Brief impressions of Grandsport Speedway
01-17-2010, 08:23 PM
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Brief impressions of Grandsport Speedway
Grandsport Speedway
I've done HPDEs at MSR Houston, Harris Hill Road, and Driveway Austin, and I would classify myself as an advanced beginner.
Today I did a one-day event at Grandsport Speedway, in Hitchcock, TX (5 miles past Gulf Greyhound Park, off IH-45).
Nice track, very technical. Not very scenic, but that lets you focus on your driving I guess. It's right next to an old blimp base, so you can see the huge concrete pillars that must have supported the hangar, until they tore it down.
Anyhow, the track is in great shape, very RX-8 friendly.
Brian (instructor) and Jerry (instructor and track mgr) are very helpful. They will ride with you and give pointers, and I thought the feedback I got from Brian was right-on.
BUT - I would not recommend this HPDE for beginners (less than three days on track). The facilities are limited -the track, a trailer, and a porta-potty. The web site mentions a classroom session for the Novices and they charge Novices more, but I didn't see that they gave the one Novice who attended any kind of classroom-type instruction. Maybe they considered him more advanced, because he had a fair amount of AutoX experience. I dunno.
There is no classroom, so don't go if you are expecting that kind of thing (which is standard at the Porsche and BMW club events I've been to, and at Harris Hill Road. A little lower in quality at Driveway Austin, but still useful).
They just sort of turned the Novice loose on the track at first (though they did ride with him a few times). At all of the other club events, it's standard that an instructor rides with you THE WHOLE TIME.
Oh, and I experienced horrible fuel starvation WITH 3/4 of a flurping TANK! Thanks again, Mazda.
I've experienced it at HHR, but as I got faster and faster at Grandsport, it got to be a real pain
Anyhow, bottom line, would I go again? Absolutely.
Your mileage may vary.
- Kabong
I've done HPDEs at MSR Houston, Harris Hill Road, and Driveway Austin, and I would classify myself as an advanced beginner.
Today I did a one-day event at Grandsport Speedway, in Hitchcock, TX (5 miles past Gulf Greyhound Park, off IH-45).
Nice track, very technical. Not very scenic, but that lets you focus on your driving I guess. It's right next to an old blimp base, so you can see the huge concrete pillars that must have supported the hangar, until they tore it down.
Anyhow, the track is in great shape, very RX-8 friendly.
Brian (instructor) and Jerry (instructor and track mgr) are very helpful. They will ride with you and give pointers, and I thought the feedback I got from Brian was right-on.
BUT - I would not recommend this HPDE for beginners (less than three days on track). The facilities are limited -the track, a trailer, and a porta-potty. The web site mentions a classroom session for the Novices and they charge Novices more, but I didn't see that they gave the one Novice who attended any kind of classroom-type instruction. Maybe they considered him more advanced, because he had a fair amount of AutoX experience. I dunno.
There is no classroom, so don't go if you are expecting that kind of thing (which is standard at the Porsche and BMW club events I've been to, and at Harris Hill Road. A little lower in quality at Driveway Austin, but still useful).
They just sort of turned the Novice loose on the track at first (though they did ride with him a few times). At all of the other club events, it's standard that an instructor rides with you THE WHOLE TIME.
Oh, and I experienced horrible fuel starvation WITH 3/4 of a flurping TANK! Thanks again, Mazda.
I've experienced it at HHR, but as I got faster and faster at Grandsport, it got to be a real pain
Anyhow, bottom line, would I go again? Absolutely.
Your mileage may vary.
- Kabong
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