They go out there in T1 after every restart, and usually somehow manage to reel it back in, albeit losing places in the process.....this was actually a very entertaining race that was in doubt right until the end. I don't really watch NASCAR except when they are at WGI--they were turning 1:14sec race laps which means I have to find about 25 sec/lap

Turned out to be a big race day, at least on TV--right after WGI Indycar was on and right now IMSA is on from Road America; glad I got everything done early. Too hot to do much outside today anyway!

 

Nicely done keeping up with those Porsches!

 

I wonder if the $599 price tag for novices is to encourage them to go someplace else...

 

That includes the cost for an instructor. He is making the actual students pay the cost for their instructors instead of of spreading the cost for the instructors over all of the attendees, like they used to do. I think you will find most event organizers are doing this, including GVC.

Hmmmm that is only $400 a day. Seems cheap to me. Then again, this is coming from some who is looking at the early GVC 2 day event there for less than that. Hey, I know, you could come to this GVC event too...

 

I like to watch that race too. After a really big crash about 5 years ago (maybe more?) with them having 3, 4 or maybe 5 cars wide at T1, I think they figured out that doesn’t work. As you said, it is a loosing proposition to go out there. I drove one of Tony V’s race trucks on the short track for 6 laps and turned a 1:25 (per Harry’s lap timer) and got a fist bump from Bob M... I was surprised I was that close to the stock car time.

Not hard to find 25 sec/lap... Just stuff another 700 hp up under the hood and you’ll get there. You know, WGI is known to be a horsepower track...

Nope, I think you will find others are doing this.

Thanks
And those cars are tough one to keep up with when driving a MINI....

 

Niagara PCA gets $700 with a garage for their two-day advanced event at the Glen--two run groups only, ridiculous track time.
TM gets $415? for one day of open track with a garage at the Glen and 5+ hours of track time for the day.
Mid-Ohio PCA gets $735 for 3 days with a garage at my upcoming event at Mid-O; thirteen 25-30 min sessions over the 3 days.
All of these cost less and offer lots more track time to the event I was originally referring to.
No GVC for me

 

Ah... Shucks.... No GVC...
Didn’t think you would go... It is 2 days of “school” style driving; no open track time. That will be my last event for the season. October is family month with 5 birthdays to attend.

Cost per lap... But no matter how you look at it, it is expensive to do this. The 3 day GVC event at WGI I am going to next week is almost $1000, but with a lot of open track time.

 

Family first. Always. Especially in my case as I don't have much left......

No disputing the cost of this "hobby" (like heroin is a hobby)--if you don't do a ton of days it's easier to justify the cost, but if you're one of those goofballs (don't ) that can't stay away for more than a week or two it adds up fast

 

Bob Mitten! He was/is a real beaut as my dad would say.....awhile back I was with him at a G52 event and, unbeknownst to me, he had had a falling out with Tony Funicello of TM. When I asked him if he'd been driving with them (TM) he offered two short words, the first one starting with the letter F He actually raced in the ARCA series for a while so he was the real deal......

 

That's only $400/day so no worse than SCDA. It says, "Novice entry fee is $599 and includes Virtual Classroom, Corner Observers and Instructor Lead-Shadow." Add in the helmet and it's $1,000 for curious newbies to see if track days are something they want to try. Steep. It will be interesting to see how big the novice groups are in upcoming, full-day events.

 

He talks kindly of you, though...

But he can be “direct”.

He and I have kept in touch and he had been coaching me on how to drive WGI when I was coming up through the ranks. I learned a lot from him as well as Seymour. Yes, he was the real deal. I went to a race he was in at NJMP. Unfortunately, during the race he had a front rotor explode going into T1 on the Thunderbolt track. My opinion was that it wasn’t put on right by his mechanic. I think that was the last of his stock car days.

 

Oh, he's great.....he used to get such a kick out of seeing all the stuff that came out of my car--no trailer, no nothing, arrive and drive If you see him please give him my best!

And quite the driver he was--I learned a LOT about giving early points to him, Seymour, Tony, Lee Miller, Big Sam McCarthy (who always asked me "How's the Mini running?".... I hope I have the name right as it's been a long time) and all of those truck guys. Great guys all. Vivid memories of pointing Bob by out of the B/S and watching him go sideways down the carousel

As an aside, I just came from Anthony C at Towne--he picked his car up in Ohio and drove straight to the 1/8th mile dragstrip at Lancaster to check the launch control. You get a free ticket for one run, the guy told him if he runs less than 8.60 he needs a helmet for the next one. He ran 7 flat!! Launch control indeed......so watch your mirrors and limber up that left arm for GVC

 

I agree, that is a lot of money--glad I'm no longer a novice

As much as I've missed going up to Mosport I do NOT miss paying the freight up there--everything is inflated. Entry fees, gas, lodging, food.....last time I ate at Kelsey's Bar (their version of Fridays) a burger (veggie, VV ), small salad and a club soda came to $34 w/o tip The entry fees for the events I drive at up there range from $650-$775 per day, and along with everything else you're paying big even with the exchange going our way. A few years back when both currencies were at par I was really crying

 

Those are great stories...

