NorCal: Grip Drift Skid HPDE Track Day at Thunderhill

[denkigrve]

I'm going to see if I can make it. I'll be in town, but I think I have my son that weekend.

Laguna is fantastic in the car. See my journal thread for my write up about my day there. I'm dying to get back there again.

[IShouldStudy]

I registered and will be there. Hoping to see a good turnout of frs/brz.

[IShouldStudy]

I found another track day at Thunderhill on Dec. 29th with City Tech Auto. Has anyone run an event with City Tech Auto?

Here's the link to their track page:

http://citytechautobody.com/track_days/

[PMok]

Dang that's quite the trek up for you... Twice in one month? Tempting though... I got the free time, not sure I have the $$$...

[IShouldStudy]

I'm going to be up in Redding, CA for a couple weeks for the holidays. Otherwise I think it would be a bit too far. I'm bummed I didn't register for the grip event when I first found it and it was cheaper. Personally, I justify track days by limiting myself to only necessary modifications (brake pads, fluids).

[PMok]

Bump... Think reg might be close to full by now. Did anyone else sign up?

[Touge Monster]

Hmm just signed if all goes though Ill see you guys there

[spitz]

Not sure if you guys are interested, but GDS 9 is in February and has pretty awesome pricing: http://www.gripdriftskid.com/upcoming-events.html I'll be bringing my race car.

My gf and I signed up. She got $9.99 pricing!

[PMok]

Just got home after a really long day... woke up at 4:30AM, drove to the track for 2 hours in dark and rainy weather to get to the track in hopes of getting covered parking... fail. Ended up parking out in the open rain and having to leave my tools, spare and cooler out under a tarp. There was a decent turnout of FRS and BRZs, I saw at least 4 not including me. The morning was extremely wet and windy with some pretty torrential downpours and lots of pooling water on the track. Lots of people going off track and as a result the morning sessions were pretty much about 2 laps, then yellow, then black or red flag, session over. A frustrating morning.

One dude in a 997 Porsche managed to spin and crash in the first session. He returned to the paddock sans front bumper and airbag deployed. Seemed pretty nonchalant about it, but what kind of shocked me was he just stuffed his airbag back into his steering wheel (horn honking like mad as he did it), and went back out on track the rest of the day. And that is why I have some reservations about doing more events with this group. I don't understand how the track and/or the organizers could let him back out there. Despite many warnings and the obvious observation that it was extremely wet and slick out there, people were driving like fools, constantly going off into the mud, and essentially ruining the session for everyone else because the tow truck would need to come out and pull them out again, eating into our track time. If a chump wants to wreck his Porsche and isn't too upset about it, that's great for him but in my mind he shouldn't be let back out there again. He clearly had more money and bravado than brains.

Anyways it wasn't until after lunch that the rain subsided somewhat and the track started to dry off. The afternoon sessions were a little bit better but I still observed some unsafe passing (one car passed me without my pointby as I was passing another car) and the beginner's session was incredibly oversaturated with newbies ... perhaps 20-30 cars on track at once. Glad I was in Intermediate which wasn't too crowded, but it was rare to get a clean lap in and it wasn't until the last session of the day that I really felt like I got what I was expecting out of the track day. The guys running the show seem like good guys who are well intentioned but a little disorganized and not very concerned with safety. Maybe I'm getting old and scared but it seems like a large portion of the attendees are these young twenty-somethings with too much disposable income and not enough self-preservation instinct. Sure some of them have impressive machinery at their disposal and perhaps great reflexes but they're a little too loose and fast for my taste.

Let me back it down a notch and say, this was a particularly ugly day for a track day, the rain and conditions were pretty nasty at the beginning. I'm sure even the best drivers would have found it challenging out there. To add to the chaos, people who went off course and back on again dragged mud and debris all over the track when they reentered. Perhaps if the weather were more cooperative things would have gone more smoothly, and everyone would be fine.

Let me turn to my experiences in the car - my BRZ handled itself very well throughout the day. I thought the traction the stock Michelins gave me was fairly good and delivered predictable easy to control handling. I did leave it on Sport VSC mode due to the very wet conditions. I definitely got loose and slipped around on the slick surfaces here and there and I'm sure the VSC saved my butt a few times. If it had been a dry day I am sure I would have enjoyed switching everything off and going for it but not today, I did not feel like taking a mud bath and going into the weeds. This was probably more about driver experience and ability rather than the car's performance, but I definitely caught up to and was pointed past by other "track-worthy" cars like S2000s and STIs. But I certainly wasn't the fastest out there either, I still was being passed by everything from Miatas to M3s.

So I didn't wreck and nothing broke, so in all it was a good day and I'm glad I was able to return to the track after a long absence. I had gone to the trouble of flushing my brake fluids and changing to race pads which was certainly overkill given the conditions on track today, so unfortunately I haven't been able to properly bed the pads yet. I just have to think hard about when/where I want to do my next track day, there was just a lot of wrong stuff about today's outing.

