THSCC Forums

Posting this to get everyone's opinions on this weekend.

I'm glad that the weather cooperated on Saturday, and yesterday (Sunday) it was downright gorgeous. It was good having a classroom switch-up, as well.

How was your weekend?

It was good weekend to be on a race track for sure, especially yesterday.

It sure was nice to just take a car (my Mustang), put gas in it, drive fast, rinse and repeat. No other work required, other than checking lug nut torque and air pressure. I like working on cars, but not AT the race track. I like to drive, and go home.

One note I'd like to mention for those who maybe don't know, or maybe they did and didn't care, is regarding an etiquette thing. During lunch on Sunday I was standing in line and looked over to see a group of four corner workers and EMS crew at the back of an 8 person line. They were two lines over and I called all of them to the front of me once I reached the counter. They thanked me several times when we should be the ones thanking them. I was taught this was a common courtesy when I was a green student because these are the people help keep you safe out there and very well may save your @ss one day. If you were taught this and know better, shame on you. If you've never heard of such a thing, well now you have, so in the future you have no excuse.

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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)

That's an excellent thing to do, I hadn't thought of it myself but will certainly make sure to do that in the future.

This weekend was awesome, I had some bad ass brake pads so I didn't have to worry about whether my brakes were going to hold up this weekend so I got to really focus on everything else. My instructor was fantastic for the weekend and really helped me improve. I think I still have some hesitation on applying throttle through hogpen but there will be time for that still, it's a bit scary to say the least going around that corner so quick and then somebody saying you need to give it more gas, lol.

The esses were fantastic feeling also, one of my fastest laps I went back and watched the video and I entered a bit over 100 and maintained mid 90s or so until the top. The last right hander before south bend got a bit iffy at those speeds but I managed not to drift too far off line, but did just a bit.

I also managed to get a little tail out exiting turn one, that felt good, I knew then I was really driving close to the limit and dialed it back just a smidge the next laps, but it felt good to find out where the limit was exactly. Stabilitrak in comp mode kept it in check even though I had already started correcting so it wasn't uncontrolled at all and didn't bother me at all.

Over all I had a blast even though in green group most of the sessions I was being held up a bit by traffic. It eased up sunday though and my last 2 sessions were nearly 100% traffic free and going solo those last two sessions felt very good. I like getting input from an instructor but I think going solo after that for a couple allows me to really think to myself and practice everything i've learned.

Thanks to all the THSCC staff who made this run so smoothly and of course to all the EMS, Corner workers and VIR staff for doing another awesome job!

My condolences to the driver of the green Cayman R that went off into the tire wall in the last blue session, it looked pretty rough and I could tell the driver looked a bit defeated coming back in. Hopefully everything gets fixed up.

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2017 Autocross Chief of Tech

2000 E Street Miata
2015 Focus SE EcoBoost 6 speed
2015 Fiesta ST (Wife's ride)
2012 Yamaha FZ1 sorta crotch rocket? All I know is 150HP and 487 lbs is fun!

As a corner worker, let me thank you Vincent, most folks don't realize that the corner workers are the last to leave their stations and the first to return. So they have the least amount of time for lunch of anyone on the track. So thanks again for giving every one a heads up.

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2004 C5(415whp,390ft/lbs),
1997C5,1997Trans Am, 1986 C4,
1990 Miata, 1976 MGB,1997 Protege, 1989 MR2

This was a great track weekend. Plenty of track time, a really good blue run group and co-operative weather. I really liked the side by side drill. It was challenging and fun to do. Keith Quistorff matched up well and we got out of the cars laughing over which side was more difficult. I think I was one of the few people driving high horsepower cars that like the chicane. It was a blast coming into it at mph plus and then rotating the car and powering out. Might have been better as a bus stop though.

A big thanks to Roger McDaniels and Ricky Beam for letting me share the Duff Motorhome. Had a great time and had a great time.

