Proposed R Gruppe Monterey 2005 Track Day

[a911s]

OK, per Jack Olson's suggestion, here's a new thread to carry on the discussion we were having under "Gary Emory Campout" regarding the idea of a track day at Laguna during the week before or after R Gruppe Monterey 2005.

So who's interested, and if we have enough entrants what do we do next. Get Cris' approval and contact Bruce Hermann?

[Chuck Miller]

Hey Randy,

I have a question for ya over on the Technical board...

[a911s]

Got it Chuck. OK, so are you in? I would love to see this happen - anyone else?

[Gburner]

I'm interested. Here’s my 2 cents.
Yes 2 years ago was perfect as we attended the Friday DE at LS.

There might be a debate to which is best, rent a track for the day or join another group’s DE day?

Renting the track is my first choice, not sure if R Gruppe could pull it off?

We would need to know what weekend Monterey will be held well in advance to ensure we could even get the track rental.

If R Gruppe in 2005 plans to be spectators at the LS sports car race weekend again that may limit our options too. Will any of the tracks have a Friday track rental available that specific weekend?

Renting LS for a Friday might be too expensive. Would Thunderhill be cheaper?

We had limited success when the R Gruppe rented the Big Willow track this year.
Honestly it appears the majority are content with finding their 6/10ths limits on the street rather than 9/10ths at the track. How many members would drive on a track?

Another option (with respect to financial and liability issues) could be for us to find a Friday DE event and join it. Our chances of doing so might be better if we would be willing to attend LS, Sears or Thunderhill. The problem with this is that organizers normally don't post their spring schedule till the end of the year.
If R Gruppe does not coordinate dates with one of the several track groups then it is just left to luck if a Friday DE is available.

This link shows this years events at the big 3 tracks in Nor Cal.
The Friday DE day choices were limited this year. If the R Gruppe weekend were planned after one of these Friday DE tracks days then an R Gruppe day at the track would be simple.
http://track-days.org/page1.html

I'd be happy to run Thunderhill or Sears point Thursday or Friday before the Monterey weekend party. Might be cheaper, open pipes and perhaps closer to the NW racers? I've done LS I would enjoy experiencing the other 2 tracks. Still I'd do LS again in a heartbeat.

To quote Tommy Kendall on Speed Vision from a recent new Volvo test day at Big Willow. "Standing next to fast cars is like kissing your sister, let’s drive them." I can't believe he said that on TV!

[JackOlsen]

I'm in.

And even if we can't afford to rent the track for ourselves, I'd suggest we fill one run group with early Porsches and get a photographer to take some pictures. A line of five or six early 911's cascading down through the corkscrew is a true Kodak moment, in my book.

Thunderhill's a good option, too.

[Gburner]

Jack's a great writer and a darn good salesman too.
A picture for your caption.

Originally posted by JackOlsen
A line of five or six early 911's cascading down through the corkscrew is a true Kodak moment, in my book.

[72targa]

What dates are actually available on the track calendar?

[69911T]

Yes, I'm up for a Gruppster track day. I agree with gburner...I don't think we'll be able to get enough Gruppesters together to make it pencil...but, there plenty of club events that we can try and hook up with.

I have a lot of the contacts in my address book so let me know how I can help once Chris has given it his blessing.
Ed

[a911s]

Here's Laguna Seca's Track Rental Request Process:

"Requests for the first 6 months (January - June) of any year are taken starting April of the prior year with the calendar set and approved by the County of Monterey Parks Dept. in mid July."

My guess is that we will not have enough participants to have an exclusive R Gruppe Track Day at Laguna Seca. My vote would be to join with a club that already has a track day reserved on a weekday that is close to the R Gruppe Monterey weekend in early May. I would also vote that the track chosen be Laguna Seca as it is very convenient to our event. If everyone can contact those people they think could help, including Bruce Hermann, I will talk with Cris to obtain his and Freeman's blessing.

We can make this happen if we really want it to.

[Hayden Burvill]

I will attend too.

I dont care which Norcal track, what cost (within reason) as long as we have our own R-Gruppe run group if it's a combined event.

I can check with NASA about sanctioning an event or run group for us to take care of liability etc.

Remember Laguna is likely to be 92db max for anything we can be involved with.

Regards

Hayden