How did everyone like Thunderhill ? It's a great track. I'd like to hear from those that ran it for the first time.

I've never done a speed stop before, other than what i can "legally" do around here, so i gave it my best shot and outa 5 runs my first was the best (still sucked). The auto cross, in my run group (evens) i finished 5th outa 15, over all 15 outa 24. 4th time doing autocross and first time in the car with the new set up. The road course is what i wanted, ran in the intermediate group, got some good runs in (14 laps total) and really started feeling the car come around when the clutch went byby.....i finished about mid pack oa (middle of intermediate, so middle of everybody running)....

:twak:

I went to sleep at 2 am with the first batch of 2372 uploading, woke up at 6 and their still not done........the other batch of 1064 should go much faster......LOL!

Thunderhill
 

Just wanted to let everyone know this was a
great event for all who attended. I brought up
a couple of buddies and thanked them many times
for helping me out.. they kept thanking me for letting
them come along. One buddy did a lot of videos from
many angles with my new go pro so hope to post soon

Lots of action for those running and watching
A bunch of Lateral g guys and many vendors with
a lot of info if you ask questions
... Jimmy and the Optima crew did a great job.. he said they had
roughly 80 entries and 14 newbees....

Everyone should come out and support these guys
and RUN YOUR CARS.. THAT IS WHY WE BUILD THEM

My goal was to try and sort my car out and try to
get familiar with it after not really running it much for 10 years
plus... I also changed everything so it was a new car to me

We did 13 stop box runs and during that time had a buddy
we met a few years ago at Good guys that worked with
Herb Adams on their racing program in the early days...Harry
Quackenbush.. great guy with a lot of knowledge

I had Nittos and started with pressures at 38/34 we kept dropping
them until we were at 23/21...Seemed all wrong to me but it worked

Then we went to the Autocross and started tweaking shocks
again 13 or 14 runs and worked up and down getting the car
to turn thru the bump at the big right hander before the finish straight

Finally got the driver (me) to get more aggressive and dropped
over .6 on the second to last run... wish I had a few more at that
time.... but to tell you the truth I was tired.. running for 3 hours at
each event was a lot of seat time

Great day and great people everywhere
I did not run the Track on Sunday as the rear brakes still
do not seem to be working.. need to do some valving
and my gearing is not right yet

9th out of 24 in stop box and 12th out of 24 in autocross (Vintage Class)
not a bad day for an old driver and car that is still progressing
and learning how to dial it in and change things while you are
at the track.. something I have been watching Mike Maier do
for years! Guess that is why he is so fast

They added Vegas the weekend of April 25/26 to their Qualifiers

Bob

We had a great time and it was good meeting some of you folks. Sieg was all over the place taking photos and we met Greg chilling near his rig.

As a first timer on a road course, I was somewhat nervous about pushing the truck on the track, but I quickly became comfortable with the help of Barry, one of the instructors. Unfortunately, on the third session, I cracked a front brake rotor and called it a day.

This event was well organized and "ON TIME" which Jimi pointed out several times. The USCA crew did a great job and I will participate at future events.

PS - Just looked at the overall standings and am very happy with placing 36th out of 67 competitors. Yee Haw!

Great event! Met some more great people. It was a bit of a haul for me (just over 8 hours) but I had a blast. The auto cross was tight and short and was more a game of finesse and I managed to come in mid pack for the vintage class. Not bad cosidering I took Mary Pozzi on a cone eating firtst run. the speed stop was fun and I was getting my times down and on my fastest run I ended up with a flat front tire. I had it checked at the tire center and we could not find anything. so I had him break it down and remount it anyway. by the time this was done the session ended so I could not improve the time.

The road course was challenging because of the blind turns, elevation and camber changes. I took it easy trying to figure out the lines and to get more comfortable. As the sessions progressed the times dropped. The instructor gave me the lines to follow and all was going well until the same tire unset the bead through the chicane. No drama in the car or of track excursion so i limped it back to the pit. End of the day for me. Burned up a new Falken and damaged a wheel.

Thanks for noticing that my car was leaning Jimi!! LOL

Great experience at a great track at a great event.

This was a really well organized event at a great venue. I don't think that they could have had a better start to their new season than they did here at Thunderhill. Everything went smoothly and started on time.

my personal favorite thing was all the time I got with instructors. I worked with 3 different gentlemen throughout the weekend and each one was able to help me improve steadily. On the AutoX I was able to knock off a solid 3sec from my time, and 10sec out on the road course, but better than that, I learned how to be smooth and confident.

All in all, an amazing weekend.

EDIT: Oh yea, almost forgot, thanks for keeping Dad entertained this weekend too. He had a great time.

Mike, great meeting you out there. Thanks again to you and your wife on the hospitality. The great thing about these events is that we can see what and where we need to improve in our technique and our vehicles. Here's a shot I took of your car.

Scott, I know the feeling. Drove for over 8 hours with the last 3 and change in the rain. Then I had to unload everything and get up really early for work!:faint:

Great talking to you out there!!!

Look forward to the 3000 pictures....I'd better put a weekend aside lol

Having been a victim of multiple meatball flags on a Saturday/Sunday last year due to popping the sound meter at T-Hill with a 1.8 litre Toyota motor while multiple people are running Cup cars with boom tubes and not getting flagged, I thought this was a very appropriate place for this sign.

http://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-s...sgF7skn-X2.jpg

Though on that particular Saturday and Sunday there was another place I would have liked to have stuck that sign. :unibrow: