Just got back to Portland after the HOD weekend. First time I'd been to Thunderhill, and I have to say, it's a great track and easily the best facility I've ever been to (although I've only been to the three near Portland). Spacious air conditioned clubhouse, big shade canopies to park under, pro shop, repair shop, on-site fuel including race gas, food vendor, etc. Even the PA system was really good
And it's 6 miles from a real town with some restaurants, hotels, Walmart, RV park, and other trappings of civilization.
The downside: it's in the desert, essentially, and it was freakin'
hot. It was 105 when I left the track on Saturday, 107 on Sunday. The estimated asphalt temps were in the area of 160! Not only was it uncomfortable for people like me from colder climes, but the cars get hot too. My '69 has a new C&R radiator/oil cooler combo from DSE, and I was shocked to do a gauge scan in my third session and see oil temp of of 320! Needless to say, I cut that session and a couple of others short. Will be working with DSE to get those temps down ...
About the track. It's pretty great even in the "old" configuration, which is both fast and quite technical, with lots of elevation change, off camber, blind exits, etc. The new section is mostly a lot tighter, and even more technical, with even more elevation change and blind corners. Combined, the 5 mile track has 27 numbered corners, and a few more that aren't numbered (see the picture below). Plenty of places where the difference between screwing up and getting the flow perfect is small.
Unfortunately, the really high track temps were not good for the new asphalt, and the new track section started to break up after two sessions, especially the downhill section into turn 23. We reverted to the old track for the afternoon, then got one more session on the 5 mile next morning. Even with three sessions, I still got lost trying to remember what was coming next - partly because of the numerous blind sections. It was a total gas, and I could spend dozens of sessions happily learning the subtleties.
Anyway, here's the aerial photo of the new track with turn numbers. It ain't the 'Ring, but there probably aren't many tracks in North America that present this kind of challenge: