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2017 East Coast Sevens HPDE and Social Event


Croc

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Great first day. Everyone seems to have arrived with limited issues. Very hot for those who drove there cars 5 plus hours to get here. Tom, from Colorado, Steve from St. Louis, Mike from Cincy, Mario from Florida, and George from NC and Jay and Seb from Conneticut, all seemed to have arrived in good spirits.

 

Karting was brutal. as usual. Lots of bumping and the competiion was fierce. The light weight guys had an unfair advantage over us more big boned guys. :jester:

 

Lots of fun and the dinner poolside had lots of good conversations. This is a great group of guys and gals to hang out with. We are all a little nuts. di

 

Tomorrow starts with breakfast at 7am and tech at 8am. Drivers meeting at 8:30 and our group picture on track following imidiately after the meeting. If you have a seven, or are considering buying one, you need to come out and join us next year. I'm a little biased, but there is nothing like this. Good fun, great people and the food and atmosphere is amazing.

 

I'm sure we will have some pictures tomorrow, to share with you all. You are all missing out on the fun. Start your planning for next year now. :party: Tom

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I am the lucky guy to have slept with 9 lovely ladies last night. Luckily (for me) they were downstairs with the keys confiscated by their owners who were worried about midnight test drives. :rofl:

 

I am still in disbelief but we packed 9 sevens into my garage last night with my Mustang and Holden up on their lifts and Wemtd was confident we could have got another 3 sevens in if we had them. We will go for a record next year!

 

Great night at dinner last night! Looking forward to a top weekend finishing Monday afternoon here for me.

Edited by Croc
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Great day on the track and off. How wonderful is this place: if you need ice for a cooler, the track has a person who checks periodically and delivers ice if needed. The food is varied, incredible and plentiful. Dinner on the river was fabulous, as always. Croc and Tom have also knocked themselves out, as always. And Se7en owners are a fun bunch, not a clunker in the group.

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I was at the track with the entire group today to shoot a video of their day. Great group of people, wonderful cars and a fantastic track day (blue skies, sticky track surface and lots of enthusiasm). Mike and Tom have pulled out all the stops once more to make this the ultimate Seven's track/social event. I didn't take many photos (just lots of video). It's been an action packed couple of days, I'm sure everyone is exhausted (94 degrees today) at the end of the day and just want to sleep instead of staying up to post photos. When everyone gets home and has a chance to relax you will see all the photos you could want. In the mean time, video will follow shortly. Stay tuned.

 

By by the way, you should really come to this event next year. It's a once in a lifetime Seven's opportunity. Every participant told me that many times! Even the guys who drove half way across the country......

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Edited by Certified Lotus
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Sunday was an interesting day:

- Sadly Fred could not find the piston he lost on track yesterday and gave up trying to run his car on 3 cylinders so as not to damage the engine.

 

- Roman leveraged the vast expertise of his fellow driving friends to solve a many year coolant leak issue from the cap - yes they just turned it clockwise tightly. :p

 

- Graham put his seven away with a sump oil leak.

 

- Jeff needs a new ECU

 

- There was a minor track orgy when Simon hit a cone (yep..figures eh?), it moved onto the circuit online just over the blind crest on turn 5....., Tom (Caterham one) appears and hits it dead center...hits arm then takes off the drivers side rear wing. Dan and I closely following witness what look like an explosion of carbon wing, rubber gasket, cone, etc into the air. Dan goes left and creates many exciting new skid marks, I go right and dodge it. And the debris stayed there the rest of the session - which was fine if you have the right lines around that corner... The bruise on Tom's shoulder was coming up nicely last night.

 

- Dave had a oops at turn 1 - in the braking zone coming into turn 1, I see the dust cloud go up across the blind hill and instantly think Shane/Xcarguy, hit the brakes and trickle over the crest. Dave was looking dusty off to the left!

 

- Matt found rotating at turn 7 to be his style - a simple corner that takes out the best of us

 

- Jay was graduated by the Drivers Club Chief Instructor from green to sevens group to join us on Sunday - yay!

 

It was remarked at dinner last night that the frequency of incidents of years past are not being repeated in more recent years. Its true we are all getting better!

 

Dinner was the usual riotous affair at the Clubhouse. Pre-drinks with swimming occurred for those taking off the last session. So it was all very merry.

 

 

 

Sorry photo lurkers but I need to sign up for a new photo hosting site since Photofucket has broken. Then my camera can be uploaded and shared.

 

There will be a lot of high quality photos of cars on track in due course as Amos and Mike were there doing duties. We have to sort out a share solution for those too. Group photo on start finish line and at Don's party on Saturday night will be shared around. I have emails of those who attended.

 

 

I am exhausted but I am going out on a test day today to try and get the unruly BMW to handle. There will be a side drive of the Mustang. The CSR will probably sit in the pits basking in the sun. Then the drive home tonight and sleep in tomorrow.

 

Thank you to all for coming. It was fun, it was social, it was great to see everyone again and get some quality track time in with a bunch of great drivers.

