Created: 7/18/2004
Last updated: 7/18/2004
This weekend, Glenn, Scott, Rob, Donna, and myself attended the weekend of activities organized by Dennis and Peggy Hale of the Norcal UFO (United 510 Owners) group. This weekend started on Thursday with the Thunderhill Track Day. I wanted to go because I would get nothing but grief from my Club Z friends who shall remain unnameless, Mike, Dale, Andy, Scott, Glenn, Amir, Lee, Salah, Darryl, ... because since my car was new, I hadn't taken it out on the track. Well, I am no longer a track virgin. It was a blast and I wished that I had gone to the track sooner like everyone was trying to get me to do. My TT runs great and it was great to really see some of the limits of my car.
Friday was the registration at Mt. Shasta for all of the weekend festivities including a car show, several types of vehicular dynamics events, an Autocross, and a closing banquet.
Here are pictures from Day 1 at Thunderhill Raceway in the town of Willows, California.
My car taped up and
ready for the track.
Glenn's 240SX Silvia
conversion.
Scott's TT ready and waiting. Scott is a very experienced track driver. I rode shotgun with Scott for one session. I told Scott that he should have gotten the yellow and black crash test dummy tape instead. It would have looked awesome.
Donna's Supercharged
350Z.
Rob's SR20DET powered
lime green Datsun 510.
Craig's unbelievably quick TT. I was fortunate to ride with Craig on the track.
Dave Coleman of Sport
Compact Car fame who blew an intercooler twice on the track which forced unburnt
gas to spew out setting his bumper on fire. Looks like cancer doesn't it? He ran
in group C and was black flagged twice. Driver's were not too happy with the
second time it happened because both times it did happen, the track was closed
for at least 10 minutes. Group A got the most run times.... Nyahh nyahh... the
noobies got one over on the veterans. ;-P
Some of my friend's
cars cooling down in the paddock area.
Nice black Datsun
Fairlady Roadster powered by a normally aspirated S-15 SR20DE motor.
Another nice blue
Datsun Fairlady Roadster powered by an S-13 SR20DET turbo motor.
Cool tangerine 510
powered by a bored and stroked Pathfinder 3.3 V6 motor.
This was a current model Toyota Tacoma that had a TRD supercharger and intercooler installed. This guy was quick in the straights but didn't handle well in the turns obviously. This guy also slapped on a set of Enkei GT-V wheels on his ride like the ones on my TT. Check out the size of those brakes tucked inside.
Some other nice cars
in attendance.
Staging before our run
on the track.
Some action shots.
Glenn flying down the
main straightaway.
My turn to hang the tail out on the track.
Group shots of all the Thunderhill Track participants.
Use of blue tape
allows you to be able to find your car in the crowd.
You can tell that I
was going so fast that the tape had a hard time staying on. ;-)
Dennis and Peggy Hale,
chief organizers of the event. Well deserved applause goes out to these two
wonderful people who have held this weekend event for many years.