THSCC Forums

Great time driving The Rock this weekend! Marvin McBride rode shotgun as my instructor. While I was a little rough around the edges on Sat a.m., I started getting things smoothed out by the third session out. Sunday a.m. we picked up were we left off and got way better by the end of the first session and got solo'd. Marvin, thanks for all the good input and patience.

I was in yellow group and have to say it was one of the funnest groups I've been in. Most of us knew each other quite well either from HPDEing or AutoXing together regularly. Sunday's second yellow session was really a hoot for me, as we all seemed to be running together, working out passes while ripping around the track. Good Stuff!

While on the way home, I noticed some light smoke or steam wafting around my headlights at a couple of the lights entering Sanford. I'm suspicious, but the gauges all read ok. Stop at the Hardees on 78 in Sanford for a pit stop. While walking around the front of the car, I noticed a couple of oil streams running back on the hood. I popped the hood and low and behold, I have no oil cap! The underside of the hood and the engine bay are covered with oil. Nice.

Go into Hardees for a cup of coffee and John King is sitting in there. I sit down to discuss my malady with John and in walks Ryan Holton. We go out to the car to figure out what to do. Duct tape the hole? How about stuffing paper towels in it? John came up with a Gatorade bottle cap that turned out to be a little too big to plug the hole with. Good try.

Final solution was a regular old red grease rag that Ryan had. We folded it up and shoved it in the hole. The remainder that stuck out was tall enough that the hood would hold the rag plug in place. Turns out that what seemed like at least a quart of oil everywere was only a half quart. Ryan had that too. Made it home with no further issues.

Thanks John and Ryan for the roadside assistance. Odd the way we ended up at the same place like that. Good karma.

Lessons learned. A)Crank the s#!t out of your Miata oil cap when you put it back in. B)Never travel without a red grease rag or 2 in your car or toolbox. It's the racer's equivalent of a Galaxy Hitchhiker's towel!

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“I feel safer on a racetrack than I do on Houston's freeways.” - A.J. Foyt

Kevin Butler
Mobetta Autosport Spec E30 #612
2003 C5 Z06 Corvette
AFR Miata, SM2 61, '93 w/200 SC'd RWHP - soon to be resurrected
Waaaay too many other projects....

I have some video of you if you are interested. Let me know and I'll process it and post it for you to download.

Absolutely! Thanks Matthew

_________________
“I feel safer on a racetrack than I do on Houston's freeways.” - A.J. Foyt

Kevin Butler
Mobetta Autosport Spec E30 #612
2003 C5 Z06 Corvette
AFR Miata, SM2 61, '93 w/200 SC'd RWHP - soon to be resurrected
Waaaay too many other projects....

Kevin - really glad you had a good time, and as always, thanks for all your help in set up, grid, flagging, and everything else we asked of you... we couldn't do these events without you and all the other volunteers.

From our point of view, even with the excitment both days, the event went pretty well. I want to personally thank Alex Labdon, Marty Howard, and Mark Cooper for being brave enough to let me take their cars out for a few laps since I again had nothing to drive this weekend (hopefully that will be changing very soon.)

I want to apologize for a few miscues as well... evidently I didn't make it clear enough that garages had to be requested when you registered (there was a check-box that was available IF there were still garages available.) There were a few people who thought they were entitled to one based on when they registered, but the garage option was not checked. For entries that I entered manually, either mail-ins or emailed entries (mostly instructors) I did my best to ask if a garage was wanted, but some were too late to get them anyway. Also, I procrastinated too long in setting up the food vendor, and we had to use the same guy we used in June... which I think everyone will agree, leaves much to be desired. Sunday, the parade laps were cut short during lunch due to delays in getting the track blown down. All are things we will work on improving for next year.

Mark and I will be de-briefing this week, and one of us will try to post our comments about the event in more detail after we've had a chance to review the feedback forms and digest all the info.

But as usual, a BIG thanks to everyone who came out and participated and helped make the event a success.

Stacy King
HPDE Chairman/Registrar

What an awesome event. I have never been to an event that was so well run. A special thanks to all the drivers in the yellow group for making me feel comfortable. It was a great group to run with.

As for AX or track...I am not sure there is a way to compare them! The speed sensation might be higher in AX than track. Although entering the banking in the NASCAR turn is the highest pucker factor I have experienced.

Track brings a whole new thinking and awareness element to driving. Which surprised me a little. The final Sunday session I was trying my hardest to chase down Brad. When we cleared traffic, I knew I had to hit every mark perfect if I wanted to close down on him. So it was like doing an AX run for 5 minutes or longer! Pretty cool.

The 1LE is an awesome car. Chevrolet did right with that car. The only change I made was brake pads and it felt totally at home. Never surprise me and was a joy to drive. I will be putting the roll bar and seats into it though.

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Jim Pastorius
2008 Silverado VortecMax
1992 Camaro CMC#92
2002 BMW R1150R

2009 3rd Place CMC Mid-Atlantic Championship
2009 CMC Hyperfest Winner

Thanks to Mark, Stacy and the entire crew who worked so hard to put together such a great event. As usual, you guys made the event great fun for all of us.

