Club Lotus Northwest (CLNW) Track Day - 03-Sep

[bgsterling]

Hi all,

Club Lotus Northwest (CLNW) is hosting their second and final track day of the season on Sept 03, 2010 at Portland International Raceway. We gear our track day toward experienced drivers, fast street cars, race cars and Lotus cars. To this end, the program will include Intermediate, Advanced and Race Car Sessions. There will be no Novice Sessions.

Registration preference is given to Lotus cars. More pre-registration and general info can be found at the CLNW website. Hope to see you there!


***UPDATE 18-Aug-2010***
The track day will be holding a special run group for Formula 5000 cars. There are currently about ten cars registered. So while your Lotus is cooling down after a run, you'll be able to enjoy the sights and sounds of some historic, open-wheeled race cars!



-Brad

[Mr.C]

Originally Posted by bgsterling

Hi all,

Club Lotus Northwest (CLNW) is hosting their second and final track day of the season on Sept 03, 2010 at Portland International Raceway. We gear our track day toward experienced drivers, fast street cars, race cars and Lotus cars. To this end, the program will include Intermediate, Advanced and Race Car Sessions. There will be no Novice Sessions.

Registration preference is given to Lotus cars. More pre-registration and general info can be found at the CLNW website. Hope to see you there!

-Brad

$%^*!!
I'll leave PDX on the 28th again. If I was there I would have rented a Lotus Neon (...right...they are made by Lotus, which means I could join) or some other fun car to run with you guys!

[bgsterling]

Originally Posted by Mr.C

$%^*!!
I'll leave PDX on the 28th again. If I was there I would have rented a Lotus Neon (...right...they are made by Lotus, which means I could join) or some other fun car to run with you guys!

You know, after you've flown from Duetschland to PDX and before you've returned, it will probably only cost you $75US-$150US to change the return portion of your trip. It's only a couple of bucks and a few extra days in return for running an ultra rare Lotus Neon or Lotus Mustang at an historic CART track.

I'm just sayin'.

-Brad

[stockysnail]

I'll be there and hopefully my go fast racing stripes situation will be resolved so my car is faster!

[bgsterling]

bump to the top.

-Brad

[bgsterling]

bump to the top.

-Brad

[bgsterling]

Bumping again.

-Brad

[bgsterling]

Bumped again. Also adjusted the count of Formula 5000 cars registered from twenty to ten. Guess I should have talked to our track day director first. Come on out and join us!

-Brad

[JJ714]

I just picked up a 2005 Elise and am interested in the track day requirements.

I don't think I want to get on the track on the 3rd but want to know what I need to do to prepare for the next event.

What constitutes a novice? I assume that would be me. How does one loose the novice title?

I will probably come down to watch and learn but any advice I could get would be appreciated.

[bgsterling]

Originally Posted by JJ714

I just picked up a 2005 Elise and am interested in the track day requirements.

I don't think I want to get on the track on the 3rd but want to know what I need to do to prepare for the next event.

What constitutes a novice? I assume that would be me. How does one loose the novice title?

I will probably come down to watch and learn but any advice I could get would be appreciated.

Congrats on the car.

In the most basic terms, a novice is someone who lacks experience driving on the track. For most HPDEs, novices have an instructor in their passenger seat coaching them and possibly includes some classroom time between runs to talk about basic concepts like flags, braking in a straight line, car balance, "the line", etc. Our events aren't set up that way. We don't have the people to run that kind of support. That's probably the primary reason we don't have a novice group. For the record, I'm not the one making the decisions about who does and doesn't run, so that's just conjecture.

As for losing the novice title, that's based on experience and whoever is hosting the HPDE. For NASA, everyone started as a novice and needed sign off of by an instructor (there may have been a way to avoid that if you could prove significant experience in other events). For the local Porsche club events, it's mostly an honor system, although the track steward will move you to a different group (up or down), if you've placed yourself incorrectly. For our events, it's mostly an honor system but you have to get past our race director who can sniff out the posers, liars, and other types of bozos at 100 yards.

Some of the better advice I received when I started was to always go in the lower group. If someone offers up instruction, take it. When you find yourself running a faster pace than the rest of the track, it's time to move up. At that point, you become a danger on the track. Speed doesn't kill. The difference in speed does.

