How was the weekend Steve?
Tim:
Saturday was perfect and a blast.
My Lotus was still in Merrillville (NW) Indiana, so I left early Friday morning, drove 350 miles to pick it up and then another 150 from there to Putnam. Talk about a doing tonsillectomy through your arse.
This was my first experience with 10/10ths and I must say I enjoyed running with them. When I arrived Friday evening I registered and there was no need to tech the car. They didn't even check my helmet. They were of the opinion that it's your butt on the line so the odds are your car is in good shape and you have the right helmet. They also provided pizza, beer, soda and water for dinner that evening.
Saturday morning was cold. Around 32 degrees. We had the traditional drivers meeting at 8. After the meeting the Novice group attended another meeting to discuss the track, flags, etc. The advanced group hit the track first to warm it up for the rest of the guys. We (intermediate) ran the next session. Despite the temperature the track was not slippery at all. We ran the first lap under yellow and then took off.
One of the features of 10/10ths I liked was you got a full 30 minutes on the track each session. As you know, all the other groups run 20 minute session with 10 minutes in between to clear the track and grid. These guys had the next group on the grid before the current session ended and as soon as the last car left the track the next group was cleared to go. I ran all 5 available sessions so had 2.5 hours of total track time.
Another feature they had was that on the second to last session the intermediate group was able to run with the advanced group under the advanced rules. The last session the novice group got to run with the intermediate group under the intermediate rules. This set up gave the drivers that felt they were ready to step up a level the opportunity. I did not run with the advanced group. The majority of the cars in that group were Vettes and Vipers. My 220hp Exige would have gotten run over. As it was we had some Nissan GTRs in my group. One minute no one was behind me on the straight and the next I had the grille of a GTR filling my mirrors. I suspect a supercharger upgrade is in my future.
It's also time for me to get a timing device. I only had to point by 3 or 4 cars out of 20+ but without the timer there's no way to know how much I'm improving.
Only one car (a Dodge Stealth) wrecked when they left the track on turn 8 and hit the hay bales and guardrail. There was a good amount of body damage but they were back on the track later in the day.
Overall despite not having any friends there to run with (one did come by to watch) it was the best event I've attended.
Steve
