This past weekend we (myself and my wife Maureen) went out with Northern California Racing Club, at Thunderhill. Slikgator was there as well.
NCRC runs a very laid back but pretty well organized event. I spoke with Dave Mills, who runs the club, about the differences between NCRC and Hooked on Driving. According to Dave, NCRC focuses more "upmarket" in terms of experience and speed than HOD. Whereas HOD is pretty restrictive on point bys and passing, NCRC is more liberal. HOD runs 3 to 4 groups, and even the advanced group is only allowed point bys in just a few sections of the track, whereas NCRC allows point bys full track, and runs a pretty liberal open group as well. The "limited" group in NCRC, which one would think would be novices is more like the B group for HOD. So keep that in mind when choosing which clubs to run.
That said, there was a LOT of action this weekend, with 3 car fires, 1 headon collision, and no small number of spins and other excursions (including this driver).
The car fires resulted apparently from the extremely hot and dry weather, the combustible combination of a very hot car going off and coming to rest on very dry grass. Oh, and the Ferrari F335 during the lunch race sessions who's engine caught fire. And then there was race prepped Viper which went off, and completely ripped off the left rear quarter panel from the car. She (yes she) was not in the Sunday lunch race.
The head on was a serious deal, but no one was hurt, except 200k in cars, a nicely modded 98 M3 (Avus Blue, what shame to lose) and a GT3 RS--that's right.
I spoke with the M3 driver, and his story was this: coming out of Turn 8 and heading up to Turn 9 (for those who don't know TH, 8 is a fast left sweeper, which leads uphill to 9, which is a steep, left, uphill blind crest, scary but hugely satisfying when done right) he noticed his oil pressure light on, and the gauge at 0. Not good. He looked down at the gauge for wee bit too long and when he looked up, he was deep into 9. He tried to turn in but too late, and spun, and ended up going backwards and mostly off track near the top of 9. He was thus stopped on the visible side of 9 at the outside edge of the track, near the outer berm, with the car partly on, partly off track.
He was there several seconds, 8 or so he says, and sees two cars coming. The first car sees him and takes tight line on 9 staying midtrack.
The second car is the GT3. He's right on the front car's tail (perhaps trying to pass?). He goes wide (which is the faster line), and too late sees the M3 and tries to avoid. The GT3's front and right side hit the full front of the M3. Game over for both.
. The talk in the paddock was that the GT3 was following too closely and not looking ahead, since the M3 was on the visible side of 9, and the first car did see him and avoided him. I did not speak to the GT3 driver so I don't know his side of the story--and there's always two sides. Nonetheless, the chief steward did make an announcement afterwards that everyone should keep their eyes up and not follow too closely.
As I hinted above, NCRC events include a lunch time race session. A 12 lap race with everything from a Formula Ford (won Saturday, retired Sunday) to Cup cars, Vipers, Ferraris, and then Honda Civics, Minis, and a Formula Vee ("Wait for me!!!!" you could practically hear him scream with all 68 hp). This was great to watch from the 4th floor observation deck. The duals between the Cup cars, and between the Vipers and Corvettes were riveting. Lots of great passing moves coming off the drag race down the front straight into Turn 1. A spectacular save by a yellow 911 who was being chased by a red 911 only a car length behind: the yellow 911 got two wheels off the shoulder coming out of Turn 1 into Turn 2 (probably doing 90-100), but held onto it and got back on without getting passed.
Another great pass: Two Cup cars where running nose to tail for several laps. Up comes a race prepped Corvette. All three come out of Turn 15 onto the front straight, with the Corvette in 3rd place. The front Porsche stays left, the second Porsche edges right to pass. But wait! The Corvette stays left, and with that huge motor slips between the two Cup cars, passing the second Porsche seemingly unawares. Into Turn 1 the Porsche has the lead, with the Corvette and the secondPorsche two abreast, but the front Porsche goes wide, and Corvette moves inside and passes him as well. The Vette went on to win that day's event. Nice driving!
My laps were not nearly so exciting. For the first time since I've had the car, I've regretted not having the manual.
. The Tip does not respond "correctly", and frankly makes it harder to know what gear your in, since there's no physical representation (via the sensory input of where the shifter is). Ahh well, just have to live with it. Some folks here have said that in Manual mode, the Tip will upshift by itself--I did not find this to be the case. I did learn to do the bypass without braking or slowing (turn in slightly before the crest), and turn 9 on the outside fast line.
But the best moment was this: Of course when tracking you are always watching the corner workers, looking for flags. You've got flags on the brain: red, black, yellow, meatball. So here I am riding with a coach (Andrew Block, great guy, excellent coach). We're coming out of Turn 1 into Turn 2. There's worker station on the outside of the track in between these two turns. Right as we pass the worker station, POOOF!!! a big red cloth thingy bursts onto Andrew's lap. WTF!! I'm red flagged?
The worker threw the flag into the car?!?!? How the hell?
Andrew picks it up and hold it out in front of him. Its a red Thunderhill
T-shirt that my wife bought before the session and threw into the back of the car. The wind must have picked it up and pulled it forward. We both just crack up.
Later I had words
with Maureen, like "You could have killed me if that wrapped around my helmet." "Darn...."
We're heading back to TH in July. I hope to have a Miata for Maureen by then. Yes, a Miata. Supercharged (170hp, maybe 190hp, 2200lb, do the math). Cheaper and more plentiful than M3s....let alone Porsches. I can get a supercharged 95-99 with <100k miles, with a setup suspension for <10k. I think of its as a reducing my carbon footprint.
Finally: got dyno'd at TH on a Dyno: 255hp at the rear wheels. Will post soon.
Until 
