Speed Racer

Driving event
The Sports Car Driving Association would like to welcome us back to New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, NH on Monday June 6th for another track day / high performance driving school. This event is accessible to people of all skill levels and it is a great way to improve your driving skills. Spectators are welcome to come out and see what it is all about. If you are feeling brave you may ask to ride along with one of the instructors to see what it is like to turn some hot laps. This is a great way to get a taste of the action.

Track

The track is a 1.6 mile road course that weaves its way in and around the NASCAR oval. This layout offers plenty of variety in turns and elevation change and if the weather is decent we should also run through one of the NASCAR high speed banked turns instead of using the south chicane.

Requirements

• Students must be at least 18 years of age, and posses a valid drivers license in order to attend.
• Snell 95 Rated Helmets are required for all participants. The SCDA, LLC has several Snell 95 Helmets that we can loan to participants.
• Long sleeved shirts and pants must also be worn.

What to expect
Once at the track you will be greeted by fellow enthusiasts and track officials. The morning starts with a brief drivers meeting and then you will have a 20 min. class about the driving line, passing areas, flags, and track rules. After that you have 20 min. to get ready and get your car to the starting grid. Then the real fun begins as you'll spend the next 20 minutes out on track. If you are running in the Novice or Intermediate 1 class you will have an experienced race driver sitting in the passenger seat coaching you around the track. In the Intermediate 2 and Advanced classes you will be driving solo. After you have had your fun on the track you will pull back into pit row and review the last session. Then the whole cycle starts again. In the end you will get 4 track sessions over the course of the day. This will provide you with a ton of driving experience that would be next to impossible to learn on the street.

Directions
The track is a relatively short drive for most of us in New England: Boston, MA 1:24, Portsmouth, NH 1:13, Lebanon, NH 1:19... The close proximity makes it easy to do this in one day. As you can drive down first thing in the morning, have fun turning some fast laps, and still be able to get home at a reasonable time in the evening. Which really helps when you have to head into work the following morning.

MapQuest directions to NHIS.

New Hampshire International Speedway
1122 Route 106 N
Loudon, NH 03307

Registration
If you are interested in going please sign up soon as space is limited, especially in the novice groups. To register, fill in the student application and mail it along with your $235 payment to SCDA. You will get a confirmation notice by phone or e-mail when they receive the application.

Sports Car Driving Association, LLC
2 Prospect Street
Essex, CT 06426

More information
For more info check out the SCDA website or read the comments from a couple of past events:

• NHIS 2005
• LimeRock 2004
• Watkins Glen 2004
• Pocono 2003

P.S. The SCDA has offered us a discount rate of $200 if we can get at least 10 people to sign up for the event. So please spread the word so that we can share the experience and the discount with more people. Thanks!

Garage bays are also available for $25 on a first come first serve basis.



Driver

1. Speed Racer
2. Spin9k
3. vwnh

Spectator

1. None

Spin9k

Wild horses couldn't stop me, rain like the great flood didn't stop me last time... I'm in, ready and chomping at the bit to hear my 8 sing once again...

Sure do hope we can have a run group to ourselves, all those 8s on the track, that would be sweeeet! :D

ps. Speed Racer, maybe edit a list on your initial post.

Speed Racer

OK, I'll keep a running list of the people who are definitely going. Remember if we can get at least 10 people to sign up we will all get a $35 discount. Plus an area set aside specifically for us.

If we can get enough cars to fill a run group (15-22 cars). We can run this as a dedicated RX-8 track day. Where all of us will be in the same group and we will have the track to ourselves. Ian Prout also said that he would try to get a rotary expert to help out with the classroom instruction.

vwnh

I will be there for sure. Hopefully we can get together this time so i can get some car info from you guys, so i know what to do to my car before i go to the track. This is all new to me. I have read that you change your brake fluid and diff oil before you go out. I am going to have my brake fluid and motor oil changed this week. I also need to have my tires rotated. When i left the track april 27 i had to go to work that afternoon. Got there and some lady backed into my car. Good thing i was looking out the window when it happend. So it will also be in the body shop to repair the bumper this week.

formatsee

oh man, i'm going to try to make it to the event. i have a few questions. how much does a helmet usually cost? do i need to get a safety check before the event? change/bleed brakes? other then the things you said above (long sleeve shirt/pant) is there any newbie things i should know. thanks.

Spin9k

G-Force GF750 open face Helmet www.gforce.com is the one I bought $150. Why - I like open face, not so constricting, it was inexpensive - helmets can be much more expensive than that no problem - it was rated as a high quality, lightweight, good fitting helmet by one of the racing mags in a test of helments - that's all I know - I stopped paying much attention after getting it. Just Google it for places to buy, hopefully still available.

However, there are many, many more from many different companies. Just be sure to get an SA2000 labeled helmet, also I guess closed face helmets are not so good in stock cars w/air bags, it has been determined they are somewhat of a safety hazard if the bag goes off and jerks your head back.

As far as what to do to prepare for track day with any organization, what to wear, how to prepare your car, I know one good place to read-all-about-it is http://www.nasanortheast.org/faq.htm - they pretty much have the letter and the spirit of what to do written down in these FAQs. And ESPECIALLY - raed the "USEFUL ARTICLES" at the bottom - they are worth their weight in track rubber. If new to all this start with "Your First Day At The Track".

It's not really that hard - more just a bit scary at 1st - but once into it - ah the joy of driving :D your jewel on the track is better than - just about anything!

Good luck, and see you on the grid!

