For us folks who have to work.
Printable View
For us folks who have to work.
Well, the course is wide open, you can pretty much hit your driver all day...the 3rd hole (iirc) is a gnarly little dog leg but you should be on the green in 2...the chowder in the club house is decent but the bartender is a bit ornery, if you tip well they will remember you.
ok, for real this time...word on the street is that the day if going fairly well logistically, the surface is really really green (obviously) and abrasive at the same time...haven't heard how racy it is but people seem to like the way it flows.
Ed..contact Mike Rand if you are on apexspeed(i know,open wheel)..he has been involved with all the planning
Ed..if you can read this
http://www.apexspeed.com/forums/show...light=thompson
"The Thompson front straight is slightly up hill and I think will effect top speed on most cars that are not running a blown 426 hemi. As for the other corners, I will be guessing."Quote:
Originally Posted by BruceG
classic.
Today went well. We are working out some glitches here and there (like what the heck we are supposed to do with grid) but by and large went smoothly.
My take is this is a tight, twisty, busy track, like an autocross. Lots of blindncorners, lots of banging into the rev limiter only to immediately downshift, some dirty (rubber marbles) transistions from oval to road course, a station or two that need to be moved (9 is staring at you from the impact zone on a blind left hand somewhat off camber diving turn into Turtle Country.
And turtles. Lots and lots of turtles crossing the racetrack. We had turtle debris flags, turtle yellows, turtle safety trucks and turtle pace car laps, and unfortunately, turtle soup (thanks to the Blethens) :D
Everyone behaved. Well, except for Dick Patullo. IT-7, what can you say?
Surprisingly fast straight that actually starts in Turtle Country at ten. You hit fifth there, and the car feels light in places. Like cresting the blind hill onto the straight only to find a (wait for it) turtle on the line.
Did I mention how many turtles there were?
It's a track that will take a bit of time for me at least to get up to full speed. Some different lines opportunities and am not sure the popular lines in at least three sections are the way to go. First session out I was totally lost. For being local, I'm very happy with it. The track sure isn't a Road Atlanta or Glen, but if people can deal with NHMS this is way better IMO. They did a great job putting it all together in such a short time. The track staff are very friendly and willing to listen to our feedback on improvements.
Turn 1 on starts is going to be a mess. Long straight funneled into a narrow and sharp turn. Ugh. And yes, turtles.
Day 3 complete at the track. It's the Northern Summit Point. A few turns that reminded us of Summit, and other elements off track too.
The track is tiring to drive. After Sunday's 25 min sprint, I was pretty tired. The more time on it, the more I'm liking it especially for a local track. Passing is a challenge and takes trust on both drivers. Some of the passing opportunities I did not feel as though the driver on the outside could have easily seen me. The event itself was run extremely well by both SCCA and the track staff. Looking forward to racing here.
Oh, and no turtles on Sunday. Did the track do something to keep them out? Or just pure luck?
I straddled one on the peace lap... but I "respect the turtle" now! :-)
I loved the track to drive on, got to chase down a fat AS car in the race and I got to race geoff in his ITR Acura. I ran on street tires most of the weekend and liked running the track at the limit of those tires, it will be a great club track. On the hoosiers I used only one session and loved the track even more. I think it has great flow, lots of unique turns and a fast lane that is not the same as your racing line. That is the part that makes this track even better because the overtaking car can take a different line to try and make a move going into the next turn. I think body damage is something we need to be careful of and respect each other. It's going to be easy for people to dive bomb and get into trouble.
As Dave Saud WAY better than NHMS. I like it as much as ant other track but in a different way, Your very busy and eventhough is slow your busy like an autocross. If your looking for high speed sweepers you won't like it. If your thinking fast cars won't like it, think again... the guy in the p1 car turning 1:08's liked it!
Stephen
Thanks again to all the workers and staff, great weekend!
Forgot to mention... this is the BEST track I have ever been to to spectator at. Lots of awesome places to watch from and you can see a majority of the track from most of those viewing areas.
And they have an awesome ice cream stand on the golf course a short walk past the clubhouse :-) and yes the large is huge and you can get 7 flavors in it if your want to...
Agreed....Quote:
Originally Posted by StephenB
It went very smooth for a first weekend.
A big thank you to all the people that worked so hard to make this happen.
Congrats to the Thompson Staff on creating a great facility.
I did not really figure out the track till Sunday. It is really quite the rhythm track. I had a fun race on Sunday. Ralle Rookie was super quick. I was P2 and couldn't see him at the checkered.
On another note....
Did anyone else see higher than normal temps.
On Saturday, I was seeing oil temps of 265 and water temps of 210.
I figure that was because we were constantly braking and accelerating.
Anybody got any in-car videos they're planning to post soon? Curious to see a racer's-eye view..
tGA posted some video on You TubeQuote:
Originally Posted by nlevine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx6B7fH-x4k
Abhi
^^^ First Saturday session. Various head-up-posterior technical issues cost me getting any more during the weekend.
Good club facility, open-minded and interested track management. We had a lot of good suggestions that will be seriously considered. I think we will enjoy being at this track.
From a driving perspective, flows nice when you have open track. It has a distinct rhythm which you can see on the video. I think it will make a nice HPDE and school track.
From a racing perspective it's going to be a challenge. I started tail-end in both mock races, within the largest group; keep your eyes on the flaggers because you will not see the initial green flag wave when you're at the end. Plus, it is a huuuuuge challenge passing cars, even with a significant horsepower advantage. There's just not enough straight between T1 through T11 - and there's eleven corners - to get enough differential momentum to cleanly stick a pass. If someone wants to keep you back there, it won't take much to do so. Plus, we are yawing back and forth so much it is quite easy to lose track of a car off to the sides (see in that video when that car had no idea I was there). The result will likely be frustrated drivers, ill-advised pass attempts, and bent metal. Contact impound will be busy.
But the location, facility, and people involved will make it an attractive place to be. NER is lucky to have this as a new option.
Greg
The flow also seemed to make passes more difficult. You could get to the inside of T1, but then you're on the outside for T3. Inside for T4, then you're on the outside for T5. Which is why I and Nat in his ITB car stuck side-by-side which worked, but took lots of trust and slowed us both down.
When in clean laps, it was fun. When in a group, it was more follow the leader and hope they mess up or as Greg says, you take a risk.