joemoia

I've noticed that the track-days.org website has not been updated to show the event calendar for 2005, so I did a check of the various websites of the event organizers and came up with a list of events for Jan-Feb 2005, and thought I'd share it here. Note, some of the events may be limited to a specific Marque, require membership or are competion events. Hopefully track-days.org will be updated to show the full 2005 calendar by the end of the year.

Updated 12/28/2004

Jan.1: Sears Point (Infineon), TEAM

Jan. 8-9: The Streets Of Willow (TSOW), Speed Ventures (SV)

Jan. 8-9: Willow Springs Big Track (WSIR), Alpha Romeo Owners of So. Cal. (AROSC)

Jan. 8-9: Thunderhill, Audi Club Golden gate Chapter

Jan. 15-16: Buttonwillow, Racers Factory

Jan. 16: Thunderhill, Thunderhill High Performance Driving School

Jan. 19: WSIR, Open Track Racing (OTR)

Jan. 21: Laguna Seca, SV

Jan. 21: TSOW, Redline

Jan. 22-23: Sears Point(Infineon), National Auto Sports Association (NASA)

Jan. 22-23: Buttonwillow, Speed Trials USA (STUSA)

Jan. 24: Sears Point, Track Master Racing (TMR)

Jan. 29-30: WSIR, SV

Jan. 29-30: Thunderhill, Club Z

Jan. 31: Laguna Seca, Northern Cal. Racing Club (NCRC)

Feb 5-6: Spring Mountain, Hooked On Driving (HOD)

Feb. 9: Laguna Seca, Checkerd Flag Racing Association (CFRA)

Feb. 9: WSIR, American Car Racing (ACRA)

Feb. 14: Thunderhill, TEAM

Feb. 12-13: WSIR, NASA

Feb. 18: TSOW, SV

Feb. 19-20: Thunderhill, NASA

Feb. 26-27: Spring Mountain, 2005 Corvette Weekend-Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch

Feb. 26-27: Thunderhill, NCRC

Feb. 26-27: Buttonwillow, TCRA

Visit http://track-days.org/ for links to sponsoring organizations

Z11409

Joe--You are sure going to be buying a alot of tires--since C5 rims will not fit a C6 Z06 I guess you need to buy a some spare track rims from me.

BrianCunningham

Thanks

joemoia

I could be interested, it would allow me to pre-position some "get home" wheels/tires at WSIR and SM when I have my next off-road excursion

StArrow68

Joe, thanks for info, been checking and it will help planning. New tries are in order, seems when I go a little faster I wear them out real quick. Now I just have to find somebody that wants great tread on Z06 tires except for the outside edge, seems they might go a long way except for at the track, shame to trash them. Too bad Speedventures seems to not have found any dates in Nor. Calif. for '05 need to find some more groups.
Randy

joemoia

Hey Randy,

SV now lists that they are running Laguna Seca on Jan. 21. I've updated my original post to show this event. I hope to get up to T-Hill sometime this year.

Joe

0C5stein

Hey Randy,
Check out Track Masters, NCRC, and Unlimited Laps. Most of their events are up here, either at Sears Point, T-hill, or Reno/Fernley.

We have links on our web site:
www.motorsportimage.com
Click on Racing on the top right of the page.

Joe,
Thanks for the update as I'm trying to plan next year's schedule. Our hope is to support at least two track days each month.

For those of you that are not familiar with MSI:
In addition to what most of the other Forum venders and tuners offer, we also do chassis setup, coil over suspension conversions, alignments, corner weighting, race car prep and conversion. We also bring our trailer, complete with tools and inventory, to support Corvette guys at the track. Ever break or bend a wheel, run out of brake pads, boil brake fluid... ...at the track and spoil the rest of your day. Even worse, have a failure that prevents you from driving your car home. Well that is where MSI can save your day. We make deliveries to the track for those of you that don't live near our store as well.
If you are interested in track support, driver coaching, car developement... ...at Northern California Road coarses, let me know. I have over 25 years experience in Road racing and auto-x setup and developement and would love to help you achieve the level of performance that you are looking for.

joemoia

Mark,

If you know of any other Jan-Feb dates let me know and I'll update the post.

BTW, in the Pacific Events section there's a "Corvette Trackdays Pahrump" post and MSI was mentioned as a possible source for vert roll bars. A couple of CF members would like to track their verts but don't know who/where they can get roll bars installed. Any info you could provide to that thread would be appreciated.

