RE: Beatting a dead horse??? - Thunderhill track day

["Buchholz, Steven" <Steven.Buchholz@kla-tencor.com>]

> Is anyone working on the possibility of organizing a track day at
> Thunderhill Park the week after the Monterey Historics.  I don't know my
> exact plans yet, and I may have to rush back to a job like many of you,
> but
> if I can take a few days off....  A track day there would be great!  The
> track looks beautiful and I don't know when I'll be in California with my
> car again, so I am thinking this would be a great time for some of use
> club
> members to hit a track in CA!!!!
> 
... this is an item that is currently being discussed.  I don't know how
many are aware of the distance between Laguna Seca and Thunderhill, but
suffice it to say that you'd have to get up VERY early one day to drive from
Monterey to Willows in time to have an event ... and given a sufficient
amount of track time for all would mean that you'd be hitting the sack back
in Monterey VERY late that evening ... or VERY early the next morning.  For
those reasons I don't think I'd recommend even attempting that.  I would
feel awful if some audi fan wrecked their car or hurt temselves while
driving to or from such an event just due to exhaustion.  

Unfortunately there aren't many options available in terms of real tracks
that can be used for an event.  Since the historics are a week later than
they usually are, Laguna Seca will not be available after the event as
SCRAMP needs to begin preparations for the upcoming race (I believe it is a
CART event).  There is another venue that might be a bit more reasonable,
that being Sears Point, which is perhaps 3 hours drive each way from
Monterey.  I believe that this possibility was investigated as well, with
the conclusion that the track was not available.  If memory serves though, I
heard a rumor that it was reserved by Audi for the days after the historics
...

One of the other concerns I'd have about a track event is that it costs
money to rent a track like T'hill or Sears Point, and people are going to be
putting down enough cash just to be able to attend the historics.  

Right now, it seems as thought the leading proposition is to hold an
autocross event at a nearby closed down airfield in a city named Marina,
just north of Monterey, on Friday.  There is currently activity in the
A4.org group in trying to put such an event together, and it is looking
promising.  The track is within minutes of Laguna Seca; there is going to be
an event sponsored by another club on Thursday there, and it looks like
we'll be able to use the equipment from that event.  It also appears to me
anyway that the folks who are in charge of the NASA autocross series (Dennis
and Peggy Hale) are closet Audi fans.  The costs for such an event are more
reasonable too ... we might even be able to find a sponsor to reduce the
fees even more.  The biggest issue about such an event is that it will
require a LOT of assistance from the participants, to ensure that the folks
who are organizing the event aren't forced to get up early to set up the
track, stay at Marina all day to run the event (and thereby miss out on any
other historics-related activities that are going on simultaneously) and
stay late to clean up and put everything away.  From my take on things right
now, this is the biggest issue that might kill such an event.  

So ... that is what's up as I understand it as of today.  Thanks for
bringing the issue up Dan, I was somewhat underwhelmed by the response my
earlier message about audifans related events evoked.  I'd like to hear how
many folks might be interested in attending such an event on Friday and any
other ideas that others might have.  I think it would be a nice plus to be
able to have some of the same sort of fun all the other non-Audi cars that
are allowed to race at the historics are being allowed to have!

Steve Buchholz
San Jose, CA (USA)