NE Track Day/Autocross/Racing Reports

[ThompsonR53]

Thanks for putting up your iCal dates - schweet! I just had the PCA meeting last night and we are going to publish Green Mountain BMW and SCCV events in the Mountaineer. Maybe I'll make some SCCV events this year. Sugarbush sounds like it could be the ticket.

Thompson

Quote: Originally Posted by snid (original)

The sports car club of Vermont's Saint Lawrence Motorsports Park event dates are set:

June 23-24
July 28-29
September 1-2

Sports Car Club of Vermont :: View topic - 2007 SLMP dates are confirmed

[snid]

Thompson (and others)

The SCCV autocross dates are not yet verified with the site, so please don't publish those yet.

In fact, the SCCV membership hasn't been told what the tentative dates are yet...

I'll let you know when we get the autocross dates firmed up. Hopefully that will be soon.

Jason

[ThompsonR53]

Will do. I'll wait until I hear from you. Maybe I'll make it to the meeting next on Tues night.

TS

ps check out my updated MINI Challenge Club Sport news.. TSRennsport.com

Quote: Originally Posted by snid (original)

Thompson (and others)

The SCCV autocross dates are not yet verified with the site, so please don't publish those yet.

In fact, the SCCV membership hasn't been told what the tentative dates are yet...

I'll let you know when we get the autocross dates firmed up. Hopefully that will be soon.

Jason

[snid]

There's a good thread over on NAM where people have started talking about what their first (or early) instructors had to say to them at the end of the first day on the track. Any good stories?

The great one over on NAM is from a guy who's out on the track, having fun, thinking he's going fast. At the end of the first day his instructor says "so, tomorrow are we stop driving like an old lady?"

[blalor]

My favorite story is from my first (and so far *only*, dammit!) BMWCCA school, at Putnam Park near Indianapolis last year. I was in the C run group and got pretty confident pretty quickly. Turn 4 is an off-camber left-hander and I had the car drifting nicely through there. On that turn (and several others), my instructor would tighten his grip on the handle and mutter "Oh, ****..." followed immediately by "Good boy!!" I could hear him clear as day over the intercom.

At that same school there was a guy in a new bright yellow Gallardo in my run group. He was sort of a rolling roadblock to me (as were many of the M3s...) and I passed him a bunch of times, but he was a great sport and had a great time. Hell, he was *driving* that beautiful piece of sexy Italian machinery! He improved tremendously, though, by the end of the 2nd day and I had trouble keeping him behind me (an extra 330hp will do that!); I got a bunch of distance on him through the tight parts of the course but he'd catch up at the end of the long front straight. I can vividly picture that yellow wedge getting louder and bigger in my mirror and the sound gave me goose bumps. He finally managed to stay with me through the end of the twisties and I gave him a point-by. He pulled a Linda Ronstadt (Blue Bayou) and took off, but his instructor gave me a HUGE thumbs-up out the window, and later told me what a great job I'd done (and solo, at that). The Lambo owner said to me "My only goal for this weekend was to pass one of those MINI Coopers!" I'm glad that was me. I take it back, that is my favorite story!

I can't believe my track day got snowed out for this weekend!

How about you, J?

[snid]

I'm not sure what my favorite track story is.

Dropping a wheel onto the wet grass at SLMP, spinning 180°, and getting stuck on a haybale I backed onto was pretty good.

I've done some good playing with a handful of different MCSes and Miatae. Getting a point-by from Dave T (LePew), then promptly driving off the track is another good one. Of course, there are times when I keep all four wheels on the track.

My instructor taking a cell phone call from someone on the national board of the BMWCCA during my cool-down lap?

It's hard to know when to gloat about passing people, because sometimes the person you pass isn't really trying anywhere near 100% at the time... like the Dinan supercharged M5 that was putting out something stupid like 500hp. Or this video from NHIS: MINI Chase - October 28, 2005 - Google Video I'm fairly certain that was a JCW car. I had a few different people who were corner workers during the session mention to me that they enjoyed watching the gap between me and the MCS close lap by lap... too bad I didn't get a chance to get the pass done.

Oh yeah, Brian and others... at NHIS BMWCCA events you will usually spend a block of time as a flagger. I'm not sure how normal that is for track days. And last year NHIS (the track) started a rule that anyone on the track / flagging stations needed a helmet on. Not necessarily an auto helmet, something like a bike helmet would suffice. They (the BMWCCA? or possibly the track) had a few "pit crew" helmets available, but not enough for everyone. So some people would get stuck wearing their auto helmets for the hour or so they were out flagging. So, if you're headed to NHIS, and you own a bicycle helmet, throw it in the car before you leave home.

I guess my favorite track moments are when other people wander by in the paddock and are honestly surprised when I tell them that my MINI is not of the supercharged variety, has only 115-ish hp, and is not running r-compounds. I've had that happen a few times.

I'm sure I'll have some more good stories this summer... hopefully starting April 30.

[jwardell]

I wish I had any track story

My friend has told me several times he wont race with the cca anymore because he doesn't want to work corners. Being an autocrosser, I'm used to it. I think that's a big reason why the cca days are cheaper than the other groups.

