THSCC Forums

Nice!! Chico's was absolutely horrible. If they go there, at least something good will come out of that location.

Yep that is what I was told and their website shows that location. It just says Coming Soon. But I saw them working on the place when we were at the restaurant acroos the parking lot a week ago.

And yeah, apparently you weren't alone in your opinion about Chico's...

_________________
http://www.greywinds.com

Agreed. I didn't think there food was necessairly bad, but.....tasteless comes to mind. Kind of like cardboard. Similar to NeoChina

_________________
Stephen Westerfield
2009 Infiniti M35 | 2007 Honda Fit Sport | 2005 Ford Mustang GT |2000 GMC Sierra |1992 Acura Integra LS | Super Westerfield Bros Acura Integra

Or New Asia. The only place I have been that managed to make General Tso's chicken bland.

_________________
Rich
http://www.v8mongrel.com/

That's funny because my wife and I thought the same. The Chico's in Rocky Mount on the Tar River kicks major ass though.

On a side note, Bill's bbq is going to be yummy tomorrow. I can't eat too much because I'm working on my ideal go-kart weight since the karts don't give my that VTEC advantage.

Informational Post about Rush Hour:

- Maximum Karts on Track: 10
Reason: Insurance

- Kart Type: 6.5hp
Is this sufficent: IMHnoobO, for this track, it is quite sufficent.

- Pushished Race Types:
Sprint Race: $35, MAX 10 people
5min Practice, 8min Qualifying, 8min race

Gran Prix: $55, 10 to 30 people
5min Practice, 8min Qualifying, 20min Final Race (top racers only)

Super Gran Prix: $65 for up tp 20
$60 for 21-50
$55 for 51 to 100+ people
5 min Practice, 8 min qualifying, 15 min race, 15 min final

Arrive and Drive (cash cow): $20 for 8min

Membership: $40 for T-shirt, headsock, 1 free 8min race
Membership races:
$17 for 8min heat (standard heat length)
$48 for 3 heats (24mins)
$75 for 5 heats (40 mins)
$224 for 16 heats (128 mins)
$416 for 32 heats (256 mins)
$999 for 100 heats (800 mins)
$1499 for 6 months unlimited
$2499 for 12 months unlimited

Opinions on the evening:
- Prerace: The first time you are there, you have to go through a 'prerace' informational session. They go over the flags and you are pretty much ready to go. You HAVE to wear a full face hlemet, and if you borrow theirs, you HAVE to purchase a headsock ($2).

- Race Sessions: When you purchase your time, they give you a receipt with your name on it. When you head back to race, you have to have this to race. You hand it to the guy working the CPU and he assigns you a car.
Cars: Adjustable seats, single disc rear brake, 6.5hp engines, shoulder lap belt, Bucket seats, LED brake lights, centrifugal type clutches with single speed engines.

Track: Depending on how you want to count corners, it is about a 12 turn, non-elevation changing .33 mile track -- single track. The track is fixed as the tire sidewalls are bolted in place.

Post Race: You get a printout at the front desk of your race. This includes a lap by lap summary, finishing position, Best times of the day, week and month.

Sample Printout (you need to save this and look at it in an image editor as it is HUGE and IE will resize it to unreadable proportions).

Overall opinion:
I think that the place is running at about 80%. GreenShields was not open (it will be awesome when it is), there were no HD TVs on track to see your lap times update live (you dont know until the end). Also, the times that they have in the literature are COMPLETELY different than what I was told on the phone. I had 28mins for $35, and what I am holding in my hand is 21 mins for $35 which is complete rubbish. These were things that I thought I had discussed with them before hand that were already all in place. Obviously, they are still 'in flux' and these are things that cna be discussed and corrected before the race sessions.

Trying to pay and get on track is quite clunky, especially if you have 10+ people as they have only one place to pay. Furthermore, ensure that with 10+ people, you already have your run groups organized. That is something we had to do on the fly, and would prove to worth while to do beforehand.

They ARE open to suggestions and are VERY helpful and VERY willing to work with their customers. This was evident when we noticed they cut our main race short, and they immediately gave all the racers in that Sprint Race a free 8 minute session. Also, they are very willing to help you setup a League, and are very eager to get the Leagues underway with whatever rules you can agree on and price.

As long as we get over there and support the place so it doesnt go under, I think that the place has LOTS of promise. The course is very challenging and I think that even with 6.5hp go karts, it has A LOT to offer.

Go and check it out. We are talking about going again one more time before Christmas, so anyone who wants to go and check it out. Let us know and ask any/all questions.

People in Attendance from THSCC:
- Christine Allen
- Kevin Allen
- Stacy Herring
- Brian Herring
- Cosby Wood
- Simon Wright
- Keiran Wright
- Rich Fredrick
- Andrea 'Fredrick'


Fastest time in session one: Brian Herring -- 34.42

Fastest time in session two: Rich Fredrick -- 33.5 (wow!)

