Reminder: The early enrollment deadline is April 8th.

If you sign up early the price is $145.  If you sign up with in 10 days of the event the price is $170 and if you sign up at the track the price is $195. 

American Car Racing Association at Willow Springs International Raceway - Wednesday April 18th

Hey Racers,

Our next  event will be on Wednesday April 18th, 2007 at Willow Springs on the Big Track.  The track day will be held in the same fashion as all of our  other events.  There will be 3 run groups (beginning, intermediate and advanced).  Each run group will be given 5 Thirty minute sessions (that's 2.5 hours of track time!!).  There will be on track and classroom  instruction.  An all you can eat BBQ Lunch and a custom shirt is  included.  The discounted price is $145 per driver if you sign up before early enrollment deadline.  If you sign up within 10 days of the event the price is $170 per driver and if you pay at the track the price is $195.  It is free to watch and  ride along and extra lunches for spectators are $10, so bring out your friends  and family.

Count me in! 8)

Really look forward to this event. ;D

Will Terry Rossi be one of the instructors? ???

Pardon my ignorance, what does ACRA stand for? :o

Hey Phil,

I'm going to try and make this one too depending on the weather.  Perhaps we can get a few more Viper guys.

ACRA = American Car Racing Association.  A small independent group that rents the track.  Usually a bunch of car types there.  Porches, Vettes, Hondas, Mitsubishi's, Mustangs, etc.  I call the Viper "food".

Terry is for hire at $500.00 for the day.  Call him if you'd like.

They usually have instructors but they're no where near the caliber of the Viper Days instructors.

Perhaps Carl Atwood will make this one.  He's very good on this track.  Ben Kawata is fast too.  Maybe Ray McIntrye can make this one.  Ray is one of the best instructors I've had in my car.

We'll have to post this and see who is interested.

Dan 8)

Thanks for the info Dan!

Hopefully Ray McIntyre will be there too.

Will call Terry and see if he will be available that day.

After my "Viper Days Initiation", I cannot wait to be back on another track.

Buttonwillow was fantastic! 

For those of you out there who have not participated in "Viper Days",

let me assure you that you are missing a very important part of Viper ownership:

finding out your car's limit as well as your own in a safe environment and under

the supervision and guidance of top notch instructors.

In retrospect, sorry that I waited so long to do it myself, but came away from it with a new level

of confidence in my car as well as in my ability to control it under any circumstance, not to mention an unquenchable

desire to spend as much track time in my car as my busy schedule allows me.

I hope to make it.  I need to follow up with some work on the car but that should get done this weekend.


Carl

I just signed up and sent the money to ACRA. 8)

I need to get some work done on my GTS too.

Hope to see you there.

Dan

PS  Greg K just called and said he will make this one.

Hey Phil, any luck getting a hold of Terry Rossi?  Greg K may be willing to split the $$$'s with you if you'd like.

Hi Dan,

No, I have not contacted Terry yet as the purchase of my new property up North is taking up a lot of the little free time I have these days.

If I go, yes, more than willing to split the cost with Greg K.

Thanks for thinking about me on this! 8)

Hey Phil,

Hope you can break away.

Dan 8)

Dan,

I will know for sure if yes or no by this coming Wednesday. ???

Will be up North this coming Sunday through Wednesday, April 4th. <6

I think I will go to this one too. I went to the Alltime Racing track event on March 29th and there were only 18 cars so we got lots of track time. So much that I got worn out and left early. I used about two tanks of gas on the track alone! This event will probably have many more cars. See you guys there.

Ben

Hey Ben,

Cool.  I'll bring that new 17" Kumho with me if you have a way to get it home.

Let me know.

Dan 8)

Dan,

That would be great, thank you very much. I think it will fit in the passenger seat if I don't bring too much stuff with me.

See you at the track.

Ben

Wow, I am really glad to see how more people are getting hooked regarding track time with their Viper.
This does sound like fun, and I am very disappointed that I will not be able to make it!

Dan, thanks for the nice comment about my instructing, however, I think I was the lucky one who rode with you just before everything clicked and you started turning some of your best times...

Wish I could be there!

Ray McIntyre

Should be fun although a little warm and perhaps windy.

I'll be towing up late Tuesday night.  See ya all there.

Carl

Hey Carl,

Glad you can make it.  I bought a Performance Box from Racelogic.  I haven't used it yet, but it is GPS based and will give the user lap times, speeds around the track at various points, acceleration, braking etc.  Perhpas I could persuade you to try it for a session so that I can compare your speeds at various points around the track with mine.  I'll be glad to send you the data if you'd like it.  Maybe I could pick up a second or two.

