Thunderbolt Raceway Line and Video

[JoeP]

Ouch!   Anti-submarine belts must lead to serious chaffing with those skirts.

[Darren]

ninjabones wrote:

The green 914 in this video reported me to the track chair after this session for being too "aggressive". Did I do something wrong here?

Hehe...what a jerk. If he saw you doing that then why didn't he point you by? A little too aggressive for PCA DE though. Remember even in the instructor groups there are times people won't give signals, the only way around it is to start racing.

[ninjabones]

Got a few pm's... looks like the consensus is that I was in the wrong.  Lesson learned.  I haven't been afraid to show my f*&K-ups and my good runs (as many of you have seen my Watkins Glen video)... it's all about driver's "education" here and I definitely still have a lot to learn.  I made the video private, but will be glad to share if anyone has a sincere interest for educational purposes (just pm me and I'll add your youtube username to the permissions).

G

[Mark Fox]

Great Drive Darren.   You must of jumped out on track at 6:30 AM to not have any traffic.  I just did 2.5 days there and with the traffic a 1:36 was the best I could find.  I spoke with Tom Dymant who was previously there as well and traffic was similar as he also said 1:36 was his best.

Having crawled all over the track the weekend of Grand Am, watching yours and Steve M's video and reviewing some of the track with Wilkins and Frizzel (dumb luck) I felt good with shift points and where I could left foot brake.

For starters it is a nice facility and is a work in progress.  The grip is bad do to the sand and silt.  It is the most abrasive track I have driven between, MID, WGI SP, Shenandoah, Pocono, Beaver Run or VIR.  They need to shave down the ski jump into T-4 IMO.

I arrived at the event at 1:00 on Friday and within 3 hours there were 3 wrecks, one being most likely a write off of a cayman S.  This is a busy track, which can bite you in hurry do to the high speed sweepers and some what narrow width of the track. 

Big problems happen in a heart beat if you have not scrubbed your speed off before corner entry, turn in too early or late and don't get back to the gas.  I followed a black group driver into T-4, where he didn't get the car sufficiently settled prior to corner entry, was late on turn in and never got back to the gas.  He ended up making a sharp right hand turn into the right side wall.  The remaining 2 accident occurred for this reason as well and then these drivers made their second mistake...........they tried to bring the car back on track.  This should never ever be attempted.  Let the car run out on the sand. Once you have control begin to apply the brakes in a controlled manner.

These other two accidents could have been avoided if they had run the cars out in the sand.  Every morning the drivers meeting needs to remind students to fight the instinct to bring the car back on track. 

From my experience at the track, here are some safety points and hard sight references for students.

The track is made up of 9 turns.   On the approach to T-1 you will find the Lager on the left hand corner.  There is a lot of sand/silt in the brake zone and also pebbles from the median separating Pit out from the track.  Get your braking done early as there is little to be gained in late braking because you have to slow down for T-2

T-2: If you should go wide out of one to the left, stay left.  Lager will be in the left corner or straight ahead behind the armco.  Scrub your speed off before the end of the curbing on the left.  At the end of the curbing you need to have turned in for the right hander staying tight to the right.  This is blind.  However, 200 yards down on the left are advertisement banners.  As soon as you see the top of the banner you  can unwind the wheel a little bit and it will put you perfect for track out left.  Likewise if you go off left, stay left and run it out in the sand.

T-3 Lager will be on the left.  Scrub what ever speed you need and stay tight right getting back to the gas early.  Again if you go off left stay off left.

Approach to T-4.  Lager on the right before the ski jump. Lager on the entry or exit of 4 on the right.  Hit the ski jump with the steering wheel straight.  You will get lite.  As the car compresses upon landing get your braking done and the car settled. Turn in staying tight right and get back to the gas early. This corner is a big arcing right hander leading into the middle or right side of T-5.  There is no corner exit curbing yet on the left so if you go off stay left.

T-5 flagger is on the right at entry.  This is a heavy braking zone as you have little time to straighten the car out from exiting T-4.  Trail brake or straight line brake and keep it tight to apex.  As you exit you will see flaggers on the right and a TV scaffold in the woods straight ahead.  This is your sight line for the approach to T-6.  If you go off right stay right.

T-6 is a gradual fast sweeper scrub your speed turn in gradually and get back to the gas.  If you go off left stay left.  Flaggers are located on the right for your approach to T-7

T-7 is a right hand turn leading to the arcing right hander.  If you go off left stay left.  Keep the car right of the white x's and arc it back to the right side curbing.  Let the car straighten out for braking into T-8 (about a car width left of the curbing driving it deep) a decreasing radius right hand turn.  Here you can see the flaggers on the right.

T-8 is a right hand decreasing radius turn which rewads patience before turn in.  Stay tight right against the curbing.  Flaggers are on the right.   You are now approaching the 180 degree left hander and can think of driving a large U.  Patience is again rewarded before initiating turn in on exit.  There is also sealer at this point which aids in tire placement.  Flaggers are located on the right.  Stay tight to the left on exit.  you will be approaching the S'es, which sets you up for the front straight. Straighten the S'es out as much as possible and exit on the left curbing. You are now approaching T-9. Lager on the right.  

T-9 is another fast sweeper.  There is concrete for some reason on the right. Look around the corner and draw a sight line straight for something.  There was a cone that had been punted out in this area which worked well.  You will run right over the concrete with the steering wheel straight bisecting the corner.  Depending on the set up of your car this will be with 2 or 4 wheels on the curbing.  Mine was fine with 4 wheels on as were others I talked with.  This is high speed 100 - 125 mph.  If you go off left stay left otherwise you will find the concrete wall on the right. 

In many of the places around the track the flaggers were partially obstructed by the armco.  By the time of our event hopefully they will have the flagging stands up and permanent locations will be established.  I hope this information will assist everyone in a safe and efficient event.

 

[Mark Fox]

 The pro line through 4 is to track out all the way left and arc the car back right either in the middle or right side of the track for T-5.

[Phokaioglaukos]

Here is the track map I found. Are you using the same corner numbers?

http://members.rennlist.org/phokaioglauk...%20map.pdf

[Mark Fox]

 These were from the Farrari challenge driver and Wilkins and Frizzel I spoke with specific to the configuration run for the race and for our DE's.  If there is no apex (the point where the corner ends) it really is a straight.   From what I understand the numbering of corners as well as the flag stations was still undecided at the point of the race by track officials.  I tended to agree with the pro interpretation of the numbering.