Unfortunately I didn't take many pics, as I was mostly focused on my driving and staying out of the cold and rain most of the time. Same goes for hanging out with the other 86ers who came to the track. I did get a chance to briefly chat with a few of them and I hope to see you guys out at the track again or at a local meet sometime soon.

[BlaineWasHere]

Well, I won't be doing track days with them!

[Touge Monster]

[QUOTE=PMok;624985]Just got home after a really long day... woke up at 4:30AM, drove to the track for 2 hours in dark and rainy weather to get to the track in hopes of getting covered parking... fail. Ended up parking out in the open rain and having to leave my tools, spare and cooler out under a tarp. There was a decent turnout of FRS and BRZs, I saw at least 4 not including me. The morning was extremely wet and windy with some pretty torrential downpours and lots of pooling water on the track. Lots of people going off track and as a result the morning sessions were pretty much about 2 laps, then yellow, then black or red flag, session over. A frustrating morning.

One dude in a 997 Porsche managed to spin and crash in the first session. He returned to the paddock sans front bumper and airbag deployed. Seemed pretty nonchalant about it, but what kind of shocked me was he just stuffed his airbag back into his steering wheel (horn honking like mad as he did it), and went back out on track the rest of the day. And that is why I have some reservations about doing more events with this group. I don't understand how the track and/or the organizers could let him back out there. Despite many warnings and the obvious observation that it was extremely wet and slick out there, people were driving like fools, constantly going off into the mud, and essentially ruining the session for everyone else because the tow truck would need to come out and pull them out again, eating into our track time. If a chump wants to wreck his Porsche and isn't too upset about it, that's great for him but in my mind he shouldn't be let back out there again. He clearly had more money and bravado than brains.

Anyways it wasn't until after lunch that the rain subsided somewhat and the track started to dry off. The afternoon sessions were a little bit better but I still observed some unsafe passing (one car passed me without my pointby as I was passing another car) and the beginner's session was incredibly oversaturated with newbies ... perhaps 20-30 cars on track at once. Glad I was in Intermediate which wasn't too crowded, but it was rare to get a clean lap in and it wasn't until the last session of the day that I really felt like I got what I was expecting out of the track day. The guys running the show seem like good guys who are well intentioned but a little disorganized and not very concerned with safety. Maybe I'm getting old and scared but it seems like a large portion of the attendees are these young twenty-somethings with too much disposable income and not enough self-preservation instinct. Sure some of them have impressive machinery at their disposal and perhaps great reflexes but they're a little too loose and fast for my taste.

Let me back it down a notch and say, this was a particularly ugly day for a track day, the rain and conditions were pretty nasty at the beginning. I'm sure even the best drivers would have found it challenging out there. To add to the chaos, people who went off course and back on again dragged mud and debris all over the track when they reentered. Perhaps if the weather were more cooperative things would have gone more smoothly, and everyone would be fine.

Let me turn to my experiences in the car - my BRZ handled itself very well throughout the day. I thought the traction the stock Michelins gave me was fairly good and delivered predictable easy to control handling. I did leave it on Sport VSC mode due to the very wet conditions. I definitely got loose and slipped around on the slick surfaces here and there and I'm sure the VSC saved my butt a few times. If it had been a dry day I am sure I would have enjoyed switching everything off and going for it but not today, I did not feel like taking a mud bath and going into the weeds. This was probably more about driver experience and ability rather than the car's performance, but I definitely caught up to and was pointed past by other "track-worthy" cars like S2000s and STIs. But I certainly wasn't the fastest out there either, I still was being passed by everything from Miatas to M3s.

So I didn't wreck and nothing broke, so in all it was a good day and I'm glad I was able to return to the track after a long absence. I had gone to the trouble of flushing my brake fluids and changing to race pads which was certainly overkill given the conditions on track today, so unfortunately I haven't been able to properly bed the pads yet. I just have to think hard about when/where I want to do my next track day, there was just a lot of wrong stuff about today's outing.

Unfortunately I didn't take many pics, as I was mostly focused on my driving and staying out of the cold and rain most of the time. Same goes for hanging out with the other 86ers who came to the track. I did get a chance to briefly chat with a few of them and I hope to see you guys out at the track again or at a local meet sometime soon.




Pretty much sums it up.

[orthojoe]

Yeah, I saw some of the videos posted on gripskidslidedrift or whatever the name of the group's website is and told my self "NO WAY". Stick with HOD, TMR, or NCRC if you want a safe, well run track day.

[86BRZ]

Thank you PMOK for the detail report.

[denkigrve]

Wow... Hookedondriving for life!

That's atrocious. Glad you had some fun at least, and none did anything stupid that damaged your car.