Speed Racer

vwnh,
If you are planning on doing more track days I'd suggest using a DOT4 brake fluid (ATE, Motul, Willwood...). The boiling point is higher and this is the cheapest and easiest way to help prevent brake fade. I still have some left over from our last tech day.


formatsee,
I'll try to arrange another tech day before we head down to NHIS. This will give ever body a chance to prep their cars. I'd suggest having fresh engine oil, bleed the brakes before each event, and change the diff/tranny fluid at the beginning of the season. Other than that it is just a few simple checks. Such as a visual inspection of the car. Check that there is no slop in the wheel bearings or steering. Make sure that the battery is secure. Remove all loose items from the car...

Speed Racer

Ouch! I hope that the damage is minor and that you'll get your car back in like new condition.

Spin9k

<ditto> What a sad thing, it shouldn't keep happening to cars like ours . If it isn't too hard to re-live the moment, how is it possible to back into another car (w/1/2 a brain)?

vwnh

Just scratches on the paint rear bumper. getting it fixed this week. Have to paint the hole bumper. Its like when ever it rains it seems like everybody can't see thru the water on the windows of their cars or something.

vwnh

I just found out that a friend just picked up is NEW RX8 i am trying to get him to come along with us on june 6th. I think another friend is going to bring his Maxima.

Speed Racer

Definitely invite your friends to join us.

Spin9k and I were wondering if we should get together before June 6th. It would be a different kind of tech day with little to no wrenching on cars and a bigger focus on answering questions for anybody that is new to doing track events. This would be a good time to get everbody's head in the game and make sure that they are ready for the event.

I also wanted to remind everyone that spectators are welcome. So if you are interested in just coming out to watch that is cool too. Admission is free and if you ask nicely I'm sure that one of the instructors would take you out for a ride around the track. When you make it back to pit row you will have a new appreciation of the word "fast".

Please let me know if you would be interested in any of the following:

• Participating in the track event
• Coming out to spectate
• Tech day to answer questions about track events

downshift

The scheduling for the 6/6 track day doesn't work for me, but I'm game for a tech day.

my10ae

I'm always good for a tech day. I would like to "attempt" at changing my own oil so I don't have the dumb-dumb's at the dealership do this for me.

formatsee

+1


plus i need to know how to bleed my brakes and change trans diff. fluid

Speed Racer

Maybe "tech day" was a poor choice of words on my part. Spin9k and I feel that there are probably several people watching this thread with interest who have questions and/or concerns about participating at a track event / high performance driving school. We would like to invite these people to meet with us so that we can answer their questions in person. There are so many questions to answer that it would be hard to do it all on this thread without posting a book or two.

At the last tech day we had planned on showing people how to do a tech inspection and give people a hand with getting their cars ready for NHIS. We also had put together a lot of great information to get people up to speed with doing a track event for the first time. Things didn't go quite as planned which is fine but it also meant that we never had a chance to share our info with the group.

This time we want to focus on the "classroom" aspect and make sure that everyone knows what an HPDE is all about. Then, time permitting, we would physically step through a tech inspection and basic maintenance.

Spin9k

I think it would be no problem to do a 'Step-by-step' for common maintenance procedures, with pictures and service manual excerpts as handouts. That way those wanting to do, for example, an oil change, lube changes, other common routine maintenance and the like could ask and get answers / documentation for procedures/ technical questions they have.

Something like a brake bleed / pad change would be a good show and talk session as that is clearly a track and/or prep-for-track procedure. We could do that to someone's car perhaps - just not an assembly line of one type of thing, but several different things so as to cover more in the limited time a day offers.

Speed Racer's and my intent for this session-to-be is to assist those dreaming, imagining, or preparing for spectating, vicariously helping or actually helping others, or those actually going and needing help doing/understanding the ins-and-out of track day behavior/ what to bring/ what to prepare/ when to do what and how /how to drive / etc - on their car, their friend's cars, and generally wanting to prepare to somehow participate in track events /auto-X events at NHIS or anywhere.

There are going to be some wonderful opportunities for great days of fun throughout this season so the sooner those standing on the sidelines get over "Fear-of-Flying" - and if you try /watch one of these events and actually catch the bug as some of us have - all of us can be there for you whenever we're needed.

It's that much fun is all I can say, and what makes us all want to help others. :D

Speed Racer

OK, I've finally got off my duff and committed myself to this event by mailing in my application and payment. Has anyone else sent in their application or am I the only one who should be committed? :p

Spin9k

I was getting mine set for tomorrow's mail, but I'm also having track withdrawl symptoms :p. Sitting here now going 'Vrroom, vrroooom, whaaaaaaaaaa .... bap, bap, bappp" :D Is no one else afflicted with this problem?

Speed Racer

I know what you mean I spent a few hours on GT4 this weekend just trying to get my "fix" but it isn't quite them same as the real thing.

vwnh

Already got confirmation Ready to go.

Speed Racer

Sorry guys, the intro to track driving - tech day is going to be scrapped. It just didn't feel like there was enough interest to warrant the amount of effort Spin9k and I have been putting into it. If you have any specific questions about participating in a track day feel free to post them in this thread or contact me directly. Thanks.

Spin9k

Just got my confirmation - can't wait :D

vwnh

if this weather keeps up it looks like we will be driving in the rain again. who is signed up?

Speed Racer

If it is raining like last time I will definitely need to replace two of my tires before this event. The tread is worn down to the wear bars and that maybe a little scary on a wet track. Other than that I'm good to go.