ntmatter
Enthusiast
I've just returned from my 3rd Viper Days this year, and following is a short diary of how this event went:
Because Thunderhill in Northern California is a mere 700 miles from Seattle, I decided to leave on Friday morning, drive all day, and arrive for the 6:00 PM Check In that evening. The weather was fine and clear Thursday night up in the mountains, but when I started driving through Seattle on my way down Friday morning, I discovered (as did all Seattle commuters) that it had snowed about 4", rained, then froze. So, I got to spend my first 2 hours of driving at 10 MPH in 4th gear in solid pack ice on the roadway with all of the regular Seattle commuters. After getting about 20 miles south of town, however, the snow went away the the roads were clear and dry.
The front straight at Thunderhill, showing a left-hand Turn 1
The back-straight
After arriving in Willows at about 7:30 and checking in with Courtney, I got my car tech inspected and was ready to go for a 7 AM start at the track on Monday morning. Since this was my third Viper Days, I started out in the White (advanced) run group even though this was my first weekend at Thunderhill. However, after a few laps I decided to drive in the Blue (intermediate) run group while I learned the track. This allowed to me raise my comfort level with the new track without having to worry about holding up traffic or pushing too hard. By the end of the weekend, I was running solid White-group times, so I have no doubt that that's where I'll be next year.
Professional Photographers were on hand, and captured this image of me with my instructor (Chris Barone) driving fast and looking good. Chris, as far as I know, is the only instructor with a woodchuck permanently afixed to his helmet
As usual, drivers were divided into four run groups, driving for 30 minutes out of every two hours. Although at my first Viper Days this didn't seem like much driving time, I was (as usual) completely bushed at the end of each day and ready for an early night's sleep. Thunderhill is a fairly complex track with numerous short straights and 15 turns. There are several very blind corners - just about every one of which I managed to screw up at some point. The countryside was just gorgeous at that time of year, with plent of orchards, rolling green hills, and fluffy sheep.
Some engineers at work and I did some calculations, and estimate that if Skip pulled all of the vinyl tape from his car, the weight savings alone would be worth .6 seconds per lap.
The Red (race) group ended up cancelling their Saturday race and rescheduling it for Sunday due to rain. Of course, on Sunday morning it dawned very dreary and wet - so as a consequence at least half of the cars just packed it in and went home. This was unfortunate, since the weather cleared up in the morning and after a slow run session on a damp track we had a clear and dry surface for the rest of the day. In addition, since so many drivers had bailed, there was plenty of empty space for me to get nice uninterupted runs on pretty much all day. For one run session, in fact, I went over 15 minutes without even seeing another car on the 3 mile track.
Figure 1: The hill and turn 5, a sharp left-hander with no weight on the suspension. The correct path is shown here by the race group, the correct speed should be around 30 mph
Figure 2: Artist's conception of what the author looked like after sailing off of the hill at about 45 mph.
Although I was much improved over my first Viper Days in January, I was also pushing myself more than I would have on a new track before. I ran my brakes so hard that they stuck to the rotors (I think) and I had to kick the brake pedal to get it to come back up. Also, after 7 track days in the first 3 months of the year I am now completely comfortable with changing my brake pads and bleeding my brakes in some strange parking lot, I did this and was ready to go for the rest of the weekend. On my second lap I took the hill and turn 5 too fast, and went sailing off the track. Later, I went too hard into the off-camber turn on 3, and managed to slide across half of the infield (no harm done).
In the last three months of Viper Days events - Willow Springs, Button Willow, and Thunderhill, I have significantly improved my driving skills and times. I've learned to throttle steer, threshhold brake, and to keep my stupid foot on the gas when I go too fast into corners and start to slide. I think that all of this experience makes me a safer and better driver both on the track and on the street, and I really regard the money spent on Viper Days as an investment in myself - sort of like the money I spent on my education. Yeah, that's the ticket - it's educational. Now, I just need to figure out how to make it all tax-deductable too.