See you there,

Hey Ray,

Too bad you can't make this one.  Thanks for your help.  Let's keep an eye on the events at Willow and Buttonwillow and try to schedule another weekend before it gets too hot.

Dan 8)

sounds good.  As of now I'm looking for a lap timer to borrow.

I don't know much about how this thing works, but if you run advanced and I run intermediate, you could likely use mine at least a couple of times - not sure how the timing of these sessions will be.  The P Box as it is called plugs into the cig lighter and sticks onto the windshield, so it's easy to mount.

Dan 8)

I bought this.

http://www.g2xtreme.com/hardware/dash.htm

I don't think I'll have data at the track, maybe if I can get a card reader.

If not, we can compare data later or you can use your's in my car for a session.  Might be an interesting comparison.

Carl

That looks cool.  I'll be bringing a lap top with a card reader, so if you can get a data card (maybe it comes with it?) and bring your software, we might be able to look at data.

Yes, I'd like to see just where you are going faster than I am and how fast you are actually going.  G-forces would be interesting to compare as well.

Dan

cool.  I also have my laptop.

So how was the track day?
I hope everyone had a safe and fun day.

Who had the fast times ?

Hey Lance,

Greg K, Carl and I were the only Vipers there.  We all came home with the "shiny side up."

Greg brought his son Todd who ran in a race prepared Toyota MR2 for the first time.  He had a blast.  Greg did really well too and seemed to have fun. 

Carl ran in the red (fast) group with Hoosiers and was right around 1:35 - 1:37 all day long.  He looked very smooth.

I ran in the blue (intermediate) group and passed everyone in my group at least once, lapping some cars - this was fun.  Not sure of my times as I couldn't seem to get my new timer to work.  A guess would put me at 1:39 - 1:42 based upon my last event there.  After speaking to Carl about gears, speeds, line, etc. I was getting to 140 mph down the front straight and entering turn 8 at about 120 mph.  Still lots of improvement needed.

I ran 5, 30 minute sessions.  It's now time for some new rubber. 

Would have been nice to have a few more Vipers present.

Dan 8)

Dan,

Yes, I would consider Willow Springs or Buttonwillow for an event before it gets too hot.
However, I am still waiting for a new rear end for my car, they are still on national back order.

I am takin the movie in LA, so no 3 months out of the country, so hopefully something will fit into my schedule.

ray

Hey Ray,

Glad to hear you'll be around.

Rumor has it that the diffs are becoming available very shortly.  Call Dan at DC for details.

The Cobra club has an event at Willow Springs on May 12 & 13. 

The TCRA has an event at Willow on May26 & 27.  I'll contact both of them and get the details.

OTR has a Wednesday event on May 9 at WS.  Mid week is a lot less crowded but time off can be a challenge.

Let me know if any of these dates work for you.

Dan 8)

Had a pretty good time even in the wind.  Took a couple of extra days off and went to a resort with the wife.

I downloaded a lot of intgeresting data from the G2x.  I peaked at 144 down the straight but went alot slower around turn one than I thought.  Peaked up into the low 130 going into 8.  The tail wind must have helped ;)

I missed the data on the first session.  I saw a 134.9x on the timer.  The next session was 35s and 36s.  Chased the tires all day...they are shot.


Dan...let me know what you find on the other days at Willow.  I may try to go May 9th.

Hey Carl,

Yes, turn one is a weak (slow) point for me too.  Hard for me mentally (not the car) to come down from 140 ish and then make a 90 degree left.  Not sure of my speed through that turn as I'm kinda busy during that time.  I'd guess 70 ish which I know is slow.  What was your time entering turn 1?

I finally got my GPS based timer working - ran some laps around the neighborhood.  Looking forward to another event in May.

Are you actually going 130 around turn 8 or getting to 130 and then braking before turning in at turn 8.  That turn eight was a bit bumpy for me at speed.  Perhaps I was too close to the inside edge of the track.

There is also a Mopar event on May 10 at WS.  Not too many cars and likely slower cars too.

Let me know if you can make one or more of these.

Dan

I think I'm going to go the 9th.  Robert Wilson, you know him from the Nevada Open road deal, is moving to Tx and this will be his last event in SoCal. 

Yes...The fastest I saw was 132.xx going into 8.  I scrub off some speed around the corner.  I'll have to look again to see how much.  I was a bit surprised at that.  Manny's over 150 there with downforce.

Carl