This Sunday Nov 11th: GRAND SPORT RACEWAY OPEN HOUSE (near Galveston)
 

The brand new racetrack in Hitchcock is having their Open House this Sunday (starts at 9am).

"...come to our second open house November 11, 2007"

http://www.grandsportspeedway.com/questions.html
(on GoogleMaps: http://tinyurl.com/2mcpsg)

I've proposed moving our Club Mtg so we can all get in on the action together:
https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...=1#post2127649


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Edit to add info from post#9 below:
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Ok, here's the plan for all of us who want to represent RX-8s in force down at Grand Sport Raceway:

Meet at HOOTERS OF NASA (on I-45 at NASA Parkway) at 11:00am for lunch.
(same directions - http://hooters.know-where.com/hooter...=en&mapi d=US )
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This is kinda late notice to change the monthly meet date (at least, I feel so.)

I, for one, have made plans for Sunday in order to leave Saturday open for the meet. If the meet gets moved to Sunday, I wont be able to make it, and my schedule on Saturday will need last-minute adjusting.

I say keep 'em separate.

I posted the Open House info within the hour that I learned about it. I would agree that it would have been better if I had learned about it with more than one week notice.

So since your plans have been set, it seems that you want people to do the Galveston drive two days in a row, or just blow off the race track action for some future Open House, assuming that they will have another one of these events.

Heard of it but i've never been to Hitchcock....might have ta' check it out

Whoa - calm down there, bro. Not sure how my suggestion came of as insensitive. I was just pointing out that it might really hurt the turnout if you try to reschedule an event that had been planned several weeks ago with only a few days notice. I live an hour North of downtown Houston and I'd gladly make the drive both days if I could. The RX meets are worth it. A track day is worth it. I write the drive off as the cost of fun.
Now, as far as I know, I'm the Northernmost Houston member on these boards, so the drive for everyone else should be even less significant. So, to answer your question, no - I don't think asking everyone to make the Galveston drive twice is asking a great deal. Not to say the drive doesn't suck, but it's definately worth it in the end.

The drive behind the wheel of an 8 never sucks. It's paying for the gas that is the suck. Ha!

And that reply was my recap to clarify what you were suggesting with your vote. All solid points. I'm open to whatever the group decides.

I just got one more newsflash from a friend for activities this Sunday...

A Fly Day at the Lone Star Flight Museum at the Galveston Airport:
With the race track's open house starting at 9am, it would be doable to hit both events.

track meet?
im there
haha
ive been wanting to go for 3 months now

Ok, here's the plan for all of us who want to represent RX-8s in force down at Grand Sport Raceway:

Meet at HOOTERS OF NASA (on I-45 at NASA Parkway) at 11:00am for lunch.
(same directions - http://hooters.know-where.com/hooter...=en&mapi d=US )


We will launch out from there down I-45 to Hitchcock. Directions to the track:

www.grandsportspeedway.com/directions.html


This should still be early enough for anyone interested in catching the tail end of the Lone Star Flight Museum action after the race track.

Here is our official invitation:

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2007-...se20071111.JPG

wait, so whats the point of this? Are we autocrossing or just wasting our time?

This is from my first post about this Open House event over on the November Mtg thread:
What I was proposing that we do was that instead of meeting in Clear Lake and then driving straight down to Galveston, that we meet in Clear Lake and on our way down to Galveston we stop to check things out at the new race track.

Just to clarify?

Were you were proposing that we cancel or abandon the regularly scheduled RX-Club meeting to accommodate the open house?

Many of the guys went the open house in Sept, and got mixed reactions. It's cool to see the track but don't expect to get any hot laps in.

eh... I see no point in going if I can't get some hot laps in...

At the last event you were allowed to participate in parade laps. Basically follow the leader around the track at quarter/half speed. I'm not knocking it, but it's not a day at the track.

No one ever suggested that they were going to let us on their track for free to do hot laps.

The options for this weekend as I saw them were to drive straight down the freeway to Galveston on Saturday, or wait to Sunday to drive down the freeway, do a short detour to take our 8s onto a racetrack, and then get back on the freeway to Galveston. I don't see how that was taken as a threat to the monthly meeting. I saw it as a huge bonus with no interference at all to the mtg. (Except, obviously, for anyone who couldn't make it on Sunday.)

Well, I hope you all had fun today. I have no idea what you ended up doing in Galveston since no one responded to my (tongue-in-cheek) suggestions. After going around the track tomorrow, I am planning to meet up with a pilot friend of mine at the Lone Star Flight Museum.

Another idea is touring the winery in Santa Fe:
http://www.haakwine.com/location.htm

According to the website, their last tour is at 4pm.

Or do the winery tour, and THEN go out on the track. Ha!

I want to bring the wine, uh Ohs!!

well its almost 7am, Sunday.
HIX8 ur saying meet at 11AM?

I thought the track opened at 9AM?
I will try to be there at 9AM, will wait for you guys if you come at 11 or later.

Sat event was ok. Went to Galveston.

I dont care to do "events" ie see things, like winery, air shows etc. I like to drive/ride or just look at our cars/females.

If meeting at Hooter's parking lot in Nasa be careful entering from the front of the parking lot. Too much construction/stuff. You might want to enter from the side/backway. ie coming south make a right on street and enter from side street

All I can say...it was NICE< NICE but ran out of track

now on to Austin this coming weekend
anyone else going?
Leaving very early Saturday

It was an absolutely amazing day overall. Had a blast at the track, fun at the fly in with all the warbirds, and then got to unwind at the winery.

I am astounded that there was not more interest in this event. We did not do any hot laps, but we did PLENTY of hot corners. I was squealin all over. I was expecting to get flagged, but they just let us keep racing. Um, I mean "parading". The big surprise was that IRL was there. They rented the track Mon-Thur last week and this week. Four of their cars were left out for the Open House. We got to watch the track cars racing and a lot of drifting action by this one 350Z.

Keef, Crztrtldck and everyone else, you all really missed out! I still have no idea what the big sticking point was with keeping the monthly meeting on Saturday. Whatever the group did yesterday, I know that Myardor and I had plenty of fun.

Maybe you all were getting laid in your 8s yesterday, and the hot chicks could only make it on Saturday. I would understand blowing off the track day / airshow / winery stuff for THAT!

Did I mention that it was all FREE?! Free laps on the track. Free admission to the airshow. Free tasting at the winery. What a glorious day.

Imagine how much more glorious it might have been with a bunch more 8s!

https://www.rx8club.com/attachment.p...6&d=1194842630

The key is to be at the end of the pack. This way you can make as much room for yourself as you want. Then tear away in spurts to catch back up. No, its not racing, but still an adrenaline rush. There were a few times when I thought I was going to lose it and spin off the track. That would have been embarrassing for a "parade lap".

I didn't quite get as sideways as this drifter guy:

https://www.rx8club.com/attachment.p...7&d=1194842981

He drove himself off the track a BUNCH of times. It made for impressive show with all the dust clouds, but I would have expected better skilz from someone sponsored like that.

More photos from today posted on other threads for the entire forum:

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...90#post2136590

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...94#post2136594

Oh, and whoever came up with the idea to meet up at Hooters, that place was a mess! Thanks again for the warning, Myardor.