CANCELLED -- Auto Club Speedway - June 6-7 w/ Speed Ventures

[PaddyPrix]

Do you like to drive over 140mph? Who doesn't?
If you said something along the lines of hell yeah, come on down to Auto Club Speedway and knock some dust off on the Roval.
3 Straightaways? Check.
20+ Turns? Yup.
High banking turns? You got it, friend.
Want to see the Albuquerque Stripper fall apart in its much anticipated shakedown run? ME TOO.

https://www.speedventures.com/Events/Detail.aspx?id=785 - $199 for 4, maybe 5 sessions depending on registration numbers.

Who's going?

Paddyprix - Sat/Sun
flyhalf - maybe

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[Biggus Dickus]

Do you like to drive over 140mph? Who doesn't?
If you said something along the lines of hell yeah, come on down to Auto Club Speedway and knock some dust off on the Roval.
3 Straightaways? Check.
20+ Turns? Yup.
High banking turns? You got it, friend.
Want to see the Albuquerque Stripper fall apart in its much anticipated shakedown run? ME TOO.

https://www.speedventures.com/Events/Detail.aspx?id=785 - $199 for 4, maybe 5 sessions depending on registration numbers.

Who's going?

Paddyprix - Sat/Sun

How many laps do you get on the Roval? Or how long are the sessions?

 

[PaddyPrix]

How many laps do you get on the Roval? Or how long are the sessions?

I haven't run with SV in like 6 months now, but they are 20 or 25 minute sessions, depending on the registrations and how many groups they're running. Generally 2x open passing (Race Conditions) split between high and low speed, and then 3x Point-by-Passing of High, Intermediate, and Beginner. Generally speaking, most laps are give or take 2 minutes, most Coyotes are mid-high 1:5x's, depending on traffic. First session is somewhat of a shit show with everybody thinking they're fast, but after that first session, they pre-grid by lap times, so you're then running in a pack of people around your speed so it feels competitive and you get a good number of laps at speed. Doing the math, $199 for 100ish minutes of fun is about as good bang/buck as you can get.

 

[Biggus Dickus]

I haven't run with SV in like 6 months now, but they are 20 or 25 minute sessions, depending on the registrations and how many groups they're running. Generally 2x open passing (Race Conditions) split between high and low speed, and then 3x Point-by-Passing of High, Intermediate, and Beginner. Generally speaking, most laps are give or take 2 minutes, most Coyotes are mid-high 1:5x's, depending on traffic. First session is somewhat of a shit show with everybody thinking they're fast, but after that first session, they pre-grid by lap times, so you're then running in a pack of people around your speed so it feels competitive and you get a good number of laps at speed. Doing the math, $199 for 100ish minutes of fun is about as good bang/buck as you can get.

Sounds good - I have a new set of PSC2s I need to put on, so perfect timing - maybe I'll break them in at the track.

Right now I have PUP 5w30 - OK for track duty or would you recommend something else ? (Keep in mind this would be my first time at a track).

 

[PaddyPrix]

Sounds good - I have a new set of PSC2s I need to put on, so perfect timing - maybe I'll break them in at the track.

Right now I have PUP 5w30 - OK for track duty or would you recommend something else ? (Keep in mind this would be my first time at a track).