As for watching for Tony - he’ll have to stand in line as I will be pointing everyone by... I’ll likely be the slowest car there, as usual...

I am not as familiar with 1/8th mile drag times as I am 1/4 mile times as to what is fast. But I did look up some MINI times and found 8.9 sec for an 1/8th and 13.55 for the 1/4. That is smokin’ for a quarter, so I have to believe 8.9 is quick for 1/8th. So, 7.0 for an 1/8th must be blistering...

 

Oh, it is. I'm not much of a drag guy either (does that sound, um, funny? ) but I do know that is fast. The kicker is that he said he was so excited to try it out that his reaction time was 1.4sec, which is awful, and he still did that time. Yikes.

And as for being the slowest car there, you're preaching to the choir. With the speeds that some of these cars go by me I'm surprised there's still paint on the car

 

I wondered that myself. It's either that or Elivan found he has to pay instructors in addition to giving them track time.

 

Elivan is running a business. Discouraging newcomers would not be in his best interest. I think the price of the track has gone up and he is trying to cover the cost of instructor track time. Actually paying instructors would mean having to do up a payroll system and I would think that would really complicate things...

 

I just looked up the October GVC event at WGI. For Group S, which I am in - open track on Friday, 4 - 25 min sessions plus a 50 min session combined with instructors on Saturday and 5 - 25 min sessions on Sunday. $900. Also, Instructors are charged $200 for the 3 days. So GVC is doing the charges differently than SCDA.

 

Does Elivan comp all of his instructors? That's generally how instructors "get paid", by not having to pay the entry fee. Many of the private groups that I know of do so; Chin and TM definitely do and I think HOD and AutoInterests do also. Most of the PCA and BMW groups offer a reduced rate. Last week at WGI I was talking to an instructor who has knowledge of the inner workings there and he gave me a figure WGI charges for a 3-day weekend. It's staggering, and it's still not the most expensive one I've heard of (that distinction goes to a 3-day weekend at Daytona). And it's in large part to pay for the insurance needed to put these things on.

 

And it's basically a family business to boot so he really has a vested interest in the bottom line.

 

The best I can tell, Elivan still comps his instructors. And, yes, very vested in the bottom line...

With PCA and BMWCCA, they are just making sure they cover the costs. And I think they have cut back on the number of instructors they have. I would guess that Covid has increased costs too. More people the track needs to have just for checking people in and what not...

One thing I heard from someone associated with LRP is that the track could stay open by just relying on the track day events and the LRP Club and no races. This came up during some of the noise ordinance discussion. There are people in the town who want no noise from the track. Skip Barber apparently told them that would mean no races. That would be ok by him. He then told them how many $$$$ of lost revenue there would be for the area if there were to be no races. Ooops...

For WGI, I heard that they cover the track costs for the year from that one stock car event. The track day events and other races are gravy.

 

I wouldn't doubt it, pre-COVID that race used to attract close to 100,000 fans. Don't know how many this year.....the one and only time I went to see the race the "fans" consisted largely of people sleeping on top of their RVs, motor homes, etc. which were surrounded by a ring of beer cans on the ground

Speaking of the Glen, Anthony just did a small repair for me at the shop --l/f wheel liner was shredded and we pulled out about a pound of rubber snakes, rocks, etc. from inside the sill. Maybe I'll be that much faster now Anyway, he told me that his friend who was just at the Glen said there is a large crack in the pavement in the carousel now. Don't know exactly where, how bad, if they fixed it etc. but that's the first problem I've heard of there since the repave, what, 5 or 6 years ago? Track is used all the time and the "big cars" really beat the crap out of it so that it took so long to "fail" shows what a great job they did from the bottom (I've heard they went down like 8 feet) to the top with the FIA top coat. Big money but, again, NASCAR's got it.

 

I’m there next week... I guess I’ll see how well they fixed it, if at all. Ya, the stock cars boys and girls really beat the snot out of the track, and the grounds around it...

 

Reminds me of some photos my grandfather took when we went to the USGP in 1962.

 

OMG!
Those pictures are priceless!
That old Studebaker is great... And maybe an Austin Healy in the background.
Love the can of cooking oil on the ground in the other picture.