Because Thunderhill in Northern California is a mere 700 miles from Seattle, I decided to leave on Friday morning, drive all day, and arrive for the 6:00 PM Check In that evening. The weather was fine and clear Thursday night up in the mountains, but when I started driving through Seattle on my way down Friday morning, I discovered (as did all Seattle commuters) that it had snowed about 4", rained, then froze. So, I got to spend my first 2 hours of driving at 10 MPH in 4th gear in solid pack ice on the roadway with all of the regular Seattle commuters. After getting about 20 miles south of town, however, the snow went away the the roads were clear and dry.
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The front straight at Thunderhill, showing a left-hand Turn 1
You must be registered for see images
The back-straight
After arriving in Willows at about 7:30 and checking in with Courtney, I got my car tech inspected and was ready to go for a 7 AM start at the track on Monday morning. Since this was my third Viper Days, I started out in the White (advanced) run group even though this was my first weekend at Thunderhill. However, after a few laps I decided to drive in the Blue (intermediate) run group while I learned the track. This allowed to me raise my comfort level with the new track without having to worry about holding up traffic or pushing too hard. By the end of the weekend, I was running solid White-group times, so I have no doubt that that's where I'll be next year.
You must be registered for see images
Professional Photographers were on hand, and captured this image of me with my instructor (Chris Barone) driving fast and looking good. Chris, as far as I know, is the only instructor with a woodchuck permanently afixed to his helmet
As usual, drivers were divided into four run groups, driving for 30 minutes out of every two hours. Although at my first Viper Days this didn't seem like much driving time, I was (as usual) completely bushed at the end of each day and ready for an early night's sleep. Thunderhill is a fairly complex track with numerous short straights and 15 turns. There are several very blind corners - just about every one of which I managed to screw up at some point. The countryside was just gorgeous at that time of year, with plent of orchards, rolling green hills, and fluffy sheep.
You must be registered for see images
Some engineers at work and I did some calculations, and estimate that if Skip pulled all of the vinyl tape from his car, the weight savings alone would be worth .6 seconds per lap.
The Red (race) group ended up cancelling their Saturday race and rescheduling it for Sunday due to rain. Of course, on Sunday morning it dawned very dreary and wet - so as a consequence at least half of the cars just packed it in and went home. This was unfortunate, since the weather cleared up in the morning and after a slow run session on a damp track we had a clear and dry surface for the rest of the day. In addition, since so many drivers had bailed, there was plenty of empty space for me to get nice uninterupted runs on pretty much all day. For one run session, in fact, I went over 15 minutes without even seeing another car on the 3 mile track.
You must be registered for see images
Figure 1: The hill and turn 5, a sharp left-hander with no weight on the suspension. The correct path is shown here by the race group, the correct speed should be around 30 mph
You must be registered for see images
Figure 2: Artist's conception of what the author looked like after sailing off of the hill at about 45 mph.
Although I was much improved over my first Viper Days in January, I was also pushing myself more than I would have on a new track before. I ran my brakes so hard that they stuck to the rotors (I think) and I had to kick the brake pedal to get it to come back up. Also, after 7 track days in the first 3 months of the year I am now completely comfortable with changing my brake pads and bleeding my brakes in some strange parking lot, I did this and was ready to go for the rest of the weekend. On my second lap I took the hill and turn 5 too fast, and went sailing off the track. Later, I went too hard into the off-camber turn on 3, and managed to slide across half of the infield (no harm done).
In the last three months of Viper Days events - Willow Springs, Button Willow, and Thunderhill, I have significantly improved my driving skills and times. I've learned to throttle steer, threshhold brake, and to keep my stupid foot on the gas when I go too fast into corners and start to slide. I think that all of this experience makes me a safer and better driver both on the track and on the street, and I really regard the money spent on Viper Days as an investment in myself - sort of like the money I spent on my education. Yeah, that's the ticket - it's educational. Now, I just need to figure out how to make it all tax-deductable too.