My first time track checklist (apologies if I go too dumb, just listing everything)
Fluids, make sure they're all good. Don't really need to go crazy expensive super-race fluids, just need them moderately fresh. Check your coolant, brake, and engine fluids. I skipped Trans and Diff because if this is your first track day, chances are you haven't put it through the beating it shall soon see. If you know how to do your brakes, flushing them the night or so beforehand might be a good thing to do, Motul RBF600 is decently available and hard to beat for the price (~18 / 500mL).
Tires, make sure you've got some tread, 6/32" or more, preferably. Think about grabbing a quick tire pressure gauge, they make some inexpensive ones on Amazon for like $30, don't really need the expensive Longacre ones, the precision is nice, but +/- 1psi is fine for this. If not, you can find me easily, I'm like Ronald McDonald out of his clown suit. Come by after your session, check your pressure, and likely bleed a few pounds out. Check your door jamb, but most want you at 32# hot, and while you drive around the streets "cold" at 32, that'll soon go to 39-40 once track hot, which will balloon up and reduce your contact patch giving you less grip than you'd like. Those gauges are accurate, but the TPMS in your cars are not, for instance, my car will tell me OMG I CAN'T SEE YOUR TIRE PRESSURE on my 3rd/4th session after running on my race rims which don't even have TPMS. I have PSC2's on mine as well, and they're fantastic tires, but do give them 2-3 laps to come up to speed, once they do, you'll notice the grip coming alive.
Helmet, if you have one, great, needs to generally be a Snell/SA2015, if not, you can rent one for like 25-30 bucks. If you do this enough, might consider getting one of your own, they have some good ones that are like $200.
Clothing, jeans and t-shirt should be fine. Don't go out there in shorts or yoga pants, because in the event of a fire, you'll instantly go up in smoke, whereas cotton takes a lot more work to do so, and hopefully you're out and away by then.
Brakes, chances are, you have street pads, and you'll soon learn about brake fade. Basically, coming off the straight you'll be 120+ and need to get to 40-50 for turn 3, and you'll be shedding 60-70+ mph a few times a lap, and if you're doing that every 2 minutes for 10 laps, you'll put them through more torture than they've ever gone through. There will be a point where you'll start to realize that your brakes are going, where you have to push harder and harder and/or longer and longer to get the same braking effect that you had just a lap before in the same spot. At that point, it might be a good time to come into the pits and coast around the pits for a few minutes to get some air circulation and let them cool off, rather than rushing to your setup and turning off. If you have the means, getting a set of brake pads for track use is probably a good idea, the only problem is that they don't really make dual purpose pads. The race compound ones are meant for extreme heat and take a few laps to even get up to temperature, so they'll just kill your rotors and make tons of noise and dust. There are some more entry level race pads that still do great on the track and are slightly better streetable, but if you can afford the space to jack up your car and slip pads in and out, you're probably better off having designated sets instead of trying for some dual purpose unicorn that will be okay at both, not great at either.
As always, safety first, but with that said, on your first track day, you would be best trying to learn the lines, and work on stopping too early, and then each lap, going slightly deeper, or accelerating a little earlier, or nibbling off a little more of the line and working your turn in/out. Chances are, despite what you think, you're not running 10/10ths pace, hopefully you're getting up to 6-7ths by the end of the day. Most importantly, have fun. You're going to have a real hard time going home and driving a normal speed, counting the minutes to the next track day.

 

[Flyhalf]

If NASA event in Sonoma will be cancelled than I'll be there. Fun track. And need to try my new aero!

 

[Skypark350]

I'll be at autocross Sunday. In the market for a 350, and I neeeeed to know what this feels like. Can I pay you to drive me around the autocross course on one of your breaks? I'll be there until about 1230 most likely. I'll ditch my day at X for a ride-along...

 

[cmorrigo]

I'll be there on Sunday. Looking forward to some fun! Craig

 

[PaddyPrix]

Cancelled.

Unfortunately Auto Club Speedway was unable to obtain approval from the County of San Bernardino in time to proceed with our scheduled event this weekend, June 6th and 7th. We apologize for the last minute notice, but we were hopeful and wanted to give the track as much time as possible to work with the County. Note that we are very confident the County will open up the Speedway to events like ours before our next scheduled event in Fontana on August 15th and 16th.

Great, just what I need, more time with the family.

 

[1 old racer]

Bummer I got everything ready over the weekend looking forward to taking it for few laps.

 

[TeeLew]

So was this an open track event or an autocross? I'm looking to play around at some SoCal autox's this summer.

 

[1 old racer]

go to www.speedventures.com and check out what, when and where. Also for your autocross interest check out www.solo2.com

 

[PaddyPrix]

Bummer I got everything ready over the weekend looking forward to taking it for few laps.

What a beaut. Here's hoping that San Berdo opens up for good, or, the riots kill us all before the next earliest ACS date which is mid-August with Speed Ventures. If anybody knows of another group that's running it earlier, please feel free to drop a link.

So was this an open track event or an autocross? I'm looking to play around at some SoCal autox's this summer.

There are a few groups in SoCal, ones I've previously run with are Speed District, Speed Ventures, and OnGrid, which with others share our local tracks like Auto Club, Buttonwillow, Chuckwalla, and Willow Springs. You can also join NASA and/or SCCA and do some of their events as well. MotorsportReg is another nice site for all types of racing, which can help you find some other new groups like the BMW Owner's Group, Porche Club of America, etc that you may qualify for.
edit - Speed Ventures at Auto Club generally rents both the AutoX course as well as the Roval course, which is their road racing version (similar to Charlotte, Daytona, Indy, etc) who do half of it on the big banked turns, and then go through the infield. Speaking for myself, I'm generally only interested in the track/road race events because that's where my interest lies. There are plenty of other auto-xers here, and because they can pop a course up in any large opening, there are probably a bunch of them, supposing you know where to look.

 

[onosqv]

The same guys who set up the autox's @ SV events are running at Big Bear Airport next week:

Cooler weather & a bit more design variation compared to that inside lot at ACS. I will be there Saturday, not in my Mustang, though.

 

[PaddyPrix]

Nice! I'm going to Buttonwillow this weekend (#13 and #25 config) which is being run by NASA, as are a couple from TMO. 150+ cars will be there, of which there are only 4 Mustangs.

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