GT3DE

In light of the COTA clusterfuk and our fun last summer on Mancation with Izzone and the World Famous Trakcar and all the RLers we met along the way, Sly and I are thinking of a new way to have fun this year -- CALIFORNIA !!!!

Izzone is close to getting married and Trakcar is too busy with his new product launch but I got nothin to do... so we thought we would drive west and hookup with RL'ers along the way at as many big fast fun tracks as possible.

Some rough ideas:
* avoid all PCA DE except those during a Club Race weekend
* look for as many events as possible that have OPEN TRACK, OPEN PASSING
* try for DE groups in the style/type of MVP and David Murry
* look to run with very very fast cars/drovers. Corvettes okay too. lol
* big tracks, not little things like Autobahn or Calabogie - none of that gokart type of tracks for us.
* leave from Florida with double trailer full of GT3's in spring 2013...
* do as many back-to-back events as possible for a week or 2 at a time, fly home for a little while and then return to start again.
* hit different parts of the USA until we end up weeks or months later in CA.
* hit the cool tracks in CA
* pay someone else to drive rig/cars back to VA or FL depending on when the adventure ends.
* will need secure storage for rig/cars for when we fly back home
* need good race shops for support near tracks
* need cool RLers to hang with when we are at the tracks

tcsracing1

man, thats sounds awesome!

mdrums

You go Clarke...do it while you can!

Red Bear

Here are some suggested tracks, groups and dates to consider:

Road Atlanta PBOC Feb 22-24, Chin March 18 David Murry May 21-21 and MVP Nov 23-24
VIR David Murry April 9 -10
Barber MSP Chin April 20-21
Watkins Glen International Chin May 20-21 Chin Sept 21-22 Group 52 Jun 12-13
Road America MVP October 12th and 13th
Mosport ?
Daytona PBOC October or MVP December
Laguna Seca ?
Sears Point ?

4porsh

Track dates--- http://www.bratten.org/TrackDays/index.html

Have fun

Horstair

On your way out "West", you could either go north from Texas or New Mexico (they've got a couple of tracks) or even Colorado and then hit Miller's in Salt Lake and tracks in Washington and Oregon (Portland). Then onto CA.
Or... go through Arizona (Firebird, Arizona/INDE motorsports) and onto SoCal.

In California, you've got Chuckwalla near Indio/Palm Springs (new track but hot, only up to April or so), Big Willows/Street of Willows near Edwards AFB, Buttonwillows in Central CA, Laguna and Sears (now Sonoma Raceway) in SFO Bay Area, Thunderhill in NorCal (3 hours from SFO) and Savyboy's favorite track, Reno/Fernley (again, very hot in late spring/summer).

SpeedVentures is the group to go with in SoCal and they also have a 3-day weekend in late June at Laguna. NCRC is the way to go for B-Willows and T-Hill as they have many dates (at very reasonable costs) and Trackmasters for Laguna and Sonoma (plus T-Hill), also very good dates for Spring/early Summer. SFO Bay Area tracks (incl. T-Hill) probaby would have the best available track support, very good accommodations and all the sights you (and your better "half") might want to visit.

Unfortunately, you'll have to "face" Mooty on any of those tracks

NorthVan

This is tempting, if the timing works out right, maybe PJS and I could meet up in Cali!

Veloce Raptor

LET'S ROLL!

medpilot105

subscribed!

24Chromium

Hey Clarke, we'd love to have you come 'n join us in the warm California sun! The local orgs/clubs I can recommend are:

NCRC (aka Northern California Racing Club). IMHO the best "bang for the buck" group here in NorCal. If you are in the fastest group, you find what you seek. Cool guys, very laid back atmosphere.

Hooked On Driving The owner, David Ray, is an awesome guy and a very fast racer. Pricy, but you get lunch included.

Golden Gate Lotus Club

The Lotus club is simply THE BEST bang for the buck as far as time on track vs cost. The caveat is that they only host a few events, you have to be a member (well worth it!), and they always host mid-week single day events.

Check the Motorsports.reg web site for event schedules. They cover Cali very well.

And here are some of the web sites for our local tracks:

Laguna Seca

Sears Point

Thunderhill

Buttonwillow

Buttonwillow is literally in the middle of nowhere, but it's a fantastic track with very challenging, fast flowing sections. The staff is wonderful and very professional. Well worth a stop, as you're mid-way between NorCal and SoCal on I-5. You can literally see the track from the freeway (don't blink!). Like Thunderhill, it's an SCCA track with just about zero to hit if you go off.

And, just to be fair, our local PCA chapter is pretty damn great. They run a tight ship, true, but I love running with them and try to attend every event. My fav is the time trial at the end of the weekend on Sunday afternoon.

Hope to see you and Sly out here soon!

Vonschmidt

Wow this looks like a deal and a half. If you do the planning and get a great slate of dates Amy and I are game. There are some events here in Texas at MSR Cresson and TWS that could be included. Would love to run the CA tracks in the summer.

GT3DE

fella, thanks for all the advice so far... when is it TOO hot to be somewhere? For example, Florida is too hot in late spring thru summer into fall. In the summer GA and VA is mostly too hot as well.

FWIW - I am also looking to chase around some fast cars/drovers. At this point both Sly & I are top/highest run group. Sly just made it up here recently (in just two short years Sly did over 65 days on track). Typically, Sly is about 1.5 seconds per mile slower than me. I will sometimes put worn RA1s on one of the cars for me and leave her on newer R6 to make it more fun... so I am looking for RLers that want to run together -- on the edge

I am hoping to drag Red Bear around for some of this adventure, too. Red Bear, for those of you that don't know, used to race in the ALMS and has run in the 24 of Le Mans... we have a great time together both on and off the track.

24Chromium

Cali is just plain NICE! Why do you think it's so expensive to live here?

Seriously, what we complain about being too hot, you'll be reaching for a sweater.

wanna911

Yeah, Cali hot, is not really hot (in relation to Fla and Texas).

I think if you go all the way out there, you have to get to these tracks in order of importance.

Sonoma
Laguna,
Thunderhill
Buttonwillow
Willow Springs

Sounds like a fun trip.

RSRanger

Sounds like an awesome plan but us working stiffs are only left to dream.

Ranger (Sua Sponte)