winter go-fast crack pipe withdrawl - how do you cope?

[john@johnhudakracing]

Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but it is only late November and I already had been feeling
the horrible symptoms of go-fast crack pipe withdrawal. Nausea, depression, etc.. all the tracks are now closed...
March is soo far away!!! 90 days of nothing to do but bench race and talk smack with you guys on all the car forums!!

I'm going nuts. I'm out of car clubs to join. Is there a open track anywhere? Auto-cross? Indoor go-cart enduro?
No..No.. come on I'll join the Viper club and go to an indoor circle go cart track and talk NASCAR....there has to
be something going on around here... I'm going bananas watching re-runs of Top 10 Tanks on the Military Channel.


But wait... what is that on the schedule? Is that right? A "tentative weather providing" last day of the year at
Pacific in November/December?!? What's that about? Is this like one of those RC cola machines in the desert?
Huh... a Proformance Racing School Advanced Open Lapping Day at Pacific Raceways. Score!! Final test and tune
day to shake things out! Where's the phone!!

4 hours of sleep and 7AM and I can promise you.. only the most dedicated die-hard regulars showed for this track event!!
It was 32 degrees out and we got 5 aerial atoms in the parking lot having driven there!! Not something you see everyday.
There is snow on the ground and we are having a mini atom fest freezing our buns off!! With 140mph worth of wind chill open
cockpit down the long straight away I can assure you that's some real car enthusiast dedication going on there!! LOL!!

:biggrin: :smile:

Full slide deck here.

Some high res pics of the X!!

 

[Matt_337]

You could always move down south here in Texas. All year round track time

 

[NSXDreamer2]

God Damn John, you are such an (&*^&*^

Your title totally mislead me and then I found out your pic on the track.. what the hell....

How could you do that to me... (my car's on jack stand for 2 months now and probably won't see any day light until the suspension arrived) Talk about withdrawal.

What kind of lap time you are doing with the beast at PR? I also wondered if there's any big help with your new BBK??

 

[coolnsx]

John, You could always tow it down to Willow Springs for the CDub event Friday at the Streets at Willow Springs. Great track!! :biggrin:

 

[john@johnhudakracing]

God Damn John, you are such an (&*^&*^

Your title totally mislead me and then I found out your pic on the track.. WTF....

LOL. Yeah I know I'm just horrible. I'm a bastard. :tongue: :biggrin:

How could you do that to me... (my car's on jack stand for 2 months now and probably won't see any day light until the suspension arrived) Talk about withdrawal.

That's ok, dampers are always worth the wait!!!

What kind of lap time you are doing with the beast at PR?

No idea. Eddie forgot the timing beacon again. It was just an advanced open lapping day; with widely varying driver competency and hardware so any parallel to other vehicles would obviously be meaningless. Pacific is really not the place to be trying time attack hot laps or to ever find yourself running out of talent at Apex anyway. Too many 100 year old pine trees to hit. We were just there to shake out some technicals. :wink:

All I will say is even at 8/10ths I am very happy. What really amazed me was how effortless and stable the car was to drive. Not white knuckle scary and terrifyingly loose like my S into turn 1-2 at 134mph. Very predictable and confidence inspiring.

It's was like left turn. Ok. Right turn. Sure. Opps another Atom. Point By. Ok nice. Braking zone. Oh yeah yup there is another one. :biggrin:

I also wondered if there's any big help with your new BBK??

Dave's kit out of the box is awesome. What a great value. I've only had two track days on it but so far I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone. I know guys that have spent twice as much for little more. So far so good. It was the first time I recall whereas I didn't even think about brakes all day. We'll see. We were on the Brembo track pads he gave us, but I got a few sets of the more aggressive Cobalt's in the event we ever need them.

Both Eddie and myself give two thumbs up here to the guys at Cedar Ridge.

John, You could always tow it down to Willow Springs for the CDub event Friday at the Streets at Willow Springs. Great track!! :biggrin:

No doubt. Maybe I'll buy one of those tractor trailers with motorized ramps like the CART guys have. Let's see if I can convince the g/f to live in one of those. :biggrin:

 

[j14nsx]

In the UK we must have similar weather to you in Seattle. We're still on track now and will be all through winter. We have to let the ice melt in January but that's OK.

I was on track last weekend in freezing temperatures.

 

[Lonestranger]

I understand your weather is a lot like Michigan weather - If summer falls on a weekend, you have a picnic!!:biggrin:

In the UK we must have similar weather to you in Seattle. We're still on track now and will be all through winter. We have to let the ice melt in January but that's OK.

I was on track last weekend in freezing temperatures.

 

[john@johnhudakracing]

In the UK we must have similar weather to you in Seattle. We're still on track now and will be all through winter. We have to let the ice melt in January but that's OK.

I was on track last weekend in freezing temperatures.

You guys are certifiably nuts!!

It's nice to have gotten a break thou and found that last track day. It's unusually cold here for us;
already snowing in the forecast this week and so it's back to sleepy time!! I'm ready to move to the
middle of the desert!! Maybe I'll see if I can rally the troops and make it down south to Cali over the
winter!! I'd love to go to T-Hill!!

