Thompson updates, please.

[Gregg]

[gran racing]

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?

[StephenB]

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!

[StephenB]

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...

[Abhi]

Thanks again to all the workers and staff, great weekend!

Agreed....

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.

[nlevine]

Anybody got any in-car videos they're planning to post soon? Curious to see a racer's-eye view..

[Abhi]

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 Tube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx6B7fH-x4k

Abhi

[Greg Amy]

^^^ 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