What a weekend!! I have a post to make tommorow with a bunch of pics. QUite a Rennlist weekend complete with a Turtle camp. HWFMR should be proud. We had the head westcoast turtle TomW. heading up our camp, we had LordViper helping everyone including me getting a TRG rear sway bar, due to broken drop links, Lets see Rand,Seege, CAtwin993, Icerboth, ViperBob and company, Coos, ScottMellor, Eric and Kelly, Arnone, who bought Supwins 993 and he was kicking everyones A$$, and Dennis from the 928 camp,Max911, Chris Walrod who is a very very nice guy, and also Pete a new rennlister. the track day was great, but the commradarie was even better! the dinners at the BBQ place was fantastic with all our buddies. I feel sorry for you guys who missed it. THis is a great place that is all I got to say.
Now for the highlite of my weekend. My wife OldGal or as she likes to say YoungThing, got on the track too, with Lord Viper. She had a terrible time because of the Yeahoos on the track on Sun. BUT on her third try she was KICKING A$$!! here is a pic of her handing a Vette her (lady driver) her A$$ after this lady dive bombed her in the first run. OldGal Kicking some serious BUTT with her FIRST PASS!!!!

 

Cool! Is that you in the seat next to her, hanging on for dear life?

 

Oh man Paul,
I have been thinking about you guys ALL weekend. I wish I could have gone. Damn. I am glad you guys had a great time. I am officially really sick about it now.

 

I went today, not in my car... it was a great time, nice seeing everyone! pity to see two cars into the wall... everyone kept going off, there was some serious chaotic driving in the lower groups (I ran white) i mean, i'd have people spinning off or running out of track in front of me WAY to often... now I was driving an integra with suspension, but the rear tires were so bald, they were cording in spots. we frantically tried to locate tires in our size before the event, but couldn't... the tires were in front, so we decided to mount em in rear, set pressures accordingly, and still managed to get some decnt grip... though the car was breaking loose SOOOO much, man i must have been counter steering, going sideways near 15-20 different times, frustrating, but very educational in conrtoling a slid... it seemed as though nobody else could... i also learned not to let a ZO6 pass, thats another story though... my best time was 2.23... integra with bald rears, i didnt get a chance to really push to hard, since i was held up all the time except for the last run, when i finally got to open up a little, but was still uncomfortable enough to go for it...
~Eyal

 

I forgot YoungGuy Eyal- great meeting him and his buddie.
Phil that was Lord Viper Viper Bob in the instructor seat. I was my wifes pit babe today!
Alan you would of had a hoot with the camera!! Max was out in the corner all day shooting pix!!

 

max, you uh... supplying photos for people, or too much work for you... if so, i'm sure my freind would enjoy some track photos of his integra, black. (499)
~Eyal

 

As OldGuy says, it was great seeing all the Rennlisters. We had quite a large turnout, and everyone drove great. I have dozens and dozens of pictures, which I'll start posting. Max also was out (with his beautiful Polar C2S with Ruf wheels), not to drive, but to be the official photographer for the weekend. I can not WAIT to see his pictures. Here are a few of mine (I loaned my camera to someone... Chris Walrod I think... who took most of these):

1. Scott Mellor. He was seriously fast out there. He finally put it all together, and flat out smoked everyone in the white group (including me). His instructor said "you are so smooth, I could be having a latte right now".

2. OldGuy is getting the TRG swaybar installed due to the broken droplinks. Bob brought the front and rear bars for "Bradford", who drove up from LA to pick them up. He was cool with his sway bar going to a needy Rennlister. Also in the picture is Chris Walrod who joined the gang, but didn't track his car.

3. "Rand". Something snapped for Randy. He became a monster out there. His little buttercup yellow car was absolutely hauling big-time butt, especially on Sunday (config #13 CCW). Here is under hard braking. like a u-boat captain: "dive, dive, dive".

4. "ca993twin": I had to wear my 20+ year-old driving suit because I forgot to bring a long sleeve shirt. I looked faster than I actually was.

 

A few more:

1. Oldguy's beautiful TT, albeit with a broken droplink. Paul didn't get much action on Saturday... I can't find any shots of him on the track.