Nice to have a photographer show I'm lazy about that sort of thing. Here's another pic flat-out from
3B to the first cone at 5A I believe

 

[velo-ct]

I don't understand...Race season is just now starting here in Arizona, perhaps you should flock south with the rest of the snowbirds.:smile:

 

[john@johnhudakracing]

I don't understand...Race season is just now starting here in Arizona, perhaps you should flock south with the rest of the snowbirds.:smile:

Yeah your Pahrump video looks sweet. Nice and warm.

You know, in all fairness I guess it's only been 98 1/2 hours since my last track day. I guess if I can get through this I can get through anything. Maybe I need to start thinking outside of the box.

Dig and learn to deal with Seattle winter. 36 degrees isn't too bad. We have some crazy guys out here. Let's see what do we got... what do we got...


Bremerton Raceways in the raw:

No need to migrate. Perhaps my Kawagen front splitter can serve double duty as a snow plow at Bremerton this year. I hear we have an event scheduled for Feb!! Signed up! Hmm... maybe safer to rent a Neon that day. :wink:

Portland Raceways Annual Festival of Lights:

Oh... look there's Turn 12 at PIR. Nice. Think anyone would mind if we test out the new paving early... so long as we don't knock over the manger!! Get some spy shots of the new track surface for some early strategy planning advantage. :biggrin:

Skycart Indoor Carting 20 Minute Enduro! Wow!
Equally as exciting! Shit I'll have to try not to get lost on this course!

Pacific Raceways with the Pedal Bikers:
Maybe if it drys out a little we can join-up with the Sleders... err... Pedal Bike guys at Pacific? Oh wait, they don't seem to need any help... crashing at 8mph in the dry? Is that TitaniumDave? :biggrin:

http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=2StXW8L4VKU&feature=related




PSRRA 150mph Shifter Carts:

I still want to try this sometime. These guys are just nuts!!

Can't forget the 125cc variety.. Puget Sound Go-Cart Association

Yeah, whatever.. Am I buying a leaf blower or a cart? Slow...

BMW Puget Sound Sponsors Team D, Rally to the Top of the North American Continent:

Just need to add a rack and some snow tires, maybe re-set the ride height and I can take on some of those crazy Canadians. I'll bet they have yet to see an NSX show up.

 

[NSXDreamer2]

Portland Raceways Annual Festival of Lights:

Oh... look there's Turn 12 at PIR. Nice. Think anyone would mind if we test out the new paving early... so long as we don't knock over the manger!! Get some spy shots of the new track surface for some early strategy planning advantage.

you have more details on this one? Is it a charity event? looks pretty cool.

The year before, I went to PR in Jan. we had sub 30 degree that whole week. and I remembered as we entered the track in the morning, the BMW behind me showing there's only 24 degree. Driving for whole day, exceeding 200 track miles, yet the RA1 never get real sticky as the high is only like 35 even under the sun.

tried to do the same thing last year when my cousin's visiting me and wanted to go checking out the track. Don told me falling trees everywhere, he won't be there cleaning up, so track was closed!!

Maybe this year.. I need to dial in my suspension when they get here.

 

[john@johnhudakracing]

you have more details on this one? Is it a charity event? looks pretty cool.

The year before, I went to PR in Jan. we had sub 30 degree that whole week. and I remembered as we entered the track in the morning, the BMW behind me showing there's only 24 degree. Driving for whole day, exceeding 200 track miles, yet the RA1 never get real sticky as the high is only like 35 even under the sun.

tried to do the same thing last year when my cousin's visiting me and wanted to go checking out the track. Don told me falling trees everywhere, he won't be there cleaning up, so track was closed!!

Maybe this year.. I need to dial in my suspension when they get here.

http://walking.about.com/od/holiday/ss/xmaslightspir.htm

Yeah, it's really gay Ferrand. They put people in their cars and let them drive around the X-MAS lights at 5mph. Who knows thou.. lol.. if it wasn't so dark out we could use it as a track-walk through to get an idea of the new dry line. :biggrin:

I wouldn't worry about it, Don with ORPCA just emailed me a few minutes ago with our revised 2008 schedule. Looks like first date with them is 3/25/2008... but I suspect I can get out with Audi two week earlier... of course as usual it will probably pour rain that day. :wink: :smile:

Man 3/25 sounds a long ways off. Goes to show, need something to get through these long 4-5 month spans. Looking forward to the Holiday Party at least!!!

 

[docjohn]

All of us in the NE share your pain.Do'nt you guys have an indoor carting track like a Formula franchise?

 

[john@johnhudakracing]

All of us in the NE share your pain.Do'nt you guys have an indoor carting track like a Formula franchise?

Sure. We all have our VIP cards. :smile:

Question... anything ever going on up at Pocono?

 

[GT-N]

John your car just blows my mind away. Very clean, yet track oriented.

 

[docjohn]

Sure. We all have our VIP cards. :smile:

Question... anything ever going on up at Pocono?

AFAIK pocono is a wasteland about now.Not much of anything going on till late march.