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Rich
http://www.v8mongrel.com/

We have always had nice comments about our events and how they are run, but one of the most impressive comments received came from Jim
Pastorious who told me our Rockingham event was the best organized
event he had ever been to. In general HPDE events are run at a very
high standard as most of you attending them very well know.
BMWCCA, PCA, Masda Drivers, ALFA/Audi/Merc And other Marque clubs, NASA, Chin MOtorsports among MANY, MANY others run good events. They may be different but they are all run to high standards,
have experience people running them, and do an overall good job.
We can be proud that THSCC is among the top players. It certainly took
a lot of work to get there and it takes a lot of work to keep us there.

Running this event did keep us busy but we have experienced people
who know what they are doing and hopefully it showed and made the
event enjoyable for everyone. There are however, always things that
need to be managed many of them out of your direct control.

I have to apoligize for the food vendor comming late then not bringing enough food Sat. We were giving them one more chance as this was the same guy who showed up last year and fogot the food. Needless to say there will be a new lunch vendor next time.

It was simple to adjust the schedule to move lunch ahead 30 mins. However, what was a slight inconvience turned into a degration when the Medical crew had to leave the site to find lunch and were late returning. All I could do is call the track manager, page them, ask them to hurry back, and hold cars on grid until the crew arrived. We pride
ourselves in keeping the long standing tradition that THSCC events
start on time and run on sechedule but sometimes there are reasonable
limits. We re-stared the event as soon as the front tires
entered the property. That was the first example on how a small issue
can turn into a big issue.

The second "small issue" to snowball into a big issue, is still under investigation. I can only comment during the last half of the last session
sunday, someone may have over reacted to a yellow flag for a car
waiting to re-enter the track after over-shooting the braking zone and
taking the escape route. One of the drivers approaching turn 3, apparently panic stoped and created a situation for cars following behind. No car to car contact occured but one of the cars lost control under braking and spun into the inside wall. We secured witness statements from the corner workers and drivers who were following
behind. Both Driver and Instructor were ok, thankfully, but I have to believe they are sore this morning and suffering a case of belt rash.

The Second incident could have been very serious but thankfully the driver
managed to keep the car off the inside wall and force the car to spin up the backing which took off most of the speed. That issue was coverd duirng the subsequent mandatory classroom sessions. Warnings and
recomendations about the line in the banking and what is a prudent
speed to approach the banking where BOTH not needed and a high speed
spin was the result. Driver and car plan to return with us at VIR in Feb
Very lucky driver on that one!

I did manage to get drive a few sessions loggged about 120 track miles
over the weekend. More than I usually drive at THSCC
events. Having logged over 200 track miles last weekend with PCA
I'm not complaining in the least. I DNF'ed the First TT using the
excape route when my brakes over cooled on my first hot lap. Note
to self: tape the Brake Ducts when Running the TT late afternoon!!!
Bill Kuiper did the same for same reason on his first hot lap.
Brake ducts do work!

Will work on getting the "offical" results out tonight and get the
YTD Point Standings finalized for publication in this months H&T.
YEar end trophiues will be presented at the Banquet in Feb in
Danville.

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Mark Vitacco
THSCC TT Chairman
mvitacco@bellsouth.net

One more comment:

Don't loan you car to an instructor to drive! Our "company policy" is
that we don't driver student cars and with good reason. But that does
not prevent instructors from driving others cars because were are
"professional diver on closed course" (yea, right!)

I lent my car to Chuck Hawks so he could drive in the Sunday AM instructor session while Stacy and I were addressing the Student Drivers meeting and he manged to have an off with it in turn 6. If that was not bad enough he manged to drive off at the same location at low speed
while trying to look at the spot he went off with onthe preceeding lap.
Needless to say Chuck was the first and only victem of the two off
Rule last weekend, at my Corvette's expense!

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Mark Vitacco
THSCC TT Chairman
mvitacco@bellsouth.net

Fortunately for Chuck we will immediately forget about this incdent, and he will not take crap about it for the rest of his life

Great story Mark!

Scott

Ditto, but I have to been to an event so well run. Several actually and guess with which club?

Yellow group was great with courteous drivers the entire weekend. Good passing signals and ZERO trains on any of my sessions. The two Alfas were the slowest cars of the group (no offense guys) and they never held up any cars more than one passing zone. Everyone drives and learns at their own pace and it was nice to see all of the drivers respect each other out there.

PS. I hear that Jim P, in his 1LE even had a little respect for a little Chevy Cavalier. Don't drive the mirrors Jim, I hear it causes lack of concentration and thus creates spins in turn one.

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)

Good thing you have those new brakes It was really not that close of a call. Vincent saw the Camaro wiggle and knew it was going around. He gave me plenty of room and drove right around. But makes for good story telling

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Jim Pastorius
2008 Silverado VortecMax
1992 Camaro CMC#92
2002 BMW R1150R

2009 3rd Place CMC Mid-Atlantic Championship
2009 CMC Hyperfest Winner

I saw a silver 350Z do the same thing right in front of me on turn 7. Good thing I kept my head up otherwise I might have collected that car and the "Barneymobile".

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)

Yes indeed a great event. Mark and crew have got this down to a science.

I really feel bad for Steven and the driver of the 350Z. I hope they get back on track soon.

This was the first event EVAR that I didnt worry about something breaking on MY car. The Miata is plenty of fun and I really enjoy driving it. I just need to drive it faster now

I acheived my TT goal not to finsish DFL in CSP both days.

Looking at the track on paper does it a gross dis-service, that is one technical track. It took me until Sunday to really appreciate it.

Im looking forward to VIR Full already!!!!

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

Not so fast there, Cap'n Meineke.

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

That broke off my car....

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9