Thunderhill - NorCal Shelby Spring event

[Richio1]

Damn, sorry I missed it. Hurst DL sent the wrong flywheel. No tranny - no go.

Are you guys planning on doing either the SCCA event in July or the Shelby club event in August at Sonoma?

[glassman]

Some of the little blue car




Had a great time. New friends, new faces, new "habit"....

[Vegas69]

What did Gae run?

[Track Junky]

Originally Posted by Vegas69

What did Gae run?

They wouldn't let me run because I missed the drivers meeting in the morning.

I knew when I left Vinces shop that they weren't going to let me run but I wasn't going to miss an opportunity to hang out with the gang.

Had a great time guys. Hope we can do it again soon.

[67zo6Camaro]

Originally Posted by Sieg

Word! I hadn't had a track fix in 2 or 3 years an it sure felt good!

So how did it go? who's posting times? who ran what?

[patoke]

Originally Posted by 67zo6Camaro

So how did it go? who's posting times? who ran what?

There weren't any fast times because saac doesn't let you pass in the turns. Even in the fast/green group there some very slow cars so it was impossible to get a clean lap with the no passing in turns rule (at least that was the case on saturday). I've never been to a track day where you couldn't pass in the turns in the advanced group.

The no passing in turns was actually much more dangerous I thought because we would be doing 150+ mph into turn one and we'd come up on a guy doing 70mph or less. Instead of going around him which would easy, you'd have to try to get slowed down like crazy on corner entry or mid corner.

It made sense though because there are some real shelby's there that don't want incidental contact but they should tell you on the webpage that there is no passing in corners or at least make the run group faster. I clocked some guys turning 2:40+ laps in the fast group. That is almost 1 minute slower per lap than we were running with NCRC on Friday. We packed up and headed home because it was so dangerous with that much disparity in speed.

Plus a guy in front of me got black flagged and he actually came to a stop on the middle of the race track!!! Who does that?? That was in the fast group. Maybe he was color blind and thought it was red!! Ha!!

Hopefully you guys go back out with another norcal group because we left before we got a chance to hang out.

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by patoke

There weren't any fast times because saac doesn't let you pass in the turns. Even in the fast/green group there some very slow cars so it was impossible to get a clean lap with the no passing in turns rule (at least that was the case on saturday). I've never been to a track day where you couldn't pass in the turns in the advanced group.

The no passing in turns was actually much more dangerous I thought because we would be doing 150+ mph into turn one and we'd come up on a guy doing 70mph or less. Instead of going around him which would easy, you'd have to try to get slowed down like crazy on corner entry or mid corner.

It made sense though because there are some real shelby's there that don't want incidental contact but they should tell you on the webpage that there is no passing in corners or at least make the run group faster. I clocked some guys turning 2:40+ laps in the fast group. That is almost 1 minute slower per lap than we were running with NCRC on Friday. We packed up and headed home because it was so dangerous with that much disparity in speed.

Plus a guy in front of me got black flagged and he actually came to a stop on the middle of the race track!!! Who does that?? That was in the fast group. Maybe he was color blind and thought it was red!! Ha!!

Hopefully you guys go back out with another norcal group because we left before we got a chance to hang out.

You must have one hell of a car to be hitting 150 going into turn 1.... because none of my stuff will hit that. The Mustang is WOT at the top of 4th gear and I might be seeing 125.... the Lotus which is far faster - is at the middle of 5th gear and is speed limited to 155MPH at the top of 6th... It's never gotten into 6th gear on that track.

Just sayin'

Not sure what group you ran in... but I think the NorCal Shelby events are some of the best run events I've been to... and they don't allow passing in corners for a great reason -- it keeps people from wading up their cars when some moron thinks he's a hot shoe and loses it trying to take the inside away from you.

Not sure where you get the 1:40 lap times from either... passing in the corners or not. Maybe you were timing a 250cc Shifter cart?

[patoke]

Greg, what is the horsepower and weight of your two cars? We see over 125mph going into turn 1 in spec miata and it only has 119 horsepower.

At the event, we had a C6 z06 that has over 600 rwhp, coilovers, brakes, etc. The fastest lap we ran on Friday was a 1:55. Top speed at the end of the start/finish strait was 153 mph.

There was a Stohl on Friday turning low 1:40's that would take turn one flat out!! It was pretty cool because it was driven by a 67 year old kickass lady.

There were also "crappy" cars there on Friday that couldn't turn a 2:20 with Michael Schumacher driving! !

Not being to pass in a turn is more dangerous in my opinion than point by. It all depends on experience level but I've seen a track day that didn't allow open passing or at least point by in the turns in the advanced group.

I must say it was well organized and definitely an event that is well run. It just isn't an event that a "fast" Lap time would be had at.

[clill]

Blue group is for the expert drivers with fast cars.There was no blue group on Saturday because of the large attendance. On Sunday they added the blue group for the fast guys. Plenty of space and time on Sunday to shoot for a fast lap.

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by patoke

Greg, what is the horsepower and weight of your two cars? We see over 125mph going into turn 1 in spec miata and it only has 119 horsepower.

At the event, we had a C6 z06 that has over 600 rwhp, coilovers, brakes, etc. The fastest lap we ran on Friday was a 1:55. Top speed at the end of the start/finish strait was 153 mph.

There was a Stohl on Friday turning low 1:40's that would take turn one flat out!! It was pretty cool because it was driven by a 67 year old kickass lady.

There were also "crappy" cars there on Friday that couldn't turn a 2:20 with Michael Schumacher driving! !

Not being to pass in a turn is more dangerous in my opinion than point by. It all depends on experience level but I've seen a track day that didn't allow open passing or at least point by in the turns in the advanced group.

I must say it was well organized and definitely an event that is well run. It just isn't an event that a "fast" Lap time would be had at.

The '65 Mustang is a 590hp (dyno'd) Tony Oddo motor'd - Jerico 4 speed - Hoosier'd - 3015 pound car


The Lotus 2 Eleven is 1470 pounds - single center seat conversion - 6 speed - blown Toyota 252 HP


The SCCA TRACK RECORD is a 1:35 set in qualifying -- very different than actually racing (set in a Stohr) - RACING is a 1:37.6

This is running the Cyclone (5 and 5a) -- take the Cyclone away and I think that is good for about 2 seconds faster IIRC


http://www.stohr.com


Your lady is smoking fast!


By comparison the racing lap record in GT2 - is a 1999 Corvette - with a 1:52.255


The SCCA track records for cars (similar) to what is being driven at NorCal Shelby events --- a mix of old and new Mustangs... with Corvettes etc.... are all right around 2:01/2:02's


I've passed any and all Miata's Spec or otherwise including the one driven this weekend that is was being driven by a professional race car driver.... and I passed him out of turn 15 in my Lotus and was half the straight in front of him by turn 1.


I'm not arguing -- and not trying to be a bonehead nor do I think you are being... but lots of people read these threads and posts - many that may be going to their first track event to give it a try - and I'm just trying to be factual (again not saying that you are not being factual) but my perspective is the opposite of yours with the passing zones. I'm happy that I can turn in with confidence that nobody is on my quarter. I'm more than happy to roll to the side and lift completely off the pedal and point the faster cars by at the first opportunity. The quicker they fly by the faster I can get back into it and attempt to follow their line.


The ZR1's and some ZO6's are on track with us and they make us look like we are standing on the brake with an anchor tied to our axles.... I'm sure they're hitting 150 down into turn 1.... I make no attempt to even try to follow them. I tried that once in the Lotus out of turn 8 and ended up doing a tank slapper before turn 9. LOL