Patoke...This is from the Norcal SAAC website.

Safety

Non-competitive - NO timing or lap scoring allowed
Track is fully staffed with USARM professional cornerworkers
Ambulance and Tow Truck on-site
Strictly enforced rules for driver conduct
Passing of other cars restricted to straight-aways (no late passes)
All cars must pass tech inspection

The Shelby club has been at Thunderhill since it's inception and helped fund it's construction. They run a fun-safe event and 99.9% of the people had a great time and fully understand why there is no passing in the turns. We encourage newcomers to come and learn to drive on the track. We provide volunteer instructors to help the guys just getting their feet wet. It sounds like this event is just not suited for the type of driving you want to do.

NorCal Shelby events should not be used to be competeitive. Too many noobs and the biggest hint is that they dont offer lap timing. All I was going to do out there is hang with the gang and make a few shake down runs to get a feel of the car with the new rear shocks and fuel cell. Stop watches are great but not as accurate as a an on car timing device.

I run and AMB transponder on my car. When I'm serious about tuning for faster lap times I run with NASA or NCRC. Point being NorCal Shelby events should not be used to try and kill your last best lap time.

Greg, I completely agree and track days are all about having fun, not our big shot at becoming the next Mario. The lack of passing in the turns is a GOOD thing in most groups. After 20+ years of wheel to wheel racing, I'm comfortable passing anywhere on the track but I definitely would want the others in my run group to be comfortable as well doing so. It makes more sense that they have a blue run group that just didn't run on Saturday.

For someone starting out, I think it is an excellent group to go with but I wouldn't recommend it for a very fast car unless the run the blue group because the difference in speeds without being able to pass wasn't much fun truthfully. But again, that's just my opinion and it sounds like Sunday would have been much better.

Since we did the friday event, we never planned to stay for Sunday. I can't afford to put on those pounds from eating at Casa Ramos twice, ha!!

Also, you're cars sound like fun! Just as an fyi, we ran 10 seconds slower on Saturday in the one session we did before we packed up because of the slower traffic, so that means you would have run a 1:58 on Friday!! :)

Maybe I should learn to read!! Obviously I didn't see the part about not passing in the turns on their webpage. It seems like a fun and well run organization. It was just a misunderstanding on our part about what it is. We are used to racing as well as track days that are completely open if you are a capable enough driver.

We have full data logging in our cars as well as transponders, there is no better tool for driver development than data logging as you can see your lines, corner speeds, shift points, etc. Then get a better driver to drive your car and see where you are losing time. The systems are relatively cheap now too, at least compared to what they used to cost.

Nice thing about the diversity of California tracks and local organizations is that there is a club and track for every style/experience level.

Here is a link to a build thread on one of our latest race car builds https://lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=46091

In Sprint trim versus endurance trim, we see hoping for sub 1:40. Over 700hp and 2000 pounds with full aero is going to be fast into turn one. We are expecting low to mid 170's mph at the end of the front stretch and some tremendous corner speeds through turn one (actually all of the high speed turns because of the aero).

NASA doesn't use the crows nest (silliest track feature in CA IMO) for the 25hr, note that outside of the high-downforce cars (open wheel, sports racers etc) that configuration is about 2.5sec a lap quicker for most.

The Wolf GB08S that was driven by Little Al and his son at the 25 this year ran a 1:37.6 in qualy. Porsche cup cars typically run in the high 1:45's. Highly prepped M3's run in the mid-low 1:50's and lower levels of prep put those cars in the mid-upper 50's. Very quick FWD cars like the Acura ILX's run this year by Honda Research run right at 2:00 and Miata's typically run in the 2:07-2:10 range.

I ran at a Shelby event a few years ago with a buddy. I really liked their attention to safety and zero-tolerance toward Hoonery. Track days aren't racing.

that is nice...don't you have a cup car too?

Vince, I recently sold my cup car. It was a blast to bang around the road courses but those cars were never meant to be on them. The only way to get them to rotate was to jump up on the curb. That's why you see the cup guys bouncing off the curbs at Sonoma.

It weighed 3,400 pounds so it was a little portly for road course racing!