New Surface At Summit Point

[George3]

I'm going to Summit Point with NASA this weekend.  I'll give a full report on track conditions when I return.  The word is, the scruffy areas have ALL been resurfaced and the track is Smooooooooooth !!!

I've heard it's still a bit rough on the tires, but smooth nonetheless.  Can we re-do our Summit Point event again in a few weeks?   

[George3]

I'm down at Summit Point right now.  The track surface is OUTSTANDING!!!  I took 2 seconds off my best lap times today.  Great grip in all the corners... they're smooth and not rough... video to follow when I get home.

Todd Reid took 1st place in the NASA Race!!!

"the water is fine... come on in..."  Hear that, E ??

 

[catchacab]

George3 wrote:

I'm down at Summit Point right now. The track surface is OUTSTANDING!!! I took 2 seconds off my best lap times today. Great grip in all the corners... they're smooth and not rough... video to follow when I get home.

Todd Reid took 1st place in the NASA Race!!!

"the water is fine... come on in..." Hear that, E ??

I will see you there next year!

[michael lang]

Yeah I was out ther last weekend the club race checking things out. I'll be out on track this coming weekend and again for the EMRA event in November. I really can't wait now that the playground is redone.

 

[George3]

Second day, better than the first.  I bettered my lap times on the first session from the day before.  I'm on a Summit Point high!!!  (Is there a song like that?  Or, am I thinking Rocky Mountain High? )

Todd Reid took 1st place AGAIN on Sunday's race, too!  Good going, Todd !!!

[bobt993]

George great report, but you left out 4 other RTR members who attended.

Jason Mahoney ran Spec E30 in a rented ride.  Every race he has improved against private rides.  At this point, he has the best results for the non-owner cars with a 4th place on Sunday.   Darren ran in PTE also, but is running 10hp or so less than the front 3 cars and still managed a 3rd on Saturday and a 4th on Sunday.   I ran GTS3 and am still plagued with an intermittent loss of 30+hp when the car gets warm.  During qualifying, I was selected for a dyno inspection along with 3 top running cars.   The dyno confirmed my frustrations as the dyno sheet came back down almost 40HP.   I managed two 3rd places (missed 2nd by .8 secs) against faster cars by managing traffic and getting a toe down the front straight just waiting for mistakes.  I will take it!  Shannon spent time instructing and had a great time working with students.  Great weekend for DE and race time.

[fasthonda]

hi george!  hi bob!  hi darren!  hi jason!

the repairs to summit are really excellent;  track is very good, and the transitions from the patched/fixed areas to the regular track are nicely done.  track is fast and fun again!

right this minute, i am working on uploading my vid clips from the races;  some really neat footage! 

george - you were FLYING in the EVO!!!!!  for a 'lightly tuned' stock turbo'd EVO with full street gear and Nitto NT01s to run like that (george ran a 1:24.1 per the TraqMate on sunday!) is really impressive!!  - the new ReidSpeed suspension setup and adjustments really seemed to work 

darren - you made a breakthrough this weekend in the Acura;  you REALLY turned up the wick and knocked multiple seconds off your best laptimes.  you ran right in the middle of all the 'fast' PTE guys.  you were ballin' out!

jason - i watched you in the Spec E30 wars;  you are definitely one of the 'fast' pack now;  you have progressed WAY faster than a 'usual' rookie in that series;  next year i expect i will see you mixing it up with Skeen and Cobetto and Bennet and Allen for the top podium spot!

bob - i watched your entire race on sunday (i stayed after i had packed up, cause i wanted to see the big bore rumble!!!).  you GOTTA fix your motor;  it was killing you!  did you pull out the plugs and check them?   can you get that car on a oscilliscope somewhere under a heavy load (maybe a DynoDynamics dyno, which can put a steady state long term load on the car?);  maybe you could then observe whatever is going on with your ignition at higher rpms and heavy load, and fix that sucker!

i'll soon have the vid clips up on vimeo, and will post up a recount of the weekend, along with the movies!  let me just say - the Probenstien was AWESOME;  i ran a 1:27.1 on sunday in qualifying (on several year old used toyos!!!), and qualified on the pole for sunday's race!!!!  i was victorious both days in PTE, and was third overall in the small bore heat both days ('Death Race 2000' car and an Eprod Alfa were first and second overall both days).  updates soon to come!

see ya'll at Thunderbolt in a few days!  (in the old honda civic)

todd

[George3]

fasthonda wrote:

george - you were FLYING in the EVO!!!!! for a 'lightly tuned' stock turbo'd EVO with full street gear and Nitto NT01s to run like that (george ran a 1:24.1 per the TraqMate on sunday!) is really impressive!! - the new ReidSpeed suspension setup and adjustments really seemed to work

Thanks, Todd. The cool air and track, and ReidSpeed alignment helped me draw down the great lap times. Here's some video footage from Sunday morning....

http://vimeo.com/1957115

[Darren]

Agreed on the track conditions.  The patches are absolutely awesome!!! I don't know what they are but they flicker like diamonds in the sunlight.  They are at least as sticky as the regular track, and maybe even stickier.

Right now the course is faster than it ever was, even immediately after the repave.  They also seem to have gotten rid of the 2 big dips in the track after T9.

They did an absolutely fantasitic job with the repairs.  If they hold up, I think Summit will be many peoples' favorite track (*ahem* Eric).  It has been one of my favorites for a long time, despite the surface issues.

NASA events are really a lot of fun.  We camped out in tents and sat around campfires at night.  Saturday night the Thunder racers had a projector where they showed race videos (as they normally do) on the side of a white enclosed trailer.  For me that's much more fun that going to hotel rooms.

Why is it that RTR people don't camp out?

[betegh9]

Darren wrote:

Why is it that RTR people don't camp out?

Probably because they can't afford the tents!!:dude: