Looks like I'm the lead car for the first group out on the CamaroSource F-Body Day at River's Edge Road Course on Sunday. I'll be going as fast as the conditions and rules allow...so pump up your tires a bit, and make sure your brakes are NOT on the thin side. No wimpy Camaros and no CTS-Vs or 'Vettes in my group either! We gonna ROCK!

 

You're doing what and where now?

 

This...http://www.vancouverfbody.com/forums...p?topic=7621.0

Where have you been? Over 1700 views on this thread!

 

Ah - I see.

I've only been to that site a couple of times.....

 

i'm in as well!! (not sure what group though)

can't wait!!!!! its gonna be awsome!

 

Well. A very unfortunate turn of events.

The first group of 15 went out, about 8 cars a group and they looked to be having a BALL. They were all doing a good clip. Amit car looked and sounded AWESOME. JeffK95Z got stuck behind a real slow car, but she pulled off and I'm sure he had a good time catching up.

Then a nice red third Gen spun out on the 7th turn. After that a blue / green third gen spun out on turn 4. We were told that spin outs would be viewed EXTREMELY poorly and they had only had a spin out once before.

That was it. They were called in and the second group was not allowed out. No discussion. No debate. No advisory to be more careful or the opportunity for the pace cars to slow it down. Add to that there there were a couple or three drivers that were noteabaly slower and.....

Put it this way, I didn't get to drive. Neither did four guys from Vancouver Island. Imagine how they feel. P**SED at a guess. Neither did Paul, the actual organizer of the event.

Of course the cause was not helped one little bit when some tall, red head, jerk off 13 year old had a temper tantrum when told the second group was grounded. He then proceeded to say that if you can't race at the track he was taking it to the street. He then went to the entrance gate and took his 185 hp third Gen doing its one wheel break stand to really impress the hosts and organizers.

What a child. And if I see him, I'll he happy to tell him to his face.

So on the one hand, 50% had a really bad day, but the 50% that raced, without exception said it was a huge rush. This was NOT a Sunday drive. they were motoring.

I stayed around to watch the next three races. Congrats to Larry for winning his class. There was also a black '97 TA WS6 that was WICKED fast. It won its race. Spectating was fun and managed to take the edge of what a HUGH disappointment.

That being said, I'm sure I'm going to want to do some of this racing.

 

I was lucky enough to be in the first wave of the first group which had the longest track time (I think)...

The actual course was a blast, it was actually faster than I thought with plenty of opportunities to open up on the track. As 97TA-WS6-CON put it, this was NOT a sunday drive, I was really able to push my car closer to its limits and best of all I felt safe doing it.

For me this was my first time on a road course and I'll DEFINATLY be up for this again in the future Oh, I was the black vert with a front row seat behind Amit's exhaust

The turnout was also fantastic, there were over 30 cars out there (Perhaps I'll post some pics later) and the weather was partially sunny with no rain... great driving weather!

It was unfortunate that we had the spinouts, the one I saw looked to be accidental - but I should add that everyone was keeping a good distance between each other around him so it was no problem slowing down and letting the guy who spun out get back in the line... It was even more unfortunate we had the temper tantrum as described above...

I just hope the mistakes of a few won't ruin it for the rest of the crowd ...

A big thanks to Paul and everyone else who organized this event

 

Yes, for those who had their day cut short this was a terrible PITA. I know that this won't help those people feel any better, but I have a message from DBT, the Van. City Police Dept. constable who set this up: He will arrange another day for those who did not get onto the track. He feels very bad about the people who came all the way from VI just to watch, as well as the others, including camarosource, who had to go home without the tour.

This was the first time for such a large group at the track, and it was my first time leading one too. I have some suggestions about how to improve this whole thing when we do it next time, and I'm sure they'll listen to me, as everyone wants to make this work. The Sports Car Club's track insurance for these events is already outrageously expensive, and any possiblity of a crash or injury is enough to scare the hell out of anyone on the Executive, so I can understand why they shut us down early.

If we can make it safer, we can continue to have this really great experience. We may need to sort the cars by some method to ensure that slower cars/drivers can feel comfortable and safe, and the cars/drivers who have faster intentions are grouped so that they are able to push to their limits without the results we got today. We may have to pre-screen both the drivers and their cars in some way to assess their expectations and capabilities, and then form groups that are less different, so that the leader can adjust the situation for the group.

If any of you who participated today have any ideas about how to make this work better for everyone, feel free to email me or post here or on Vancouver F-body or Camarosource.ca so I can take your ideas to the SCCBC Exec. and to DBT so we can make it fun (and safe) for everyone. I love roadracing, and I want you all to get a taste of it too. I'll continue to volunteer for these events, and I hope I see all of you out there again.

 

Today was unbelievable.

it was an experience thats for sure.

it sucks that others couldnt feel what i went through.

hopefully there will be an another oppurtunity in teh future.

its been a while since i really opned up my car and damn did it feel good.

 

me and amit were lucky enough to be in
the first group and got to do a good 6-7 laps.

such an unbelievable experience...i couldnt stop smiling the
whole time i was on the track.

i feel real bad for the ppl that didnt get a chance to hit the track...but
re-entry racer and camarosource are trying to get another event set up.

im looking forward to the next one.

 

I'll echo everyone and say how great of a time I had...

Even thought I was behind a fairly slow car, i had a great time and will definately be looking into road racing as my new hobby

I actually went up and spoke to her after - hoping she didn't pull off becuase of me, which it turned out was in part due to me. It was her first time, and she was nervous. Being a little embarssed, she said she decided to just pull off and let me go.

(There was an offer at the begining driver meeting for anyone who would of liked to go slower to mention so, but i'm not sure if there there was enough interest to make a full group so i'm not sure what came of that)

As Black Robe mentioned, no doubt in the future this will be improved upon and those that push too hard will somehow be filtered out.

It was said all during the talks with those that set this up, that this is a track 'tour'. Its all about getting out and seeing for yourself what the track is like. You get some great spirited driving in, but its not the time or place to go *****-to-the-wall.

Also, my take on the young guy that got pissed and left in a blaze of smoke... wtf was he thinking?! I mean, I could see (sorta) being pissed and not caring what the track thought of his exit... but this was ran BY THE COPS!!!!

I can see this guy wondering why he's getting hassled by the cops all the time (who have probably flagged his License plate - with good reason)... He'll be the guy bitching about how they hassle him for no good reason.

but we were all young once, so hopefully he relaxes a bit and calms down

So who wants to goto PIR and get some more track time in?!

 

How fast did you all get going?

At the very least, they should have taken out the Vancouver Island people. Coming from Chilliwack is a lot easier and cheaper than Tofino.

 

By the time I was actually able to really get on it - on the back straight - the spins had occured and I noticed the tower lady yelling for me to slow down as no doubt they were getting more and more worried (with good reason).

My gps (yes i'm a ultra computer geek) said I hit 105 km/hour. I heard others say they hit 120 or so.

And yea, one suggestion i'd make for next time is ensure that those that travel far distances make it into the first group that goes on the track.

It should also be noted that we were under very strict timelines... The real racers were scheduled to get off the track around 12, take a break, then get back on @ 1.

We were allowed to sneak onto the track while they were having their break. We had to be off in time to allow the track workers to get back on there before hte race started again. So its was quite a short time frame.

I still feel bad for those that didn't get to run

 

I'm pretty sure i was easily above 115/120 km/hr, Amit was even faster some runs I think... Did you happen to look at your speedo much Amit? I didn't I just have a few video clips of when just as i started decelerating on some of my "slower" bursts and it was around 115

But the real fun for me was the turns, don't get me wrong it was great going WOT like that, but the turns were the fun part 8) Every lap I was able to push a little bit harder than the last going in and coming out a turn...

I have to agree that perhaps next time the best thing would be to group similar cars and speeds of drivers together..

 

i got up to 120 on the straightaway...Amit got up to like 140 i think.