Thunderhill March 21st, 2008
Perfect day. Clear and crisp in the morning warming into the 60s during the day. Beautiful.
Registrants signed up for one of two groups, Novice/Intermediate or Intermediate/Advanced, but the track time was divided into THREE 20 minute block per hour. Novice. Intermediate. Advanced. The idea was to allow for movement between groups based upon your comfort level throughout the day and you got to drive 40 minutes per hour if you wanted to. Dual flaggers for the checkered flag to more quickly clear the track between groups. It was basically an "all you can drive" day. Awesome.
Coaching was informal. There was no classroom instruction or formal instructing beyond the safety meeting in the morning. Tech inspection was self-service.
The atmosphere on the track was fantastic. Locust drivers are a solid group of folks who seem to attract other like-minded drivers. The three sessions had varying passing rules with advanced allowing passing without restrictions. I have run events like this where that was scary. Not this time. People were courteous and I actually got the chance to pass some folks mid-turn in a very safe manner. Cool! There were at least 7 minor off-track excursions, but no serious damage. I went off in a nice neat straight line at one point and didn't even get my car dirty. I matched my personal best at 2:17...but with ,much less effort than in my 2.7. My Pagid Yellows were great. Thanks Rennstore.
The Sharkwerks test mule Cayman was out on the track and I had a chance to see it clearly pull away from me on a straight. gmsracing was there with his buddy. We had a great time. Nice guys. My brother and his friend drove their Turbos and my friend tore up the track in his 215 HP bone stock Crossfire. I rode shotgun with him while he humbled a Carrera S among others. The man can drive. I was laughing. A Crossfire? Yes. Nice little car. And since he paid $20k for it NEW and was faster than most of the locusts...think before you speak ill of the little "Chrysler".
In summary, if you are comfortable driving at Thunderhill and don't mind buying your own lunch and don't expect official coaches...you will love the locust club. I was surprised to learn that early model locusts don't look like evil grasshoppers. Here is a picture of me with my brother on my tail. He ran a 2:10.
Brother's in-car video...mine is coming. He passes the Sharkwerks Cayman. I don't.