2. ViperBob... not only fixing everyone's mishaps, but driving blazingly fast. This car is a rocket, and Bob can DRIVE!

3. Tom W. This is "the turtle", except... it ain't no turtle. It can fly. I had the pleasure of having Tom act as my instructon on the first Sunday session on the CCW config I had never driven the course like that before, and Tom was GREAT in helping me learn the lines. No Lattes for Tom, however (see earlier post)

4. Jauder in his pristine, and very fast TT.

5. Jauder looking a tad sheepish after spinning in the dirt, and making a total mess out of his car. Atta boy, Jauder.

 

More:

1. "Seeje" or CJ... sure, his car is fast, but trust me on this... it is very well driven. He was flat out hauling.

2. "arno". I'm sorry... I don't know how to spell his name. A blazingly fast C4S. Very, very, very well driven. Here he is passing one of the Demas brothers (Harry or Eric?) Or were they passing Arno? No, I think Arno was passing.

3. Seeje shows Tom W what horsepower is used for.

4. My only mishap for the day... a flat tire. Very unusual for a street tire to get a puncture, but there was some big bolt or something on the track. It was flung out, so no trinket. Luckily, it went out in the "sweeper", which is fairly low speed (at least for me)

 

Man, I get home and my shame is posted for all to see already

I cleaned several pounds of dirt off my car at the track and I'm sure I have quite a few more rattling around there. That's next Saturday's project.

It was really good to see everyone including all the SoCal guys which us NorCal guys dont see much. TomW was pulling some really good times as were CJ and ScottMellor. It blew me away that CJ and Eric (WhiteTT, what's your rennlist name?) could just show up at the track and rip off some incredible times on their 2 or 3 track day. I guess I've got a lot more to learn. It was an educational 2 days as I'm just not very quick around this track especially on the reverse config. First session Saturday was on completely dead PS2s, I was sliding all over the place and getting no grip at all. Changing the tires out helped tremendously. It made something like a 10 sec difference. I know I left a lot on the table today but I guess that spin and watching two people hit the wall at Sunrise freaked me out somewhat.

I want to thank Austin from Devek (as well as Bob) for providing excellent track support. Between changing my tires out, fixing them (after the spin) and having to bleed my brakes after they died, I must hold the record for most number of times the wheels came off.

For the record, I did hose the car down when I got home but did not wash it. Now I have to go to sleep so I can get up nice and early to go to Thunderhill ..

 

More:

1. I know its not nice to gloat over the misfortunes of others, but this Corvette was driven by two total weenies. This is the same one that gave "Young thing" Merritt a bad time. A well deserved spin.

2. Harry Demas: Have I got that name right? A great instructor and a really fine driver. This with my 300mm lens with 1.4x tele-extender. Sharp!

3. Harry again in the buttonhook corner

4. A Devak 928. Was Austin driving this? Whomever... it was very fast.

5. A new Rennlister: "Pete something". Old age; I forget. Nice car though, and very fast!

 

Boy, what a blast it was to meet all Rennlisters and finally get to put a face to their names, or should I say sreen names!

I did run on Friday, CCW direction, which I thought was a fun layout. Was able to see a tick under 130mph on the back straight, which was fun braking for the big hump just before turn it. The esses were also fun, and quite fast as with my worn dampers, as I could get away with using a lot of curbing

Tom W. was very hospitable in letting me ride along in the 'turtle', which is an oxymoron since it runs really well. I was impressed with the suspension setup as well! Tom W. was able to shed some light on some better lines which helped me in my car.

Bummer I couldn't run Sat and Sun, but this was one of my first weekends home and not travelling, and I found myself at ANOTHER TRACK! Anyhow, I promised my wife I would be home for a majority of the weekend, so I had to honor that.

Again, a real pleasure to meet all of you who were there! We have GOT to do this again, and soon!

 

I have a (very) few pictures ready to post tonight. More pictures and small talk in the coming days.
As mentioned above, it was nice to put a face to the names and cars.

I'll start with a picture of Scott (?) driving through a dust cloud left by.....you guessed it...the Corvette convertible. It only spun off the track twice.......per lap!!

Click on picture for a 1600 pixel wide image (compressed to about 350kb)

















.....a few more shortly....

max

 

 

Eyal, I didn't realize you were there. I found a picture of you slumming it in another water-cooler!