Laguna... Tell us what happened?

[Jad]

Those of us unable to attend, need some stories so we can live vicariously through you cool people

[993Panzer]

In general the San Diego contingent did a great job of driving. Kris and Martin were driving really well and as usual kicked my butt. The track is too awesome to describe. The Cork Screw is the most fun turn I've ever driven and turn 9 is one of the scariest on par with 8 & 9 at Big Willow. There is more banking in many of the turns than any video game or in car video can show. The straights actually seemed shorter than what you see in the video games. It is definetly worth the trip. I'd recommend it to anyone. POC was a great host for the event and made everyone feel welcome.

It was great fun watching Chuck chase Jackie around the track. Chuck had an issue with a blown tire on the way to the track, I'll let him elaborate the details.

From what I saw and heard everyone had a great time and represented San Diego well. There are many more people with POC Time Trial licenses.

Oh yeah, the 92 dB exhaust thing really sucks. I had to run up the hill in 4th gear to pass. Sheila's STOCK GT3 got nailed as well and we added some of those funky long pipes pointing to the drivers side and up to get her to pass sound. I think Jackie Corwin's 944 was nailed as well. I think we had 88 violations on Friday and 3 on Saturday. Good work by all to make the county happy.

I'm sure others have much more entertaining stories.

Ask Tawfik about his power steering pump.

Leigh's spin, under Yellow!!!!

[Irksome]

Oh yeah, the 92 dB exhaust thing really sucks. I had to run up the hill in 4th gear to pass. Sheila's STOCK GT3 got nailed as well

Wow. I'll have to listen again next autocross, but my impression of all of the GT3s that run in SDR is that they are nearly as quiet as the Boxsters (when stock, at least). That's a crazy standard to set for noise limits!

[993Panzer]

Oh yeah, the 92 dB exhaust thing really sucks. I had to run up the hill in 4th gear to pass. Sheila's STOCK GT3 got nailed as well

Wow. I'll have to listen again next autocross, but my impression of all of the GT3s that run in SDR is that they are nearly as quiet as the Boxters (when stock, at least). That's a crazy standard to set for noise limits!

That's what you get when they build multimillion dollar homes near a race track. The residents don't like the noise so they get a law passed against the track. They have a permanent building (with air conditioning unit on the roof) to measure all events. It's run by the county. The meter is right about where your engine is at peak torque. In third gear my car was between 5500 and 6000 RPM at the meter and read 94.1 dB. In 4th gear I was at 4200 and passed with 91.4 dB. Sheila's GT3 (stock exhaust) was just over 6000 RPM and read 95.9 dB. OUCH!!!!

It's still worth the trip. I'll be going again.

[jenniferreinhardt]

Wife/Pit Crew Report:
As a very busy pit crew member, (Martin can elaborate), a supporter of our dual PCA/POC Drivers, and a believer in camaraderie between racing clubs/enthusiasts, Laguna Seca was a nice experience. The racers had a good rapport with eachother. POC layed out a warm welcome. Thanks.

[mrondeau]

For the second event in a row, David and I were done on Friday. Our motor decided that it had enough fun after about 3 sessions. The sessions we had were a blast. The corkscrew has to be driven to believed and turn nine is the scariest one out there. There are a lot of blind corners and you just have to work up to speed. I will be going back next year with a different motor.

On the plus side, the POC was great to us. The PCA crowd had a wonderful time and I got a HANS device from Katina for my birthday!

Since I wasn't driving on Friday afternoon and Saturday I took some pictures. About 1300 of them.

Here are the pics from the track walk and Friday's sessions. I'll do a separate post for Saturday's as there are 1100 pictures to download and sort through.

Track Walk: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25388930@N ... 927411947/

Friday sessions: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25388930@N ... 938614131/

[John Straub]

Sounds like you guys had a great time...wish I could have been there!

[Autobahn]

Looks and sounds like you guys had a great time. No way on earth I could have gone. We were up the week before for our annual trip to the Monterey Historics. Check out the awesome shots that Greg took of my friend going off with his McLaren M8B. Rahal passed him on the last lap after his little gravel run. I guess that's what you get with 2200lbs & 750HP and almost no brakes.







He told me it drives like a 9000hp school bus. :lol:


PHOTOS BY GREG PHILLIPS

[Jad]

I am not sure how I would drive a 9000 HP school bus??? Doubt it would be very fast though...

[martinreinhardt]

I had a great weekend which didn't start without problems, actually nothing but car troubles everyday. First my car didn't pass the 92 db limit even with the specially made mufflers. The solution was to point the 90 deg pipes up instead of downwards so the sound wouldn't bounce of the ground. I tried the steel wool trick, but I lost one in turn 5 and the other one was hanging out of the exhaust like spaghetti.



