Hey all you Nor-Cal-ers. . .

Anyone up for a little road racing & clinic time this weekend? For those unaware, Thunderhill is a kick-azz roadcourse in Northern California, built specifically with street & street-prepared cars like ours in mind. If you get a chance to run this course, you really owe it to yourself -DON'T MISS OUT! It would be great to see a strong Maxima representation out there. . .

I'm going to try to make it at least for Saturday, if not both days.


If you're curious:

http://www.thunderhill.com (track where the event's taking place)

For more information, contact:
office@thunderhill.com
(530) 934-5588 (phone)
(530) 934-7275 (fax)
PO Box 966
Willows, CA 95988


http://www.nasaproracing.com (sponsoring organization)

For more information, contact:
nasaregy@yahoo.com
Jerry Kunzman
PO Box 21555
Richmond, CA 94820
510-232-6272 (phone)
510-412-0549 (fax)
http://www.nasaproracing.com/norcal/


I emailed them, asking for specifics (waiting on reply). . .

UPDATE:
NASA annual membership registration (required for the event) can be done online and is $30. The event registration fee for Saturday, September 7th (only) is $179. That should get you plenty of track time and one-on-one instruction from NASA road-racing pros. If you want to stay for both days, the fee is $299.

Pre-registering online at the NASA website is advisable - you can register at the track on the day of the event, but there is a $50 surcharge if you wait until then.

-Fee Summary-

NASA Annual membership = $30
SATURDAY (9/7) only = $179
SAT & SUN (9/7 & 9/8) = $299

-Schedule-

Track opens @ 7:00AM
Mandatory Driver's Meeting @ 8:00AM
Event Schedule: available at track


So, come on out for a great day (or2) of racing! Have some fun, improve your driving & meet some really great people!


Hope to see some of you there!

zzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZOOOOOOOMMMMMmmmmm!!!!!


-KWheelzSB-

 

That track looks sweet. To bad it's in CA, that's a long drive from Ohio or I'd just might try to make it. Oh well.

Thanks for theinfo.

 

You bet!

But, I'm thinking two words for ya #51 - two words only. . .










ROAD TRIP!!!!!

heh heh heh!

 

Well, Saturday (yesterday) at Thunderhill was a blast!

First off - I want to thank all the NASA & track organizers/workers as well as a special thanks to my NASA instructor Mike Dobbs for an awesome day and some great insights.

I participated in the HPDE Class #1 (High Performance Driving Event, novice level).

My day started after an overnight in Williams, CA (about 27 mi. from Thunderhill) - Motel 6 ($31.50 internet rate).

Got to the track Sat AM, beautiful day (sunny, highs: 77degr) shaping up. . .Every range/type of car in the pit area from stock to highly modified. Smell of racing fuel in the air. . .

Got my car set up & went to the driver's meeting.
Learned that it costs $20 to get my car "teched" at the track. Would have been free if I had done it in advance at a list of qualified service shops (I missed this on the website, so heads-up to ne1 here).

1st Session- instructor ride-along
Basically, just learning the lines of the course & how to deal w/ traffic on course. Mike, my instructor, was calling out the braking points, turn-in points, apexes and exits as we made our way around the track. This helped me through the course & also allowed me to make mental bookmarks of where I needed to put the car next time around. . .

We finished with a "Download Meeting," where instructors and drivers covered the DO's & DON'T's learned from the last session...

2nd Session- more instructor ride-along
Definitely noticed an improvement in my line on the course; instructor had fewer verbal cues for me & I was carrying considerably more speed & doing more passing (3.0 ltr torqu-i-nator baybeee!!)

3rd Session- SOLO (no instructor)
Ok, truthfully, my driving got a little sloppier on this one. A few too many missed turn-ins, apexes, and mad 4-wheel drifts. Overall, I was definitely slower than in session 2. Boooooo.

4th (& last) Session- SOLO I dialed it in on this one!!!!!
Well, this was my best session all day, appropriately, the last one.

Side Note: Sessions were typically about 20mins each, or approx. 6-8 laps of the Thunderhill 3.2 mile course. There were a variety of cars in our group, including an Acura NSX, '89 Porsche 911 Turbo, as well as your garden variety street cars.

On the last session, I started last from the pre-grid (was last onto the track) and managed to lap traffic twice during this session. I got waved by to pass by both the NSX, and the 911 Turbo, so I knew I was doing something right!

THE CAR: What can I say - I'm totally impressed with the setup I've achieved on my Maxima. This was the 1st time I've had it on the track since the suspension, brakes, OSCAI, etc were modified (see my profile) & the MAX proved itself a worthy race platform.

THE DRIVER: I still have much to learn, but have gained a new level of confidence from consistently handling my car at the limit and was also glad to find that my intuition was good & my skills developed quickly.

Can't wait to do it again!!!!!

Cheers,
KWheelzSB