Great, Wet Thunderhills Event! (Long)

[Tom Vandervoort]

Listers:  With my S2 tucked in a garage in COLD Minnesota, I was very lucky
to participate in last weekend's Thunderhills Performance Driving School
sponsored by the Norcal quattro Club Chapter of the Audi Club.  Thanks to
Dean Treadway for use of his 4000q.

Apologizing to Scott J for stealing a bit from his reporting format, here's
my report.

Overall, excellent event run almost entirely in the rain.  Nice technical
track 2-3 mile track with a lot of terrain changes and a few VERY
interesting corners.  Rock Dr Larry Boyer ran a fine instructors clinic in
the rain and managed to come up with some new jokes.  The 2Bennett boys,
their right hand Danielle, and a bunch of fine members managed to make
everyone happy!

No major incidents, just a few agricultural excursions into the very wet,
red Northern California MUD!  Excellent attendance in the area of 75 or so
largely quattros with a good sprinkling of Pors*hes and B*W's, a Mus*ang and
a MINI (driven by fellow S2 owners Brandon and Lynette Hull).

BEST driver(s):  Anyone who could drive the rain line fast, but safe.  And a
lot did!

Coolest car:  The Boyer 4000q that many of us know as not too fast from many
track events arriving from the 2Bennett garage on a trailer in the dark
Friday evening.  The ultimate qship (scuse me, Scott) with, are you ready?
An RS2 engine!

2nd Coolest car:  Had to be the MINI in a retro green.  Brandon decided he
should be paid for showing it off to so many people in the rain.

Coolest mod:  Javad's monster custom inter-cooler mounted high in the center
of his Audi 90 grill.  Man, he was pushing air through that car!

Coolest Activity:  Believe it or not, all the excercises on Saturday. The
slalom, braking and lane change were so well organized with so many turns
that the students loved it.

Coolest Activity Dude:  Dean Treadway running the lane change with an orange
cone when the electronics failed.

Coolest move:  Dean jumping out of the way of his student Barb's TT that
drove RIGHT STRAIGHT THROUGH EVERYTHING in the lane toss!

Best Comment:  Daughter Elizabeth commenting on Dean's move saying, "My Dad
sure is ballsy."

Best ride:  Driving the Treadway RS2 on a drying track for a short while
Saturday afternoon with rain tires.  Whoo-boy, it really hauls!  Thanks,
Dean!  Makes me glad we did the RS2 turbo and chip upgrade to the S2!

Best turn:  Has to be Turn 5 where you brake up a steep hill, turn into a
VERY tight +90 degree turn and IMMEDIATELY go down into a VERY steep
downhill off camber right hand sweeper.  Wow!

Best travelers: The Hulls who came from Princeton, NJ, found that MINI
somewhere and had a blast at Thunderhills.

Best event feature:  The FOOD!  The best at any event!  Catered at-track
indoor buffet of brisket and roast potatoes at Noon Saturday.  Catered
buffet of right-off-the-grill fried chicken and spaghetti with baby bay
shrimp at Noon Sunday.  Friday and Saturday night: great Mexican food.

Best weather:  Horizontal wind-driven rain at the top of Turn 5 on the
Friday track walk.

2nd best event feature:  The gas-powered space heaters drying all the
instructors clothing after the Dr. Rock track walk Friday afternoon.

Best folks: Everyone who drove, instructed and ran the event.  Lots of rain,
no complaints and no  serious incidents.

Tom
S2 (It WILL spend next winter in California, beginning with the Nationals
this November!)