 

We will do this again but maybe not July 4th weekend in 2018. I want to get a weekend at Thunderbolt circuit to give some variety. This will mean moving dates to April/May or September. Once I get the 2018 Drivers Club Calendar in December I will do a save the date post.

 

 

 

Glen - it was great to see you again yesterday. Sorry I missed saying good bye at the end. Too many things were distracting me!

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I typed this up last night, but obviously too tired to click on the post button. So I found this message still sitting and waitng to be posted when I woke up this morning. Duh!

 

 

Just got back to the hotel after our dinner and awards presentations. What a day and what a night. Brutally hot today and there was a little drama with some mechanical issues and some on track debris. Fred's home built BEC came up a little lame this morning due to and intake issue. Jeff's Caterham had an ECU go tits up and I had a incident with a cone on track in the racing line which took out my left rear wing and left me with a nice bruise on my bicep Other than the heat it was a great day. Jay, Blackhole, was given the green light to advance from the novice group to join the other sevens on track and he performed admirably out there. The level of driving out there was tremendous, with everyone being courteous and competent. A great safe two days on track.

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Tom, Mike

just a few words to thank you both very very much for an outstanding weekend. These events are getting better and better and attendance is remarkable. I'm on a road trip and left my camera at home last night so I won't be able to download any pictures and movies until next week, ....but I have the culprit cone flying caught on camera. I was the lucky one in this story, the cone missed me and my car by a few inches. I could have caught it in my face, would I had been closer to the apex... I'm glad you and your car did not get hurt more than you and it did. I could have been a lot worst.

 

In any case, thanks again for the hospitality and the company. Can't beat this. Thanks!!

seb

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Hi all,

 

Many thanks to Tom & Mike for setting up this event for the 7th time. Great company, fun driving together and no serious incidents.... what could be better?

 

Michael, Karen & Buddy

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My thanks too Mike and Tom. Sorry I couldn't be there to go round and round on Sunday. So it turns out I won't have to put a bullet through the engine after all. Looked at it this morning and a carburetor synchronization screw had vibrated loose and fell off so it was killing cylinder 1. A 10 cent part.........dang it. Anyway it's running right as rain now, just a day late.

 

There's always next year and I will bring spare screws.......and yes go ahead and say it..........I had a screw loose.... hardy har har!!!

Edited by fmorser
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I didn't take any pictures during the event as I seemed to always be walking over to the classroom for water.

But I did take a couple pictures today at Croc's mini test day.

 

First one is a sampling of Croc's fleet.

Second is Kitcat, who went in for a third day as two just wasn't enough.

Third is my arm after its contact with the cone that I hit then then hit me back and then ripped off my rear wing.

Bruise.jpg

kitcat.jpg

crocs Fleet.jpg

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Sorry photo lurkers but I need to sign up for a new photo hosting site since Photofucket has broken. Then my camera can be uploaded and shared.

 

Awesome...thanks, Mike! :cheers:

 

- Dave had a oops at turn 1 - in the braking zone coming into turn 1, I see the dust cloud go up across the blind hill and instantly think Shane/Xcarguy, hit the brakes and trickle over the crest. Dave was looking dusty off to the left!

 

Gee...thanks, Mike. :toetap05:

 

 

Dave, so you know you are not alone:

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I didn't take any pictures during the event . . . But I did take a couple pictures . . . my arm after its contact with the cone that I hit then then hit me back and then ripped off my rear wing.

 

Tom,

 

I'm thinking a little orange 'cone' tattoo right there where the bruise be. :jester: Hey, glad you're OK.

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First there and last to leave. Just walked in the front door. Kitcat is still heading west through PA. Steve is probably 6 hours ahead of him also heading west. They still have a long ways ahead of them. Mario was heading north to Watkins Glen. Tom C was heading somewhere else - not sure. Matt will be somewhere on the road still heading west.

 

I got given a flash drive by Mike at the track today. I am yet to open it but will look at it tomorrow and post some photos. Will also see what I have in my camera.

 

I have a video of session 1 on Sunday which is uploading to Youtube now. I will publish it here tomorrow.

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I also want to thank everyone for making this a great weekend. Especially to Tom and Mike for the effort they put into creating a fantastic event. This morning I made the return 250 mile trip home in my Caterham and with light traffic and reasonable temps it was a very nice morning drive.

 

I really want to thank everyone for their encouragement, support and consideration in getting me out of the novice and into the 7s group for Sunday. Special thanks to Dave for kindly offering to be my guide during my first 7s session on Sunday morning which allowed me to follow his line and keep my eyes open for the screaming red cars zipping past me.

 

This was my first track day and the on track and off track experiences were all fantastic.

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Hi to all,

Thanks again to everyone that attended the event it was great to see all of you again and especially to Tom and Mike for all the work they put into organizing the event. There is little more to be said, that hasn't already, about the event other than it is absolutely hands down the best track event anyone with a seven will ever attend. The cars and the facility are only out done by the people. the 1987 mile drive to get there is nothing, I have done it now for 3 years, it has become our major summer holiday.

Many Thanks,

Tom

PS, we managed to cover 103 miles today on trip home.

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