q: What makes Ozarks unique compared to other tracks you’ve driven?
A: If you’re going to drive the track and take advantage of the way they constructed the track, there’s some corners that are on camber, there’s some corners that are off camber. You have got to know the difference at that track, especially because you have a lot of places where when you’re tracking out on the other side, you can’t see the track ahead. So when you’re making the turn and there’s numerous turns, you can do that. If you don’t know how far you can track out, then you’re inevitably going to keep your hands closed. You’re not going to take advantage of the full track and you’re not going to be as quick as you’d like to be. That’s unique to any other track that I’ve been to. There’s some tracks that might have one corner like that. There’s probably seven or eight at the Ozarks, and there’s a lot of elevation change as well. Big elevation changes at the Ozarks.
Q: You drive an LMP3 car. So I’m curious, what are the guiding principles to driving a high-speed car like that at Ozarks?
A: You can get away with a lot of things in an LMP3 car if you’re not taking it to its limit. And the reason I say that, you can have a traditional line through a corner, and then in the LMP3 car, you got so much in aerodynamics that you can take advantage of having a bad line through a corner. I’m thinking the front straight, there’s a good line through the front straight, and the front straight isn’t straight. There’s actually three kinks in the front straight, but in the LMP3 car, you can almost just pick where you want to be and just keep it there and go. So that’s something in the LMP3 three car you can get away with. Aerodynamics plays a big role in some of the corners.
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Q: That was my next question. How much of a role does aerodynamics play?
A: It plays a big role in a lot of the corners, but more important though, is where it doesn’t play a role. LMP3 cars don’t like to turn slow. They don’t like slow corners. They don’t have a lot of mechanical grip. They might look like they have a lot of mechanical grip, but really they’re a long-wheelbase car and they’re sitting on, I’m going to say 345s, for the sake of using normal nomenclature for a tire, and 315s in the front. In the slower corners, you have no aerodynamics. And there are a couple corners that are really particular where you’re kind of sitting on the brink of having aerodynamic downforce and not having aerodynamic downforce. And if you get it right, they’re great, and if you don’t get it right, then it can be a pretty hairy experience.
Q: We know the track builder J.R. Pesek, paid close attention to the design of the curbs, which are unique to that track. So I’m wondering if it’s a feature that prototypes can or cannot use at Ozarks?
A: I use all the curbs at the Ozarks. The only exception where you’ve got to be a little careful is where you’re coming in on the Esses. So off 5, when you’re coming in on the Esses, as you go deeper into the curb, the curb gets rougher. And if you stay shallow on the curb and I’m talking, I might be able to put half a car on the curb, half a car width on the curb, you’ll be OK. I mean, you feel it. Nothing unusual, but not as bad as a bus stop at Watkins Glen. But if you go too deep, it’ll unsettle the car.
Q: We’re trying to throw some ideas at people to give them an idea of how to arrive prepared, but in the dry, what shock/suspension settings do you typically prefer at Ozarks?
A: I tend to run a lower rebound on the shock. It depends on what spring rate you’re running, but I run a lower rebound because when you’re going over the Esses, by the time I’m going over the second hump on the Esses, I’m doing about 140 mph, 145, around that range. And I set it to lower rebound because as you come up, you unload the car, even with all that aero, you’ll unload the car and I want to make sure that it doesn’t force me up too much, so I run a lower rebound setting.
The other thing in my car, and I’m sure the guys with Radicals are seeing something similar, is the heave settings. When you’re going through the Rollercoaster, you can bottom the car. So if you’re not running your heave settings right or bump stops on your shocks, you’ll feel it bottom out. So that’s probably more important than the rebound settings. But I typically run a softer rebound at a higher height with a low antiroll bar.
Q: And then what do you find to be the most challenging corner or sequence of corners and why?
A: The one that challenges me the most is 14 because you’re coming off of a fairly quick section piece of track. Turn 13 is also a pretty challenging corner, but when you come into 14, you’re really coming down on speed and then you’re unloading the car, you’re taking all the aero off the car.
Q: Yeah, 13 is a lesson in patience, isn’t it?
A: Yeah, and in my car, the car is always tapping you on the shoulder saying you could have done that faster.
Tyler Atkinson, NASA Rocky Mountain, NASA Prototype
In his first season racing in the NASA Rocky Mountain Region, Tyler Atkinson grew up going to Viper Club events with his parents and eventually took up racing shifter karts while he was in college and into his 20s. When a friend of his from the Viper Club introduced him to NASA and the NASA Prototype, Atkinson saw it as perfect next step up from a shifter kart. Atkinson took his NP01 to Ozarks to learn the track in advance of the 2025 NASA Championships.
“He let me take his NP01 out on the track and I just immediately fell in love,” Atkinson said. “I was like, I’ve got to get one of these and start racing with them.”
Q: How is the track surface, is the grip consistent throughout? Are there any particularly abrasive or slippery sections that we might want to look out for?
A: Like Jason was saying, through the Rollercoaster, if you don’t have the right setup, you’re definitely going to be scraping. I was lucky the setup that was on my car before — I hadn’t changed anything on it — and it seemed to work really well for that track. I wasn’t scraping anywhere, but then I had grip pretty much everywhere.
I think the [challenge] with Ozarks isn’t necessarily the surface, but it’s all the turns that the rack is falling away from you. So, you really have to set your car up before the turn. And then once you’re turned in and you’re headed toward the apex, there’s not much you can really do to correct anything as you’re coming out of some turns. But having said that, there are places on the track, coming up the hill into the Esses, like Turn 6 when it transitions into the uphill. You just have an absurd amount of grip and you can just really control the car through turns like that and then set yourself up for the rest of it. But yeah, I think that the grip is pretty consistent minus all the elevation changes that I’m talking about.
Q: Now, how hard is the track on brakes and tires that you’ve found?
A: I would say it is not actually too bad because you don’t have really long straights into a really tight turn where you have massive braking zones where you’re braking super hard for super long and you’re getting everything heated up. It’s more of a track that you’re just trying to keep your momentum up the whole time. Yeah, just keep it flowing and I wouldn’t really say it was super hard on tires or brakes at all.
Q: Where do you think are the best and safest places to overtake?
A: Definitely between turns 7 and 8 through the Rollercoaster. Like Jason was saying, you definitely still have to pay attention on that part of the track. But I would say that is sort of the longest straight. When I was passing cars, it was through there going into Turn 11 as well just because I had a ton of grip coming down that hill. And I feel like I had a really good line. So if you get a good line coming out of 11 into 12 and 13 is also a pretty good spot, or even after 14 when you’re sort of going down the hill, there could be a spot in there as well.
Q: So, how wide or narrow does the track feel? Does it forgive mistakes or does it demand precision?
A: I would definitely say it demands precision. If you look at the track, just even doing a track walk or just from pictures or whatever, it looks extremely narrow. But when you’re driving it, I would say it doesn’t look nearly as narrow as it actually is, except for Turn 19 going into 1 when you’re coming up right next to the concrete barrier. That took me the entire weekend to actually fully commit to going around 19 and through that section into 1 because it’s one of those areas where you’re losing grip as you’re coming up the little hill there and you just really have to be committed and be close to the wall to have the best line. I would say that that part of the track was the only part that actually felt a little claustrophobic.
Q: Now how physically demanding is it, compared to, say, other tracks you’ve driven?
A: Yeah, I would say it’s definitely more demanding than, say, High Plains Raceway. Like Jason was saying, there’s not really a place that you can take a break mentally because you’re always focused on your exit or the entrance into the next turn because it’s critical for your next exit. So there’s really not a place on the track to take a break.
Physically it is a little bit demanding just because of the g’s. I was definitely used to the side-to-side g’s in a car. What I was definitely not used and I had never really experienced to that level is the up-and-down g’s, especially through the Rollercoaster. Roller coaster, the perfect name for it because yeah, that’s a feeling in a car I’ve never had before, just you’re literally feeling like you’re catching air and the up and down g’s a little bit more.
It’s a mentally demanding track, but also what makes Ozarks so amazing is how rewarding it is, because it’s so difficult in so many different ways. And when you actually do a few laps and you can string a few laps together that are smooth, it is the most rewarding feeling I’ve ever felt in a car.
Q: Here’s your chance to help all the neophytes here. Is there anything you wish you would have known before your first time on track there?
A: I didn’t know much about it, just being from the Rocky Mountain Region. So I really went in with not much knowledge at all. I left and then started to realize that people have this opinion of it as a dangerous track. And there were a few incidents that weekend, but going into it, if I had been told the track is super dangerous, you really got to be careful, it would’ve just changed the way that I approached it and everything. So I was glad that I had approached it with the open mindset that I did, with no biases going into it. My experience was just, it’s also my favorite track that I’ve ever driven.
Q: Now how much difference does getting the line right make compared with other tracks? For example, did you find multiple viable lines in some corners? And if so, which ones?
A: There are some turns that are high consequence if you don’t get it right, like 4 and 5. If you don’t get your exit right going down the hill, you’re losing your traction. So, if you are wide and you’re pushing it, then you’re going to go off and there’s a barrier right there. I think it’s sort of that rule that the 90 percent is really easy and then the last 10 percent is really hard.
So, you can go out and do a fairly quick lap time that feels really fast, but then once you start learning the track more and more, you start to really see, ‘Oh, I can go significantly faster through here.’ And then you start playing with your line that way.
I think Turn 8 is one of those where you have a ton of traction as you’re turning into it a lot more than you think you do. And so you can come into it way, way faster than your mind wants you to, but it is just one of those things, you start to do it and you’re like, ‘Oh, I can go faster here.’ And that’s what makes it so rewarding is when you can actually push yourself and start feel that you’re at the limit of the turn, that you are at the limit of your car in that turn.