Please come out on the 3rd and join the fun. It will be a great way to meet a good chunk of the club members. Also, you can probably find your way into the passenger seat of someone's car for a couple hot laps. Thirdly, the latest rumor is the local Lotus/Maserati/Ferrari dealer is going to be there and is bringing a couple cars. Finally, look for Mark Viscov, our race director. He'll be busy, but he can answer your question more definitively about what makes a novice and how to not be one.

Again, congrats on the car. Hope to see you next Friday!

-Brad

[ttime4four]

Extended forecast for Friday say Mostly Sunny and 75 degrees.

I could use some dry laps after my last effort.

[s4jones]

See you kids Friday. CLNW always has the most interesting paddocks. From vintage Cortinas, Europas, Austin Healeys and Jags to open wheel formula racecars -- all queued up to test and tune for the race weekend. Definitely one of my favorite club event groups.

[bgsterling]

Originally Posted by s4jones

CLNW always has the most interesting paddocks. From vintage Cortinas, Europas, Austin Healeys and Jags to open wheel formula racecars -- all queued up to test and tune for the race weekend. Definitely one of my favorite club event groups.

Thanks for that. It's a reflection of the efforts of our race director (well, and the varied tastes of our members). I'm hoping our club member with the 2-11 shows with it instead of his Exige. Also, I think our member with the Lotus 9 is bringing it. No promises on either, but it would make for some great photo ops.

-Brad

[s4jones]

Originally Posted by bgsterling

Thanks for that. It's a reflection of the efforts of our race director (well, and the varied tastes of our members). I'm hoping our club member with the 2-11 shows with it instead of his Exige. Also, I think our member with the Lotus 9 is bringing it. No promises on either, but it would make for some great photo ops.

-Brad

You mean this?



I'll charge up my DSLR. Maybe catch some flyby video with the HD flip too.

[bgsterling]

Last bump. Here's what Weather Underground has to say about our track day:

Friday
Sunny in the morning...then partly sunny. Highs around 85. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming light in the afternoon.

Hurry up and finish your track prep (I'm mostly talking to myself here)! Looking forward to a fun and safe day.

[Radium]

Alright! The weather forecast looks promising.

This will be our first CLNW event and we look forward to meeting everyone. Our R&D 2006 Elise prototype kit will be running the track Friday.



We hope to see all of you there...

-Radium Engineering Staff

[s4jones]

Snapped a few pics between sessions.

I wish they all came out this well (unfortuantely, I need more practice and should use a faster shutter speed when they fly by start/finish):

















Formula 5000 cars were fast (and loud; 103 dB...no way):


Mark Viskov chatting with Dennis Palatov in the DP4:


Palatov Motorsport electric-powered prototype:


Some of the FF crew waiting for their session:


Visitor cars:








Edit: Oops. I forgot to add this snapshot of the Lotus club lined up in the cool kids' corral.

[Radium]

What a great day for racing. This was our first time with CLNW and we had a blast. We would like to thank Mark Viskov and CLNW for hosting the event. It was a pleasure to meet a lot of you and hope to continue to see you at other CLNW events and track sessions. We will have a full write-up on our website soon, as well as our on-car video footage.

Here are a few shots from the day:

[bgsterling]

As others have said, the track day was a blast. Mark put on his usual, well run, low stress event. He's the man. Met some great folks, saw some cool cars, and got smoked by the Radium Elise that was detuned to "only" 315 hp at the wheels. Here are a couple Lotus car photos from the event. I'm trying not to post any dups. We'll be getting more photos up on the CLNW website in the near future, so these are just some teasers.

-Brad

[ttime4four]

Originally Posted by Radium

What a great day for racing. This was our first time with CLNW and we had a blast. We would like to thank Mark Viskov and CLNW for hosting the event. It was a pleasure to meet a lot of you and hope to continue to see you at other CLNW events and track sessions. We will have a full write-up on our website soon, as well as our on-car video footage.

Here's a little video for 'ya...

Chase cam view of you at PIR

Chase cam view of you at PIR