This was my first THSCC track day since 2008 but I will be back in the spring.

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1990 Faded Reddish CSP Lite Miata
2002 Electron Blue Corvette Z06
2005 Mazda 6 Wagon
2003 Nissan Pathfinder DTV (Dog Transport Vehicle)

I had a great time. I got to drive all sorts of cars!

For those not there, the engine from my NA Miata got the last laugh. Looks like the 173k mile motor that came with this car goes back in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnQYdL5Rt98

Also, repin your fire extinguisher after the fire is out so you don't sit on it like a doof.



The weather was amazing, the track was amazing and the people at the event were amazing. Special thanks to Zach, Aaron, Andrew and Youssef for letting me drive their cars.

Duff has a 2.5lb AFFF system (chumpcar required) once it's pulled, it's "All In", you and the engine get a bath. (AFFF is essentially soap. that'll be a serious mess to pressure wash out of the cabin.)

I enjoyed chasing you around the track in the side-by-side drill, that is (a) once people figured out how to signal passing (and you giving up and taking the wrong-side pass), and (b) once we cleared everyone. I dislike that exercise; as a professional endurance racing driver I spend many hours a year side by side with very questionable cars driven by sketchy drivers.

I had a really great time this weekend. Many thanks to everyone who made it all happen!

My instructor Mark Senior was really awesome to work with. He always had really insightful suggestions over the course of the weekend, some of which I even managed to implement successfully.

It was actually pretty fun driving a car that was down by hundreds and hundreds of horsepower compared to some of the others in Blue group. It meant I hardly ever needed to lift in order to allow them to pass comfortably. I actually set a personal best lap time on Saturday on one such lap, where a red/white Mustang blasted past me on the front straight while my right foot remained on the floor. On the other hand, in the very few cases where I was given necessary point-bys from any of those cars, I need to thank you for your patience!

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2017 THSCC Autocross Chief of Timing and Scoring

03 Nissan Altima
02 Honda S2000

That was my student and I in the red/white Mustang, which had maybe one or two ponies more than you. Like I told you at the event, you can really wheel that Altima, and watching you go through the uphill esses was impressive. Nice driving!

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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)

It seemed like the War Boys from Mad Max were out this weekend; so many V8s (especially C7 Corvettes).

I thought I was in a THSCorvetteC event.

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Patrice
1973 911 former track and AX car.
2016 VW GTI
2002 Nissan Sentra (Olivier car)
2012 Nissan Juke (Kathy car)
2010 Suzuki Kizashi (Audrey car)

Let's not forget about the Saturday Kart Enduro! Many thanks to Zach for putting on another fun event. Thanks also to David and his wife for inviting us to dinner at the villa after the kart race.

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Art McDonald
Premier Amateur #518
2008 Dishman Cup
Pivot Cone Snob

Rodney is a waxer (but in a good way)

I had a lot of fun. This was the first run of a new motor that I built last week, and it ran flawlessly. The tires were toast and the alignment was way off, but at least it ran.

Classroom instructing was also fun, although it's tough to get out on track before classes are over, so I ended up waiting until the last few hours of the day and going out in every group except Blue (Ricky was driving the car in Blue). White group was decent in terms of traffic and pace, while Green/Yellow were a bit crowded. Red group seemed very fast and somewhat crowded to me, but maybe that's just because I am slow and in the way of the fast people.

My weekend goal was to get consistent at T10, and with some help from Ricky, I accomplished that on Sunday afternoon. Even with alignment and tire wonkiness, my best time this past weekend was within a few tenths of my best time ever. I actually had an even better lap shaping up, probably my best ever, but then they threw the checker, and I figured someone would get cranky if I kept driving after that.

Thanks to Rob for feeding us Friday and to David for feeding us on Saturday. Also a big thanks to Charles for spending so much time and sweat helping us get a car ready that he wasn't even going to drive.

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"Every ship is a minesweeper, once."