Fellow Trevorites-
I have been in the throes of building a new race car for far too long (I think
we all know how that goes), so the ole internal juices have been flowing for a
while without an outlet. Serendipity arrived via a Solo 1 experience at a new
SCCA track near here, Thunderhill. The track is new enough that they want
people to get used to going there (read, they need the business), so the rules
for this event were severly "relaxed", as in I could take an enclosed street
car for the day. Well we all know what fit that description..out came the
2500, a little precheck on the mechanicals and off we went at 4AM Sunday. The
track is about 3 miles long and can be configured many different ways. We
ended up on a loop of just over a mile, lots of elevation changes (with a
blind corner at the top of one), a couple of slow corners that trick you into
going too quickly into a set of esses, one long straight and one short
downhill straight.
After the usual "What the heck issat...some kinda Triumph?" nonsense, we set
out. The track was tons-o-fun, and the car was faultless...well ok it would
overheat after about 5 hard laps and I would have to "cruise a coupla laps to
get down out of the "red"but the temp there was about 110 in the shade and who
knows how hot on the track.
Many of the competitors will be thinking about a "TBR" (That's what timing and
scoring keep calling it) as the little funny lookin all stock and street tired
car started passin lots of the production raced sticky tired cars. OK, so I
did get the black flag once after several laps of the blue flag and a Corvette
on my tail! But he could have passed me anywhere...if he ever got close
enough. The straights were just short enough so that all my cornering
advantage dissappeared at the end, then the TVR would pull away in the
"twisties". By late in the day, both of the Corvettes did get below my times,
as well as many other cars that really should have, but I had a blast and
ended up faster than a lot of cars that didn't expect it.
TVR's really are COOL...or maybe make that HOT...
Nick in Nor Cal
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