Things to ask about next visit:

- League Racing -- Pricing and times
- Weight ballast per car?

- dow

(Major snipping to follow)



Brian,

great info- thanks for posting it.

About the time discrepancy- I am missing something. Assuming you ran a "sprint" race, you should have "5min Practice, 8min Qualifying, 8min race" which equals 21 mins track time. Why did you expect 28 minutes??
{EDIT: after reading your post again, I assume they told you one thing on the phone, and another when you got there (??)}


The Gran Prix race sounds like fun, UNLESS you are not one of the top 10 qualifiers..... It certainly wouldn't take long to figure out who's likely to be in the top 10, and I imagine the others would rather pay $35 for a guaranteed 21 minutes on track for a Sprint, rather than a $55 gamble on either 13 or 33 minutes, if you're fast enough...

I spoke to Adam Saad (the owner) a couple of weeks ago and he was very enthusiastic about getting the THSCC and some of the other clubs involved in this venture. I think he knows that he needs a good core customer base to make this thing work. He seems to want to focus on corporate "team building" events, etc, but I think he would be wise to cater to the car crazy speed junkies whenever possible.............


Bret

First, yes, I was quoted different times than what our group experienced at the event, and something that was quite different than on the literature they provided to me AT the facility. This is something that just needs to be 'ironed' out. I would like to talk to them about this on Monday as all my notes about this are at work. Furthermore, the times I have right now seem kinda short compared to other facilities I have talked to, so I am sure this will be cemented out shortly (they had only been open 2 days at the time).

I think that he should consider the car crazies as he can only entertain 10 people at a time. While watching your other friends out on the track is fun, the facility is more in it's 'raw' stage right now where a core customer base could move the facility into the stability he needs for corporate field.

Either way, I think it would be *great* to get in on the 'ground level' to help out a local business. I know that I will personally be visiting the place, and I would like to go ahead and setup a league. It would be nice to have something to do in the offseason or in the middle of the month between events.

Feel free to ask any other specific questions if you have any. I think we were all impressed despite some glitches, and I am, for one, glad to have a facility like this close at hand.

photos from 12/9/05

http://home.att.net/~kevinmallen/rush_hour_120905.htm

Boy, Kieran will be pissed you didn't get a pic of him.


Simon

In case anyone cares, this is pretty much the exact same "system" that Victory Lane uses in Charlotte as well as G-Force in Richmond (and Virginia Beach). The kart chassis are by "Sodi", which is an Italian company that makes nice stuff. The chassis are not physically demanding compared to some other concession karts out there, though the intensity can get you pretty tired.

I'm sad to hear they went with 6.5HP karts. Both Victory Lane and G-Force have 9HP karts available. I will go try the track out down there, but I'm betting the drive to Charlotte will still be worth it for the 9HP models.

Also note that the clutch on these karts is a "wet" clutch. You will go faster if you master the throttle lift rather than grind the brakes with the gas pedal matted. You don't need *much* lift, but you will go faster with a lift than a grind. If you grind you heat up that fluid badly and the clutch stops engaging well until it cools and thus you lose power. It cools fast, but you still lose power off that corner that you ground in. Well, that's definitely the case on the 9HP karts...one can only hope the 6.5HP karts have enough power to do the same thing.

Oh, and by "system" above I mean the whole membership thing, get a slip and hand it to the dude to get your kart assignment, everything. The timing system they use is the same, etc. What really sucks is that the company that sells these packages does have an in-kart display available for the timing system, but none of the tracks I've mentioned has it. Fast Times in Indianapolis has some other overall system, but does have a timer display on the karts, as well as a big board that you can see from a couple places on track. Of course, they also have a two level track (that's right, there's an uphill and a downhill) and real Indy cars hanging from the ceiling.


--Donnie

Yes, G-Force rules... Karting league every Monday from 7pm until about 11pm. $45 for nearly 1.5 hrs of seat time. You can't go wrong there. It doesn't hurt that it's all of 15 minutes from the house either - AB

_________________
'14 Toyota Sequoia Platinum 4WD
Super Westerfield Bros - '93 Integra - LeChump Du Jour
STX 93 - Scion FR-S

Well, since you guys are 'experts' or experienced in these matters, would you mind sharing what all was involved in the '$45 for nearly 1.5 hrs of seat time'? What were the practice sessions, qualifying, race, heat numbers, and amoutn of people?

I would like to generate that kinda of seat time for that amount of money as I would find that worth it.

Let me know, and thanks for the input. I have been working on the 9hp go karts with him... I think he just needs to turn a profit inorder to start moving forward. He claims rent is 6500 a week with insurance... so we will see.

- dow

_________________
Todd Breakey
STS 42 - 1992 Sunburst Miata
Dammit!
"You souldn't play leap frog with a porcupine. You might get hurt." - Eliza

Maybe that was per month... I could be screwing it up again. Regardless, it was expensive.

- dow