[blalor]

I don't believe working corners is BMWCCA-wide. I definitely didn't do that at the Hoosier event I did last year, and there was no mention of it in preparation for the Watkins Glen event (Boston chapter). Maybe it's a White Mountain thing? I think the stakes a bit higher with track events and I'd rather see dedicated flaggers. I also wonder how they schlep everyone to their designated corners in an efficient manner; in my experience, there's just about zero downtime between events unless it's lunchtime or there's an "incident".

I'm still processing the photos, and haven't touched the video yet, but I went to the Boston BMWCCA auto-x at Devens yesterday and had a really good time. They got a *very* slow start and took a loooong time to get the first two rungroups through in the morning, so I only got my four runs in before having to leave at 3 for Dan's calling hours. But the course was fun and fast and I think it was well run, aside from the first-event-of-the-season bugs. I hope to make it back out with them more this year. My first three runs were in the 100s range (first one with an instructor, 2nd with some random guy's grand-daughter, remainder solo) and my last one was 96.250. The instructor seemed to be fresh off the Evolution school from last weekend and was very enthusiastic; I soaked up a little too much of that enthusiasm and got into an incipient spin at the back side of the course, but recovered without too much damage to my shorts. I talked to a guy driving a Z06 (?) 'Vette and he got 78s on his first or second run (although he hit like 6 cones). I didn't think my 96.25 was going to put me in the running or anything, but day-mn!

[snid]

NHIS BMWCCA usually events have "student flaggers". If there's club racing going on along with the HPDE, which there sometimes is, they have professional flaggers. There's a 15 passenger van they use to get the flaggers out to the more remote flag stations. There are 3 flagger changes during they day. They do cause a little down time, but as long as people show up for their flagging duty on time, it's not bad.

Student flaggers are not used at Lime Rock or Watkins Glen.

[jwardell]

So what did you think of the cca autoX? I'm not sure how many others you've done with other clubs. I like them because they really use the whole airfield and therefore you see speeds of 60+, 3rd gear territory. Sadly that puts the mini at a disadvantage that it usually has in parking lot autocrosses. And yes, they are regularly disorganized or some other problem holds things up. Despite that you almost always get in 6-8 runs and at 25 bucks that's unbeatable. Also the regulars are a great group of people that I never sensed at other events. I was sorry to miss the entire last season thanks to buying a house. I didn't even realize this season had started! I'm not sure if I will attend some or not for the same cost and time reasons, but I do miss it.

[LePew]

Jason -- any word on when registration for the SCCV event at SLMP in June will be open?

[snid]

The SLMP registration will probably open up early May. We (the SCCV) have our first autocross May 5-6, and we're taking registrations for that until May 1. So, to keep the mailbox less cluttered, I think the SLMP reg will open sometime after that.

I'll post a link with the details once registration opens.

I gotta see if someone else in the club wants to be the event chair for the first SLMP, or if I'm the lucky one.

[blalor]

Quote: Originally Posted by jwardell (original)

So what did you think of the cca autoX? I'm not sure how many others you've done with other clubs. I like them because they really use the whole airfield and therefore you see speeds of 60+, 3rd gear territory. Sadly that puts the mini at a disadvantage that it usually has in parking lot autocrosses. And yes, they are regularly disorganized or some other problem holds things up. Despite that you almost always get in 6-8 runs and at 25 bucks that's unbeatable. Also the regulars are a great group of people that I never sensed at other events. I was sorry to miss the entire last season thanks to buying a house. I didn't even realize this season had started! I'm not sure if I will attend some or not for the same cost and time reasons, but I do miss it.

My only past auto-x experience was with the Hoosier BMWCCA chapter and MoP's Octoberfast this past year (and I'm pretty sure we christened it with that name for them...). Hoosier's was completely different, run in a large-ish parking lot. The grid area we occupied at Devens on Sunday was larger than the entire course we ran in Indy. The Indy event was structured much more towards the enjoyment of the club members and wasn't targeted at all towards people who were truly competitive, and the free food provided by the club was a definite improvement over the box of granola bars I ate while at Devens. Boston's is completely different. Course-wise I *hugely* prefer Devens, but there was even more sitting around than I typically associate with autocrosses. Some of it was just disorganization, but some of it was having to deal with the 105 entrants! I'll definitely go back; I met some cool people I'd like to hook up with again, and the price (now $35) can't be beat, but it's still no substitute for driving on the track. I will admit that I'm starting to realize just how mental a sport auto-x is (and, yes, I'm a little slow on the uptake). I only got a chance to walk the course once, and that wasn't nearly enough. Since the course is different every day you need to be able to pick up the layout and plan your line very quickly, and you only get a run or two to put it all together if you want to be competitive.

I'm working on the video now. If anyone can recommend good settings for 16:9 video export for web at around 640x360 from iMovie, I'd appreciate it, because it's taking 30 minutes or so to export highish quality movies from iMovie and I'm not feeling terribly experimental right now...

[blalor]

pics and video up (ish).




Flickr set

Video clips: first run, last run

[snid]

"You can go faster if you want".