To the List;
Last weekend was the CSRG season finale at Thunderhill Park Raceway in
beautiful Willows, CA (about an hour north of Sacramento off I-5). Weather is
always a question here, and without a doubt, this was the most gorgeous
weekend I've ever experienced there....perfect temperatures, lots of sun, no
wind....absolutely perfect!!!
The crowd was on the small side (estimated at 110 cars), but that made for
lots of track time. It also made for rather small race groups, so many ended
up circling alone, rather than having someone to race with. CSRG invited the
West Coast Vintage NASCAR group (my apologies as I don't have the correct name
of their newly formed club), which provided a venue for "vintage" NASCAR cars.
Twelve cars showed and put on a wonderful show of speed and sound....standing
next to the front straight wall when they go by at full chat is an
experience!! Cars of note include an ex Dale Ernhardt Chevy, Bill Elliot T-
bird, and a funky, but neat '71 Torino ex-Bobby Unser (one of his rookie year
cars). This was my personal favorite (slowest of the pack, but more
interesting than the faster, spec frame/engine later model vintages).
Another weekend highlight was touring on the new track addition, bringing TH
up to something around 3 mi. The new pavement wasn't quite ready for racing,
but a 3 lap tour each on Sat and Sun behind a pace car, showed us quite a bit
of its new character, including some fast, banked, uphill corners, a blind
kink at the top of the hill, a long, downhill straight into a B&B left-hander
(brakes and balls!), then some tight S's onto a short uphill straight along
the back side of the current pits, then an off camber, downhill, tight right
hander to rejoin the old straightaway. I can't wait to try it at
speed...although I suspect they will have to add some intimidating K-wall to
keep cars from entering the pits from the rear. Also, of some concern is
where we'll find enough corner workers to man all the new corners...we seem to
have trouble finding enough for the 8-9 corners we now have???
The weekend's racing came off cleanly as far as I know, and everyone seemed to
enjoy themselves. A final lap blast by yours truly to try and catch the
Corvette in front of me (I just had to try and humiliate the macho-machine
with my little English refrigerator) unfortunately ended with me going agri-
racing in a dust cloud outside turn 2. After 2 360's, I rejoined the pack 4
places down, but none the worse for wear (a benefit of the Thunderhill
topography...nothing to hit!). At least I have a rather exciting video from
both my in-car camera, and from Gary Kuntz's, who was right behind me at the
time!!
A modest group came from SOVREN, and their participation was welcomed by CSRG.
A hosted cocktail party Friday night, and an awards dinner Sat night provided
a fun social schedule....next time, just don't order the Salmon at the Blue
Gum....I should have known....cowboy country, miles from an ocean, at a
banquet of 200....don't have the fish!!! Some VERY NICE awards were
presented, along with some light-hearted ones....congrats to the lucky
winners.
CSRG can look to next year having pulled off a very successful season of fun
events. With the new track configurations at Thunderhill, there are at least
6 different ways to run it, so there should be renewed interest in trying this
track, as it can be like going to a new track each time!! And if the weather
can be as perfect as this past weekend, there are no more excuses for not
going to TH!!
I haven't decided if I'm going to VARA Buttonwillow in November yet or not.
It sounds like fun, too, but I may decide to give this a break until next
season. If I'm not at BW, hope to see you somewhere on the track next year.
A group of us from CA are planning an invasion back EAST next summer, where we
plan to do Watkins Glen and Lime Rock....so hide your children!!!!
Later,
Myles H. Kitchen
1965 Lotus (enjoying a deserved rest) Cortina Mk1 #128
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