Man,
I have been off track too long. This is the longest I have gone in 6 years. I am really looking forward to Rockingham.

How many here are going to go?

 

there are a few of us, thankfully... me, Mike G, John D, Geidrius G, John H, and Mike P are the only Z drivers so far.

 

What about Blake and Alex.

It will be good to see Mike G driving the SR.

 

Stacy,

Did you get my e-mail about the possibility of my joining to drive or possibly instruct?

 

James... I do remember getting it... but now, for the life of me, I can't find it. Feel free to PM me, or send it again...

-Stacy

 

I wish this would hurry up and get here. I have a chase cam to break in

 

I just am ready to get this car on track..

 

Just a quick update fellas...

We're now up to 61 drivers, 28 instructors... so the event is basically at capacity. Registration will technically close Monday 10/31 to give me a few days to sort everything out. There is still room in the Beginner/Novice group, but basically the advanced and (definately) the intermediate groups are full. If I pick up a couple more instructors over the weekend, we've probably got room for another two or three beginner/novice drivers... right now we are in good shape to keep a 2-1 student/instructor ratio.

This is shaping up to be a very nice event, BIG thanks to all of you who are signed up.

 

Thats right you got a new toy, look foward to checking it out!

 

I'm in. I'll see you all there.

Unfortunately, I didn't see the info about the hotel, and booked a room at the Day's Inn in Rockingham, so I won't be staying at the same place as most of you. Oh well. At least I got a room with a Jacuzzi for about the same price you're all paying.

 

btt

2 days to go...

 

We're back, and most of us had a great time. Unfortunately, on Saturday afternoon, John Davidson (sorry I don't remember your handle here) smacked the wall in NASCAR Turn 2. The good news is, he's okay, the car had relatively little damage, and the situation could have been a lot worse.

He was carrying a little too much speed, having just passed a Vette on the front straight, entered the turn a little too low, and tried to bring it back to the line. His tail swung out to the right, pointing him straight for the infield wall. He went down onto the apron and missed the wall, but overcorrected and spun the other way, going into a four-wheel skid climbing up the banking and smacking his left rear corner on the outside wall at a fairly low speed.

I was right behind the Vette he had just passed, so I saw all the tire smoke as he headed up for the wall. I had to drop down to the apron to get out of his way as he rolled back down.

John was able to drive back to the pits, and tried pulling the damaged parts out so he could run later in the weekend, but after working late on Saturday, couldn't quite do it. He had also flat-spotted all four tires. (He had trailered the car to the track, so getting home wasn't a problem.)

The Vette had an in-car camera, as did John himself.

Otherwise, the weekend was great. The event was well organized and run. Terrific weather--high 70s, no hint of rain--not too crowded, good instruction, nice garages to stay in. The high banked turns are really challenging when you come from a road course background. They gave me a whole new respect for NASCAR drivers. I felt the same way after running at Pocono last year, and Rockingham is much more steeply banked than Pocono.

Stacy coaxed me into running my first time trial. It was the first competitive event I've done in a car since the one or two autocrosses I ran in my Miata about six or seven years ago.

The time trial gives you three hot laps, and ranks you by your best one. I didn't go quite as fast as I had earlier in the day, but did a 1:12.5, good enough for 10th overall in a field of 25, and first in class. Of course, there was only one other car in ZSP: a 260Z. If John hadn't found the wall, he definitely would have beaten me. He was really quick.

It was great to meet John, Geidrius (forgot your handle, too), Stack, mhoward1, bigdaddy, mpowers, and see some old friends.

Photo captions:

6186a: Three LS 350Zs. Me, bigdaddy, and Geidrius. (There were at least five other 350Zs there.)

6189a: John D.'s car before.

6196a: Stacy and John look at John's car after.

6199a: mpowers passes the scene of the incident.

6209a: Ouch.

 

Sorry to hear about John's wreck... that rear quarterpanel is expensive to replace.

So how did you like the Rock compared to Pocono?

 

The Rock's road course is much shorter than Pocono's: 1.49 miles vs. 3.3 for the Double Infield and 2.5 for the Single Infield at Pocono. Most of that extra length is on the long NASCAR straights where you can really build up some speed. My top speed at Pocono was over 130, and I don't think I got over 110 at Rockingham, if that.

Of course, I don't believe that speed=fun. Rockingham has much steeper banking than Pocono, which makes it very exciting. And the banked turn is much longer than Pocono's: almost 180 degrees, compared to about 120 for Pocono's turns. So as you head for the turn, you look through your side window to spot the apex of the turn, and dive down into it, turning, turning, turning. Then as you power out, get as close to the wall as you dare. It's a lot of fun.

The infield section of Rockingham is not terribly challenging, and a 1.5 mile track can begin to feel a little boring after a while. But Rockingham's banked turns keep that from being too much of a problem.

Pocono has the advantage of offering several different configurations. When I ran there with PDA in 2004, we ran one course on Saturday, and a different one on Sunday, in the opposite direction. That was interesting.

Of course, for you and me, one deciding factor is proximity. Pocono is only 200 miles from me, and the Rock is 400. So I'll probably go back to Pocono sooner than Rockingham, but that's not necessarily because it's a better track.

Pocono has a better selection of restaurants and hotels nearby. Rockingham is 10 miles from everything.

 

We pulled most of the damage out saturday night at Johns house, I think we can salvage the quarter panel. Had a great time, extremly well ran event, and enjoyed chaseing down a viper .
Will work on some video in this week.

 

Glad everyone had a great time. Other than the "TWO" incidents, the weekend went well. For a short, fairly easy track, it is a lot of fun. Once I learn the this car a little better, I hope to be running closer to you guys around the track.

John, I hope everything works out for you.

 

Had a great time. Thanks to everybody for their hard work (especially Stacy for getting me in at the last minute).

James...it was great to meet you, learn from you, and watch you drive.

John...I know we'll see you out there again, faster and better than before.

Sean