Brian Haines, NASA Mid South, American Iron
A third-generation racer, NASA MidSouth driver Brian Haines’ passion for speed began in diapers at age 2 on an Indian 50 motorcycle with training wheels. Following in the footsteps of a national champion jetboat-racing grandfather and a go-kart-racing father, who was instrumental in developing the Memphis Karting Association track, Haines started racing go-karts at age 7 in the IKF and WKA, competing against the likes of future NASCAR stars Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart.
After some time away, Haines rekindled his passion for motorsports through his son’s involvement in autocrossing in a 370Z. Haines eventually discovered NASA MidSouth and began driving his Factory Five Cobra, and now races a Mustang GT in American Iron in the region. Haines has done laps at Ozarks in his American Iron car and also in a Lotus 211 sports racer.
Q: What would be the best advice you could give to someone before their first time racing at Ozarks?
A: I would say patience. Take your time to learn the track. I heard that from Jason, I heard that from Tyler. I certainly experienced that myself. It was very challenging mentally. That was my biggest challenge is not knowing coming over a blind crest and do I turn left? Do I turn right, am I going up or am I going down? I was really thankful for that parade lap that NASA MidAmerica gave us just to get on the track.
I was working to stick around for the race three in American Iron because that was the “money race,” and I didn’t want to wad my car up in the guardrail or in my weekend early. So, in addition to running American Iron, we’ve got a Lotus 2-Eleven that I ran in Time Trial just to get more exposure to the track before really going at it wheel to wheel.
I dropped back to get into the CMC cars and I started following them and I figured out where I was giving up so much time. I think Tyler said it in Turn 8, the car will stick, but your brain says you might as well deploy the wings and fly over the next ridge. If you don’t stick, it’s going to be bad. But in race three, the track finally clicked and I was able to start passing folks and ended up winning the American Iron class and took over 14 seconds off my best time in the previous race.
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Q: I’m curious what you found most helpful for learning the line at Ozarks?
A: Well, it was following people that were more experienced than me and just tucking up behind them. I had more speed and horsepower than they did, but they knew what they were doing. They were racing their cars to the absolute limit and I was sitting behind them learning, and when I finally decided it was go time, I knew where I could easily pass them cleanly and then it was a barrel of monkeys after that. It was a lot of fun.
Q: Do you recall where you liked to get your passes done?
A: Well, I had more horsepower, so climbing the hills, I did well. I did well coming out of the 17-18-19 complex there where it’s really slow. I like to pick different lines and carry momentum through the corners where other people don’t. So I liked it there.
I was definitely not good in 4 where, as I recall it, it’s an off-camber turn and very tough to nail right before you drop into a big dip and rise.
That’s what I noticed about the Ozarks is you see NASCAR on TV and you see these tracks where the cars press into the banking of the ovals and they have a ton of grip and they can go very fast. And that’s not Ozarks. There were so many off-camber turns. I’d heard it’s a real driver’s track, and I believe that. So, approaching everything with some patience and for me it was making sure I learned the track and I knew what I was doing before I began to really push the car.
Q: Were there any common mistakes that you see the first timers make there, and it might have been one of your mistakes?
A: My biggest mistake was watching my mirrors for traffic because I would be watching out the left side of the car and trying to manage traffic. I think Jason said it, there’s really no place to just coast or relax or just have an easy drive there. So I was having cars on both sides of me, and I was particularly slower through certain turns and people would show up in my mirror a lot faster than I expected them to. So visibility out of the backside of the car while the front end of the car was taking my full attention was quite a challenge.
Q: How are the runoff areas around the track? Are they adequate for the speeds you guys are carrying?
A: I really wondered about that. I was glad I didn’t experience any of those, but I felt OK. You have the concrete wall on the outside of 19 and you got a little dip there and you’re coming around the corner. I really wanted to go fast there and push the car, but I’m staring at a concrete wall.
It reminded me a little bit of the wall at NCM coming onto the front stretch, where you’re coming out of a turn and then your exit, if you go wide, you’re just going to get cradled by a solid concrete wall. So that spot felt tight, but the other areas of the track, I felt pretty comfortable that if I did lose it, there was a little grace to catch me.
Q: What is Turn 1 like on lap one? Did you find it manageable? Is there enough room for all those eager racers to get through there?
A: Yeah, I found there was plenty of track. It’s really grit, your own personal tolerance for holding it in that turn was really what I felt I needed more of. Even in race three, I was anxious to get to the back and make a push forward because there were a lot of fast people behind me. But Turn 1 on the start, plenty of room. The first lap in general is a lot slower. It feels a lot slower almost. It almost feels like a warmup. It felt like a warmup lap to me because everybody’s pretty much nose to tail. And then as things begin to spread out, that’s when the track really feels fast, if that makes sense.