0C5stein

joemoia,
We have installed two of the Wolfe racing roll bars, and have some reservations in recommending them to others. They are well built, but the way that the "bolt in" unit's rear wedge bars bolt to the fiberglass floor and not to the frame causes us a great deal of concern as does the bend in the rear wedge bars. In Perry's post, he was gracious to say that the seats rub on the bar in a more rearward or reclined position, but seeing that Perry and I both "Get up on the wheel" while driving, it isn't a big deal. On Doug's car it has rubbed holes through the leather on his seat backs. I'm only 5'-9" tall with short legs (29" inseam) so head room isn't a big deal and I have the seat so far forward that the hoop is nowhere near my head, but if you are over 6' and have long legs, your helmet will be bouncing off the bar. Perry also mentioned a flaw in lateral positioning, but with this bar there isn't any adjustment side to side for seat rub as the base plates of the bar index on the seat mounting studs, and fit extreemly tight between the frame rails. If the seats rub, there is no way to adjust the bar or the seat to prevent it. The build quality of the bar and the welds are excellent, the way it fits the car, as each car is slightly different is not so good as there is no adjustment, but that is the nature of the beast. The manufacturer will tell you that there is no fitment problems, but those units that they install are built in the car. The two units that we installed were built on a jig and then shipped to us. We don't know if they got bent in shipping (as they are not shipped in a box or crate, just wrapped in streach wrap and labeled for shipment).
Wolfe did a good job sticking very close to the ribs of the soft top's framework so there would be no way to push the hoop outward to get more seat clearance.
My opinion is that if you are going to put a roll bar in a convertable because you are going to do track work, then have it welded in. If you later decide to remove it, it can be cut out and at least then the rear wedge bars will be securred to the steel frame of the car and not bolted to the fiberglass floor which it could easily tear out in the event of a roll over. Either way if you remove the bar you are going to have to do a little bit of fiberglass repair. Perry didn't mention that us putting the Wolfe bar in his car pretty much ended his relationship with our shop and that is really dissapointing to me. The really sad part is that neither he nor we at MSI were thrilled with the end result when viewed in detail, but he seems to be okay with the bar now and it does allow him to do track events, which is really one of his passions as it is our passion too.

What I'm trying to say is that not all race parts have the cosmetic flair or precission that we expect from the show pieces that we put on our Corvettes. And as long as you have that in the forefront of your mind when proceeding, then you should be fine.

I am deeply sorry for the hard feelings that Perry experienced with his rollbar install and assured him that it was installed with the utmost in care and skill, but there were a few variences with his installation that left a bitter taste in his mouth that were beyond my control. In retrospect, we could have built and installed a custom bar for less money and would have had better results and a higher level of customer satisfaction.

Knowing that, if I had a convertable and wanted to track it, here is what I would do. I would go junkyarding and find another Tonneau that matched my car, so I could cut holes in it without feeling like I was destroying my car. Then I would create 4 receiving receptical mounts for the main hoop and wedge bars to attach to. These would be welded to the car's chassis. I would then custom bend a roll hoop that lined up ontop of the cross channel at the front most portion of the "Cargo shelf" under the tonneau (where the front mounts have been welded). That would move the bar back far enough that the seat & head rubbing the hoop issue would become a non-issue unless you drive in the fully reclined position. I would run the rear wedge bars from the top of the hoop through the tonneau cover to as far back on the rear frame rails as possible without having to bend them. These bars would attach to the mounts that were welded there. Then I can store my stock and unmolested toneau cover, until the winter when I would probably remove the roll bar. Now if you convertable guys would be interested in that type of install, then we are the shop for you.

Should you decide to purchase a Wolfe bar, at least you have been advised. Regardless of what their installation instructions say, you are facing a 8-12 hour install and will require drilling alot of holes in your car and custom fitting the doubler plates that go underneith the floor.

We could probably scratch build and install a safe roll bar at our Castro Valley fab shop for about $1100. Paint would be extra.

joemoia

Mark,

Thanks for your response here and in the events section. I was unaware, and I certainly didn't mean to bring up, any negative situations you've had with any customers concerning roll bars. I appreciate your detailed comments on the matter. With the current track insurance requirements more vert owners I meet are asking about roll bars and I had no places to refer them to. From now on I'll refer them to MSI.

Thanks

DREGSZ

I (NASA) have Laguna Seca rented again for March 1st
7 sessions x 3 groups, price last Tuesday was $279 making the most track time for the fewest dollars.

Trackmasters has Laguna rented next Wed 12/15/04. I'll have the Vette there.
I instruct for Doug and he does the same at my events.

I have 4 or 5 Thursdays at Thunderhill but they may not be on the NASA schedule yet.

That's all I can think of for the moment
Evan

0C5stein

No problem.

At MSI we make sincere efforts to inform our customers.

Thanks for any referrals. If you ever get to Roseville, please come by. We are very proud of the business and relationships that we have grown over the past three years.

AU N EGL

Joe keep those Left Coast events coming. Here on the Right coast we have Coco who does http://www.trackschedule.com and has most of the HPDEs and track days east of the Mississippi river. She will list any and all events as long as it is a club format. Carguys and Panoz are two other event organizers on the east coast as well.

joemoia

Thanks Tom,

There is a website http://track-days.org/ which has been listing all the trackdays in California-Nevada, but for some reason they haven't put together a 2005 Calendar schedule. With 9 tracks and over 30 orgs. putting on HPDEs its hard to keep up to date

I just got back from a trackday at Willow Springs (Big Track); rain all day, temps in the low 40's (wind chill in the low 30s)....I thought I was back on the east coast!

joemoia

Schedule updated 12/8/04

StArrow68

Now I know we were lucky to get two good days at TH this time of year. I'm getting so hard up for seat time that I'm going to pay to get in open wheel cars at Sears Point. Thanks for the updates, already signed up for LS in Jan, now I just have to figure out how to get the time off during the week. Too bad weekends are so expensive.

joemoia

12/10/04 update

joemoia

12/20/04 update

joemoia

12/28/04 update