Then, when that was fixed my car started stalling again while on track. Tawfik, Garrett and I, with help from Kris, Dave and Phil, troubleshooted the problem. Funny, it took Mechanics, Engineers and a Endodontist to find the problem. It turned out that the car ran way too rich. I replaced every part related to fuel-air mixture with the exception of the DME and the Airflow meter, which were next on the list. I decided to do the easiest job first and replaced the airflow meter. Thanks Garrett for having an extra one to loan.

The problem seemed to be gone after replacing the airflow meter on Sunday and I was able to finish the weekend with good lap times.

Overall, it was a fun weekend and POC was great to us PCA/New POC members - Thanks especially to John Payne. The Time Trial format is a bit different from the PCA. We were held up by slower cars, but the officials were responsive to our suggestions and tried to improve the situation. I am looking forward to the POC Cup Race License so I can run with Orange or Red run groups. Kris, Dave, Bernie, myself and a couple other POC guys had great fun chasing each other.



It's definitely one of my favorite tracks along with California Speedway and Buttonwillow.

We are still waiting on the official results being posted on mylaps.com.

[Tawfik]

Just got home after a long drive down the scenic 1 and a stop at Pismo beach to drive the Land rover on the sand dunes
First time for me on this track and I can t believe the experience.
As an aded bonus, the track was extremely easy on tires.
I develpped a slow power steering fluid leak on saturday and continued driving throughout the WE.
Had a scary moment when I overfilled the reservoir, and after 1 lap it started leaking heavily on the exhaust and filled my cabin with smoke right before the corkscrew.
It was good parctice reaching for the fire extinguisher.
As usual had to compete with my good old buddy Jeff Schmidt and his Hoosiers
I didn t see the official times but my AIM timer showed me a 1:45.33. My fastest time of the WE and the only full clear lap I ever had all WE long Using RA1's.
Had lots of fun with the rest of the San Diego Posse.
Wife took lots of pictures and I will post them as soon as I can.

Looking fwd to Pahrump.

[ChuckS]

We just got back.
What a great track! The corkscrew is so different than anything I have experienced. Watching vintage cars fly through it still didn't prepare me for what to expect from the driver seat. But the track is not just the corkscrew. Nine is plenty scary, and several other turns reward skill and precision, but punish sloppiness. Overall, fantastic track and venue. The facilities, views and campgrounds were great!

John Payne and the entire POC group went out of their way to make all of us feel welcome. It is often difficult to join into a new group when everyone else knows each other, but everyone seemed to make a point of introducing themselves and getting to know us. The 944 crowd were already asking when I was going to be racing with them.

Debby and I did have our challenges. We missed the Thursday track walk when we blew a tire on the Tahoe. After replacing it, the Tahoe wouldn't start. After AAA induced screw ups, we were towed to a Chevrolet dealer after 5 pm. The service advisor was a Porsche guy who stayed late and helped out tremendously. It was fixed Friday morning and we were able to get there in time for me to make two runs at the end of the day by running in both Time Trial sessions. The rest of the weekend was very enjoyable.

As has been said before, the entire San Diego group made a great showing! We took many of the top Time Trial spots (and had lap times very competitive with their racers), had no accidents and only one minor off track experience (with no damaage) for the entire group. (? Paul Young - did you break the track record for your class?) If we could just get this one car to stop marking its' territory, we all would have had a fantastic time and I think we demonstrated our skills, class and safety to the POC group which should have relieved any concerns that they may have had. As a result, I think more PCA members will be openly welcomed into POC and many of us will participate in the many POC events as well as our PCA events.
I think many who were not able to make it this year should begin making plans NOW including asking John Payne what they need to do to participate in not only this event, but any of their many track events in southern California.

Great Weekend!

[kurquhart]

Definitely my favorite track now. I know I left some time on the table in (at least) turns 3/4 and 9/10. There is a lot to learn on this track; I can't wait to go back next year.

The SDR crowd was pretty fast overall; here is the front of grid for the TT:

[mrondeau]

If we could just get this one car to stop marking its' territory, we all would have had a fantastic time and I think we demonstrated our skills, class and safety to the POC group which should have relieved any concerns that they may have had. As a result, I think more PCA members will be openly welcomed into POC and many of us will participate in the many POC events as well as our PCA events.
Great Weekend!

Chuck, We're going to replace the motor so that our car will no longer be the "Exxon Valdez" of 944's. Nice driving by all of you guys (and gal). I would really like to have seen where I could end up by driving for an entire event.

[Zulu993]

This is by far the best track I've ever driven on. The surface and stick is incredible and the hardest part is to gain confidence that you will stick at speed. A lot of the turns are bank more than the videos and games indicate. The elevations changes are incredible, but a lot of fun. Between 9 and 10 is where you better check your straps and other moveable objects as that is where the race is won or lost!

As Mark alluded to, our motor was done, but we still got a few laps in to enjoy this highly technical and historic venue. The tow is nothing so I’m already gearing up for next year!

POC: what can I say – been a card carrying member for 4 years!

(Martin nice pic in the corkscrew.)