That's weird. Patches already???????? I thought it cost 4 million dollars to redo and it's brand new. :?
They aren't patches. They're called sealer strips. Dunno the purpose but they're not actual patches of pavement. I rode over them and didn't really notice any difference but I'm not a road racer either.
Sealer strips prevent water from getting into the sub-base of the tracks and is placed in between passes of asphalt. Usually not required on such young asphalt. Weird. You usually overlap each pass of asphalt buy about 3/4" to prevent this but with time and changing seasons it expands and contracts and opens them up that's why it's weird that it would already being doing this. The seaant can be slick as hell when it heats up. It's basically Asphalt without the aggregate in it.
This isn't a sealer "strip" issue like patches you see on country roads. Sealers were used over the top of the asphalt in a few places as preventative maintenance. The only place I noticed anything was about half way through the Key Hole there's a darker patch that feels a bit more grainy than the rest of the track.
I agree with DJBaker about the sealer. In addition to the square of sealer in the Keyhole I saw one in the turn prior to Thunder Valley. These will be extremely slick if they are damp from dew or rain. If it begins to sprinkle while you are on the track, I would suggest you get off and let someone else find out just how slippery these sealed areas are! I was that person at Barber last year, but I wasn't alone. In the turn nearest the Museum there is a spot where the asphalt tar has worked up to the surface and four bikes slid off in about 10 minutes when a light rain started. It broke my foot peg and I was done for the day. Not fun after a 12 hour drive to get there. :cry:
Oh, I see says the blind man. That's a fog seal. Something similar to what they put on driveways to keep the asphalt from breaking down. It basically a real light liquid asphalt mixed with sand to help with spreading and give it some grip, apparently they didn't use enough sand. Normally put down on older asphalt that has begun to lose it's durability though. Odd that they would put it on such newly laid asphalt. :?: Unless the mix was off and it started to peal up already. :evil: